Filipino Fedoras

[hatflick1]

Over this Memorial Day weekend, I watched (for the second time) the Great Raid that told the story of American GIs and Filipino allies fighting their way into a Japanese POW camp to liberate prisoners.
Interestingly, the Filipino troops wore what appeared to be fedoras, both felt and straw.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1074829312/tt0326905
To an extent, the hats resembled the Akubra Squatter. I do not think the Aussies or English were involved on the Japanese held island, so chances are these were not British issue.

 

[HatsEnough]

I think I'd rather term those campaign hats instead of fedoras. But still...

 

[hatflick1]

I would be tempted to agree. Except they have wide, contrasting ribbons with a bow a la fedora, not a thin ribbon.

 

[HatsEnough]

I would be tempted to agree. Except they have wide, contrasting ribbons with a bow a la fedora, not a thin ribbon.

Plenty of Civil War, Indian Wars and later American campaign hats with wider ribbons. But, point taken.

 

[terly]

just like this outdoor fedora,quite good to wear for war

 

[fenris]

That was a bit funny to see... the one sporting the supposed fedora is a popular actor here in the Philippines. I didn't even know about that film.

Anyhoo... it does look like an Akubra Squatter sans ribbon. From the pic, I can't see if it has a ribbon at all. The other one on the left looks like it has a string instead of a ribbon.

 

[Sam Craig]

Those were supposed to be Phillipine Scouts, members of an elite force that was originally formed around 1900.
They have a very proud tradition and were instrumental in fighting the enemy in World War II.
Many of them gave their lives to save Americans during the guerilla fighting, waiting for Dug-out Doug and the rest of the military to get back there.

If you look at period photos from the end of the war it is interesting ... in both the guerilla fighters and the soldiers and civilians who were freed from the torture camps, you see a lot of panamas and felt fedoras ... obviously in general poor condition.

I don't believe any of these were campaign hats.

I believe they were civilian dress hats, pressed into service in a vain attempt to keep the tropical sun off.

Just as was the case with the Germany's WWII-era leaderships, after a few weeks of brutality and starvation, there were plenty of extra articles of clothing around ... and their previous owners were beyond needing head-gear.

The Scouts depicted in this part of the movie had spent the entire war, fighting an uphill battle.

They were truly some of the great heroes of World War II.

Sam