WWII USAAF A-2 Flight Jacket, Contract 27753 Cable Raincoat, B.T.O. Luftwaffe Vulture Parody Back Paint, Size 40

An all-original A-2 on the celebrated no-name contract 27753, attributed to Cable Raincoat of Boston, its back painted 'B.T.O.' beside the Luftwaffe eagle caricatured as a scrawny vulture, with fourteen bombs beneath.

A Jacket Before Its Paint

The Type A-2 was made standard for the Army Air Corps on 9 May 1931, built to specification 94-3040, which called for seal brown horsehide, and to Drawing 30-1415. For the next twelve years it was the American aviator's jacket, and in the first eighteen months of the Second World War it was ordered in volumes no peacetime planner could have imagined. Then, in 1942, General H. H. 'Hap' Arnold halted further A-2 contracts in favour of cloth jackets, and on 27 April 1943 the A-2 was made limited standard. The jackets of the 1942 contracts were the last, and they are the jackets most often found with combat-era art.

The design was simple and durable: knitted waistband and cuffs, two snap-flap patch pockets, shoulder straps, a shirt collar closed by a small hook, and a heavy zip front. Its broad, smooth back panel was the feature that mattered most to the art that followed. Across the bomber stations of England and Italy and the airfields of the Pacific and the CBI, that panel became a canvas for squadron artists, sign painters and ground crew with a talent for lettering, who painted aircraft, pin-ups, cartoon emblems and mission tallies for the men who wore them.

The No-Name Contract

Most A-2 labels name their maker. The label on contract W535-ac-27753 does not. It reads simply 'TYPE A-2 / DRAWING NO. 30-1415 / A.A.F CONTRACT NO. W535-AC-27753 / PROPERTY AIR FORCES, U.S. ARMY', and for years it was one of the puzzles of the field. Research attributed to Gary Eastman, whose work underpins modern A-2 identification, offers the explanation now accepted by most collectors: the Materiel Division ordered the labels before the contract was awarded, so no maker's name could be woven in.

The contract is attributed to the Cable Raincoat Company of Boston. It was a 1942 order and Cable's last A-2 contract, reported in collector estimates at around 50,000 jackets. Its features are well known to enthusiasts: straight rectangular pocket flaps, a mustard lining and small ring snaps, all of which this jacket shows. Originals are usually described as seal or russet horsehide, though cowhide examples have been reported, so we describe this hide as heavy seal brown, horsehide per the contract norm but unconfirmed. Among collectors, '27753' has become a byword in its own right.

The irony is that a contract with no maker's name has become one of the most recognised of all. Reproduction makers in Japan, Britain and the United States have recreated the 27753 in detail, and collectors who have worn those reproductions for years often go looking, eventually, for the jacket that started it.

Big-Time Operator

'B.T.O.' was American slang of the 1940s for a Big-Time Operator: a show-off, a fixer, a man with an angle. It was a natural name for an aircraft or a crewman with swagger, and several bombers carried it. The best known, B-24 44-40072 'Big Time Operator (B.T.O.)', served with the 492nd, 489th, 453rd and 466th Bomb Groups of the Eighth Air Force and flew under a wolf in top hat and tails with thirty-six bombs painted. Its art bears no relation to this jacket, and we make no connection between them. The letters may also have carried a private nod to the E.T.O., the European Theater of Operations, though that is our speculation rather than evidence.

The Enemy Eagle as Vulture

Most painted backs show pin-ups or aircraft. A smaller, more pointed tradition took aim at the enemy, and this is a fine example of it. The Nazi eagle is caricatured as a scrawny, white-headed vulture in grey feathers and a red cloak, a swastika on its chest and a bone gripped in its talons. The emblem of the Luftwaffe is reduced to a carrion bird, threadbare and absurd. The satire is explicit and unmistakably anti-Nazi; it belongs to the same impulse that made wartime cartoonists draw dictators as clowns, ridicule as a weapon of morale.

Anti-Axis caricature appears on jackets, but it is far less common than pin-ups or aircraft, and examples of this quality are scarce. The artist here has worked with real care: the vulture's ragged plumage, the drooping cloak and the bone in its grip are rendered with an illustrator's economy, so that the joke reads instantly at a distance. We describe the art factually, because its purpose was to mock, and the mockery is the point.

Below the caricature run fourteen bomb mission markers in two rows of ten and four. Fourteen is short of a heavy-bomber tour, and the count may record a crewman partway through his tour, a medium-bomber man, or a flier who was reassigned. We cannot know which, and we do not guess at a unit. The removed name tag and rank, visible as shadows on the leather, mark the jacket of an individual whose name has been lost.

Why Japanese Collectors Seek 27753

In Japan, where collectors and reproduction makers have catalogued A-2 contracts in exhaustive detail, the 27753 jacket holds a special place: a mass contract with a mysterious label and a distinctive cut, widely reproduced and widely studied. An all-original 27753 with its Conmar zip, lining and snaps intact is the benchmark against which those reproductions are measured. This one came from an American collector into a Japanese collection around 2010, and it adds to that benchmark a rare and pointed piece of anti-Nazi morale art.

Japanese collecting also values completeness above almost everything. A jacket that keeps its original zip, lining, snaps and label, with art painted in period and never retouched, is the kind of piece that is passed carefully from one collection to the next. We expect this one to be treated in the same way.

The Piece

This is a size 40 A-2 on contract W535-ac-27753, in heavy seal brown hide that has kept its body and its colour well, with only small marks from wear. The Conmar zip runs smoothly. The mustard lining is in good order, without significant damage. The straight rectangular flaps and small ring snaps of the contract are present and correct, and the jacket is described as full original.

On the back, 'B.T.O.' in yellow block letters stands beside the vulture caricature of the Luftwaffe eagle, finely detailed in white, grey and red, with fourteen bomb markers below. The painting is precise and confident, and its condition is strong for a wartime back. On the left chest, the shadow of a removed name tag remains; on the epaulettes, marks where rank insignia were once fixed.

The knits show wear with old repairs, as expected on a jacket worn hard in service. Taken together, label, hardware, lining and art make this one of the more complete and characterful 27753 jackets to reach the collector market in recent years.

Details

• Type: Type A-2 leather flight jacket
• Maker: Unnamed on label; attributed to Cable Raincoat Co., Boston
• Contract / label: Drawing 30-1415 · A.A.F. Contract W535-ac-27753 · 'Property Air Forces, U.S. Army'
• Era: 1942, Second World War
• Leather / shell: Heavy seal brown hide; horsehide per contract norm, unconfirmed
• Hardware: Conmar zip, working; small ring snaps
• Lining & knits: Mustard lining in good order; knits worn with repairs
• Decoration: Back: 'B.T.O.' in yellow beside a Luftwaffe eagle caricatured as a vulture (with swastika, in satirical anti-Nazi context), 14 bomb mission markers (10 + 4)
• Tagged size: 40
• Measurements: Shoulder 46 cm · Chest (pit to pit) 52 cm · Sleeve 60 cm · Length 63 cm

Condition

• Described as full original, including Conmar zip, lining and snaps
• Leather heavy and well preserved, with small marks
• Knits worn, with old repairs
• Shadow of a removed name tag on the left chest
• Marks of removed rank insignia on the epaulettes
• Back paint in strong condition for its age

Condition grade A on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.

Authenticity & Care

The label, contract and size tags, leather, stitching, zip and hardware, paint and insignia are examined together and documented in Japan before dispatch; anything that cannot be confirmed is stated plainly in the description. Every piece carries the Japonista authenticity guarantee. Display or store away from direct light and heat, keep conditioner well clear of the painted back, and use a broad padded hanger to protect the shoulders.

Delivery from Japan

Packed by hand in Japan and shipped insured and tracked by EMS or an equivalent express service. Import duties and taxes, where applicable, are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything before you buy, and see our published policy.

Every figure above is taken by hand with the garment laid flat, in centimetres. Lay a shirt or jacket you already love beside them and allow a centimetre or two of margin, the quiet safeguard on a final sale. Our size guide to tops and jackets turns pit-to-pit figures into US, UK, EU and Japanese sizes, and for anything it leaves open the curator team replies within one Tokyo business day.

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