Did US fighter pilots ever wear the B-3 jackets or were those restricted to bomber pilots only?

Hi

I was wondering on the topic of a B-3 jacket with insignias on the. The B-3, according to what I know, was designed for bomber pilots who had to stay for long periods in higher altitudes, thus needing a thicker, warmer jacket. However, was there ever any time in WW II that fighter pilots also wore them, instead of the A2. In the movie Dunkirk, for example, we see Tom Hardy's character wearing the shearling Irvin jacket even though his character was a fighter pilot. Was this depiction historically accurate or not?

Best regards and thanks in advance.

Andrew can sure answer that question when he returns to the FL. Standby...

standing by, sir

Shin said:

Hi

I was wondering on the topic of a B-3 jacket with insignias on the. The B-3, according to what I know, was designed for bomber pilots who had to stay for long periods in higher altitudes, thus needing a thicker, warmer jacket. However, was there ever any time in WW II that fighter pilots also wore them, instead of the A2. In the movie Dunkirk, for example, we see Tom Hardy's character wearing the shearling Irvin jacket even though his character was a fighter pilot. Was this depiction historically accurate or not?

Best regards and thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

AFAIK, the B3 was initially issued to everyone aircrew in the USAAF; the B6's short run was inspired by accounts of pilots trading their bulky B3s with ground crew for the slimmer-profile D1s. GReat deal for the groundcrew, who weren't so space-vrestricted and often wanted something warmer!

In terms of the RAF, this article is useful: https://www.aerosociety.com/media/4847/a-brief-history-of-flying-clothing.pdf Unlike the USAAF or USN, the RAF never issued a lighter leather or shearling jacket. There was the one-piece Sidcot suit that was developedfrom ww1ish and used in ww2, and the two-piece Irvin suit. The latter was more commonly used by bomber crew. By all accounts I've read, single-seat fighter pilots, BoB especially, tended to wear the service uniform in flight (later replaced by an RAF blue version of Battle Dress).

I have read diary accounts of RAF pilots at the time recording other guys hoping that a colleague recorded as shot down, KIA, wasn't wearing their Irvin at the time so they could acquire it - I think there may have been occasional supply shortages?