1941 British Denim Smock - Original
1941 British Denim Smock - Original
COMING SOON
This is Batch #2 faithful to the 1941 pattern worn by Polish II Corps in their extraordinary journey from Siberian gulags to victory at Monte Cassino.
We've recreated every detail from original: the four-pocket layout along with the exact proportions that made this garment so practical in the field. The denim comes from the same Yorkshire mill that supplied similar cloth during the war, woven to the weight and weave that's lasted 80 years.
These jackets are signed and hand numbered by Avre co-founders, James Holland and Al Murray.
Edition: /1805 - honouring the date Polish II Corps took Monte Cassino: 18th day of the 5th month, 1944.
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WHY 1805?
POLISH II CORPS
On 18th May 1944, Polish II Corps finally took Monte Cassino, the massif with its ruined monastery that had been at the heart of the German Gustav Line defences, and which had held up the Allies for five long months.
And it is to honour these Poles in Italy that we are producing this jacket, a British 1941 pattern Denim Smock, worn by Polish II Corps.
It’s also why we will be offering only 1,805 of these iconic garments, in recognition of what Polish II Corps achieved on that morning of 18th day of the 5th month of 1944.
Jim and Jim discuss why we're only making 1805 pieces of Batch #2.
The story of the Poles in Italy is astonishing. Most were captured, not by Germans when Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, but by the Soviet Red Army, who invaded from the east a couple of weeks later in a pre-arranged carve-up of the country.
Those Poles captured by the Russians were later transported to brutal gulags in Siberia, and only freed once Nazi Germany turned on its brief ally and invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. In an agreement between Stalin and the British government, Polish General Wladyslaw Anders was allowed to muster these newly liberated Poles in Uzbekistan.
Those who survived their epic 2,000 mile journey south, as well as outbreaks of typhus and malaria, were then transported to Iran and from there to Kirkuk in Northern Iraq. There they built up strength and were equipped and trained by the British.
In 1943 they moved again, this time to Palestine, before sailing to Italy at the end of 1943. For their first few months, II Corps held a quiet part of the line but in the spring of 1944 were posted to the Cassino front.
Monte Cassino – or the Fourth Battle of Cassino as it became known – was their very first battle, and one in which they were triumphantly victorious. They continued to fight heroically all the way up through the leg of Italy.
We think it's a fitting story for a fabulous jacket and we hope that anyone wearing one will pause, briefly, to remember and honour those extraordinary men who endured so much in the fight for freedom.
Handmade in London
All our garments are handmade in Greenwich, London. This allows us to remain very close to all stages of the production process.
