Lots of text, many photos.

https://www.soc.mil/ARSOF_Hist...dy_armor_page_1.html

Thanks! Very interesting.

It's wasn't just US bomber crews that used body armor during WW2. US Army infantry and Marines used it as well, in small numbers at the very end of the war.

The US Army had been experimenting with various armor designs since the late 1930s, and eventually produced the M12 armored vest at the very tail end of the war. It saw field trials towards the end of the war during the latter stages of the Battle of Okinawa and the mopping up operations in the Philippines, and a larger number of sets were produced in anticipating for the coming invasion of Japan itself, but those were simply placed in storage after the Japanese surrender until being brought back into service during the initial stage of the Korean War.

In addition, the US Navy had designed and produced fiberglass laminate ("Doron") body armor for Marine use. 1,000 units of Doron body armor were produced for field trials by Marines during the Battle of Okinawa, but the units assigned the bulk of the vests for testing ended up being excluded from the invasion plans. So they were not fielded in large numbers as initially intended, but they did see occasional scattered field use during the latter stages of the Battle of Okinawa. These Doron armored jackets were later refined and formally adopted during the Korean War.

Here's an article on the US Army's M12 body armor, published right at the end of WW2:

“Gee, fellas! Ain’t that swell? One size fits all! Ain’t that a sight?”

Thanks; interesting stuff (as always with the articles you post).

I’ve read various articles over the years about combat armor, including a study in the book Wound Ballistics by the Army Surgeon General in 1962. There was also a fair amount of effort by the primary combatants in World War I to develop personal body armor as documented in the book Helmets and Body Armor in Modern Warfare (link).

Original link no longer works, this does:

https://www.arsof-history.org/...dy_armor_page_1.html

All articles:

https://www.arsof-history.org/veritas.html

History office home page:

https://www.arsof-history.org/