Canadian jacket and pants.

[Ed Storey]

This is a topic that has been covered extensively over the past 3 decades and there are several books that cover the story of this garment. Histoire and Collections in France market two good books that cover both British and Canadian wartime clothing. British Windproof Camouflage, not Commando or Sniper specific but could be issued to anyone, some Canadian use of the Smock in NW Europe in 1944-45 and again in Korea.

[Rob Abbott]

Hi Wout
Ed is absolutely right - The British produced a number of these smock and trouser combinations in WW2 - including a white snow camouflage version and a Khaki Drab (sand colour) version, aswell as the camouflage version you have here.
They were certainly at times used by Snipers and/or Special forces in the same way that Denison smocks were - However they were not specifically designed for that use - They were a "general" issue cold weather item as such and are much in evidence in photos of the NW Europe campaign during winter 44/45 - In particular during Operations such as the attack on Cleve, the clearing of the Scheldt estuary (Walcheren) and the Crossing of the Rhine.
There are numerous photos of Infantry and other arms using them in 15th Scottish/43rd Wessex and 52nd Lowland divisions around this time so it appears they were made available on a widish scale.
Interestingly, they also went on to be used well after hostilities ended - The French Foreign Legion Paratroops at Dien Bien Phu used them in a cut down version in Indo China in the fifties, British and Canadian troops used them in Korea and even the modern day SAS have been seen to use them with some photos of units operating in the First Gulf war in the nineties wearing versions of the camouflage and Khaki coloured types. As a windproof they are a pretty good bit of kit ! Hope that's of some use. All the best.

[Wout Jansen]

Ed and Rob, thank you for the excellent information.

Regards, Wout