1:32 U.S. Infantry in winter uniform (WWII)

The winter of forty-four

The hardest test of American infantry in Europe was the winter at the turn of 1944 and 1945. The German counterattack in the Ardennes caught the units in wooded and snow-covered terrain, where the losses caused by frostbite and by so-called trench foot ran into tens of thousands of men and in some sectors exceeded the combat losses. Winter footwear and spare socks reached the line late, because supply priority went to fuel and ammunition. That is exactly why the photographic documentation of those weeks differs strikingly from the rest of the Western Front.

Layering the clothing

The soldier put on whatever he could get hold of. The basis was a wool shirt and trousers, over them the 1943-pattern field jacket of cotton twill, and on top of that either a long overcoat or a short wool jacket. The helmet was often wrapped in a strip of cloth and rubber overshoes were worn on the boots. The result was a bulky, mismatched silhouette that differs strikingly from the neat look of the recruiting posters. The gloves tended to be wool five-finger ones, not mittens, so that the trigger could be worked.

How to capture a figure chilled through

The key is the carriage of the body: shoulders drawn in, hands under the armpits or in the pockets, the head buried in the collar. In color, start from olive drab and fill it in with muted gray transitions in the folds, so that the cloth looks soaked with damp. Put a light reddish tinge on the skin on the nose, the ears and the knuckles. Leave the metal parts of the weapons matte; frost suppresses any gloss.