Tanker Uniforms of World War One

British Tanker Uniforms

When in action it was common for British Tank crews to wear overalls, in the shape of simple one-piece “boiler suits” of denim material, without visible pockets apart from two pockets in the “trousers”, and a very small stand collar. In 1916 these overalls were light or pale blue. The same year a primitive leather crash helmet was issued, but it seems to have fallen out of use fairly quick, perhaps because it had just scanty padding, and offered not too much protection in a lurching, jerking tank full with guns, machinery and people, perhaps because its german shape sometimes led to bailed-out tankers being mistaken for enemies. (When working on the vehicles dark blue or black denims seem to have been worn.) Another special type of protection equipment, worn mostly during 1916-17, was a leather, steel and chain mail face mask – see also this photo – mainly to protect the eyes of the soldier against bullet-splash or projectiles entering through the vision slits.

By 1917 a light-brown or tan overall became the norm for wearing in the tank when in action. The most common combination seen in photos is a steel helmet, a service dress tunic worn over overalls, the legs of the overall emerging under the tunic and falling down to the ankle, covering the trousers and puttees. In warm weather tank crewmen often wore khaki shorts and boots, and either a collarless shirt or the khaki tunic. Note that there are plenty of photographic evidence to show that ordinary uniforms were also worn in the tanks, i.e the basic khaki uniform common to all branches of the Army, worn with the standard flat­topped khaki cloth cap with a brown leather chin­strap. And to this straight khaki trousers were worn, gath­ered below the knee into khaki puttees, with black ankle boots.

Normal personal equipment worn in the vehicles was the brown leather set type 1916, i.e. a belt with a brass snake buckle, with or without shoulder braces, a revolver holster, worn butt forwards on the left, and a small cartridge pouch. The gas mask satchel, done in grey-green canvas, was for the most time worn round the neck, down on the chest.

Officers long presented a rather motley appearance, carrying the cap and collar insignia and other peculiarities from their original units. The officers tunic was worn either with khaki trousers, or cord riding breeches, and to this was worn brown riding boots, brown laced ankle boots with leather gaiters, or simply puttees. To this was carried a light khaki shirt and tie, plus a khaki cap or a steel helmet. Other equipment included the Sam Browne belt with pistol, map case, binoculars, and, very often, a dapper walking stick. In the years 1916-17 most private soldiers wore Machine Gun Corps cap badges (crossed Vickers machine-gun barrels). Coloured shoulder flashes attached to the shoulder straps, different for the different batallions, were used from January 1917. Often these coloured flashes were painted on the sides of the helmets as well. See this table for examples:

The special white cloth tank badge (showing a stylised three-quarter front view of a tank), authorised in May 1917, was worn on the upper right arm, above any rank chevrons. From July 1917 all members of the Tank Corps got the wear the special new cap badge of the Tank Corps (this one as well showing a stylised three-quarter front view of a tank, plus the words “Tank” and “Corps” in capitals.  

French Tanker Uniforms

French Tank crews wore the standard horizon blue service dress. For enlisted men this consisted of a single-breasted tunic with seven blue-painted buttons, a standing collar with rounded inner corners and no chest pockets. Both shoulders and cuffs were plain. To this tunic baggy semi-breeches was worn, with puttees from the knee down, and brown ankle boots. Officers wore a variety of horizon blue tunics (with breeches often piped in scarlet) whose details varied widely when it came to things like the shape of the collar, the number of  pockets or the shoulder straps. Officers wore either puttees and ankle boots, or long brown leather gaiters and ankle boots, or brown leather boots. Brown leather belts with brass frame buckles had one prong for enlisted ranks, two for officers – the latter were of the Sam Browne type.

In the tank the standard protective clothing worn by all was a thigh-length black leather coat, with a large fall collar in black cloth. This coat had two rows of four black buttons. Officers wore conventional cuff ranking on the sleeves of this coat. There were no collar patches on this coat, that was worn either over the horizon blue service dress, or over a loose dark blue one-piece working overalls of denim material. In action the personal equipment was normally limited to a belt and holster (the brown leather holster of the Ruby automatic - a rather poor Spanish import - or the 8mm mle1892 revolver was of a broad, triangular shape with a deep flap.), a gas mask canister, and sometimes a haversack of unbleached canvas worn around the body. Fighting daggers were often worn on the belt in the last year of the war.

The headgear also varied a lot. In action the bluegrey-painted Adrian helmet, was pretty standard. Two types of cloth headgear were also worn, without any system to it: either the horizon blue sidecap with two tall peaks, or the low, soft horizon blue kepi with a black chinstrap. No insignia were worn on these cloth headgear. Very popular, albeit unofficial headgear among officers and men from 1917 onwards, was a black or dark blue beret, with no insigna and usually rather small. The French tank arm was at the start formed as a branch of the artillery - Artillerie Spéciale – and the uniform worn by the men of the new arm was mainly distinguishable by the branch colour of its insignia, which was grass green instead of artillery red. From October 1917 a badge for tank crews was gradually introduced, in the form of a knight's helmet upon two crossed cannons, and was worn in red on the upper left sleeve. Collar patches were horizon blue with green regimental numbers and green rear edge piping, and enlisted rank stripes were green; metallic rank lace was silver. Enlisted men wore rank designation in form of 35 mm diagonal stripes of red wool or gold lace on the outer face of the cuff: one or two red bars (Privates First Class, Corporals), one or two gold bars (Sergeants, Senior Sergeants). Officers ranking was worn on the outside of the cuff in the form of 35 mm lengths of horizontal gold lace, from one to five identifying ranks, with five marking a full Colonel. These ranking strips were repeated on the front of the sidecap crown when worn by officers, and as horizontal bars on the front of the horizon blue kepi.

German Tanker Uniforms

Crews for the small German Tank Arm were drawn from the various branches of the Army, all according to their usage: gunners from the artillery, signallers from the communications branch, machine-gunners from the infantry, drivers, mechanics and commanders from the motor troops. They had no special uniform or insignia per se, and used the standard field uniform (the 1915 Bluse jacket, with straight, baggy trousers and puttees, all in field grey, the flat-topped field cap for privates and peaked cap for officers, plus the typical steel helmet. All ranks wore two cockades on the cap front: the black-white-red Reich cockade on the crown, and the state cockade on the band). Neither did they have any special insignia, but used the ones of their original organisations. Leather patches were worn on knee and elbow. (Note that like most German troops of the late war period, tank crews without doubt included men who sported jackets displaying characteristics both of the old field tunic and of the new Bluse, with pockets where none should have been, exposed buttons up the front, etc.)

The steel helmet would be either grey, or camouflaged in the usual way, with segments of brick red, dark green, purple, ochre, for the most time divided by black lines. Personal equipment was limited to holsters (for either the Luger M/08 automatic or the M/79 revolver), fighting daggers, plus of course the round gas mask canisters.

Also the German Tankers were issued overalls. These came in two types. The first was intended primarily for dirty work: simple black two-piece denim suits - the same that was worn by aircraft mechanics. The second were grey or blue one-piece suits, made either in heavy cloth or in leather; they were normally restricted to drivers, and sometimes to the mechanics as well. They were often worn together with a a low, padded, dome-shaped crash helmet painted field grey. These overalls came with buttons and loops on the shoulders, to allow for the attachment of shoulder straps. German Tankers also used the same type of strange mailed face mask as the British, and often these masks seems to have been captured equipment.

United States Tanker Uniforms

Judging from photographs US tankers seem from to have worn no special uniform, apart from overalls and crash-helmet. Neither had they any special insignia. The standard service uniform appeared in two types of identical cut: khaki serge for cold weather, khaki cotton for summer. The tunic was single-breasted with five bronze front buttons, pointed shoulder straps and a stand collar with square corners. There were two breast and two skirt pockets. Khaki breeches completed the uniform, with brown ankle boots. Enlisted men wore either khaki puttees or neutral coloured knee-length canvas leggings. Officers wore either puttees, knee-length brown leather gaiters, or brown riding boots. This standard uniform was worn with or without overalls on top. These overalls were of the one-piece type, and came in shades of brown or khaki. Sometimes leather jerkins were worn on top of the uniform, as a sort of extra protective clothing.

Officers for the most time used Sam Browne belts of the British type. Sometimes the webbing belt for the leather Colt ‘45 holster or a cutaway revolver holster was worn instead. Enlisted men seem to normally have worn a brown belt with a plain single-prong brass frame buckle. To this British gas mask satchels were often worn over the chest, in the normal fashion.

In 1918 US Tankers were issued a special, very characteristic leather and cloth crash helmet, with generously padded sides, earflaps and a small dome. The US Tankers of course also had their British type steel helmet, but a more common head­gear in the vehicle, beside the crash helmet, was the khaki sidecap – which often appeared pretty shapeless - see the photo above. The cap was was piped around the turn-up top edge in branch colours for officers only, depending on the officers original branch of service: bright blue for infantry, yellow for cavalry, red for artillery. At the left front of the cap officers wore their rank designation: one and two silver vertical bars for Lieutenants and Captains, a gilt maple leaf for Majors, a silver leaf for Lieutenant Colonels, a silver eagle for Colonels. Officers ranking also appeared at the end of the shoulder straps. The NCO:s had rank chevrons, point upwards, in a light khaki shade on both upper sleeves: one, two and three chevrons (Lance-Corporal, Corporal, Sergeant), three chevrons above an open diamond (First Sergeant).

Prime Source: Martin Windrow & Garry Embleton: Tank and AFV Crew Uniforms since 1916. London 1979.