Buttons Inside a WW2 US Army Officer's Tunic

[Old Fogey UK]

I've just bought an original officer's chocolate tunic. It has 2 buttons sewn into the back of the lining below the armholes.
Anyone know what they're for ?

 

[fudge_brownie]

Were not many of those tunics custom made? Mine is from Issac Hamberger in Baltimore and obviously made just for this officer, as he was over 6 ft. That said, in modern coats such buttons were sometimes used to fasten a lining. Are your buttons in such a location as to do that?

 

[TomS]

Might they be spares?

 

[Old Fogey UK]

The jacket is too fitted to take a lining.
They're not spare buttons because they don't match any of the others and it would be a strange place to put spare buttons.
I wonder if they're meant to attach to the waistband of the pants ?
They look like trouser buttons.

 

[Stearmen]

There is a remote possibility that one or both are escape compasses. I have never heard of them being sown into such a location, but who knows. Take a magnet around the edge of the buttons, if they fallow the magnet, you have a very cool find!

 

[Old Fogey UK]

There is a remote possibility that one or both are escape compasses. I have never heard of them being sown into such a location, but who knows. Take a magnet around the edge of the buttons, if they fallow the magnet, you have a very cool find!

Wow ! I'll try that - my coat may be mega valuable !
(But, with my luck, probably not !)