Tank crewman leather jacket : Italian Army

Double breasted, three quarter length black leather tank crewman's jacket with stand and fall notched collar, domed black plastic buttons scored across to give the impression of woven leather, angled welt pockets over each front hip, and a leather tab with black plastic button on each cuff. There are three metal ventilation eyelet holes beneath each arm. The belt is missing.
The body of the jacket is lined with light brown wool, the sleeves with heavy weight black polished cotton. A detachable throat tab, designed to be removed and buttoned across the throat to hold the collar in a raised position if necessary, is held in place with two flat black plastic buttons inside the left front of the jacket. A small blue woven manufacturer's label, 'Guisti ROMA' is sewn inside the back. Beneath it is an indecipherable black acceptance stamp.

During the Second World War the Fascist Italian Army was equipped with a range of armoured fighting vehicles. The crewmen aboard these vehicles these black leather jackets, regardless of whether they were located in Northern Greece, Croatia, Libya and Egypt.

In North Africa during 1941 and 1942 Australian forces were heavily engaged in fighting the Fascist Italian Army. This included Italian tank units such as the 132 Armoured Divison 'Ariete' (132. Divisione Corazzata Ariete) using tanks such as the M13/40 Medium tank and M40 Semovente Self Propelled Gun.

This jacket is representative of the Italian armoured troops that the Australians fought against in North Africa. The jacket is missing its original collar patches but on the leather show where they were once located.