China, Republic. A Chinese Expeditionary Force Wind Coat

(中国远征军). Exterior is fabricated from a woven khaki hemp, forming a canvas-like texture, the front designed with two large and deep pockets at the waist, each with a foldover flap. The collar has a large single hook and eye closure at the front, ensuring a snug fit at the neck, along with five dark brown finished wooden buttons placed at equal intervals around the neck. The front is completed by a vertical row of five khaki-green painted wooden buttons on the right side, facing an equal number of reinforced button holes on the left side. Along the left seam at the rear of the coat there is a strap sewn in place, the dangling lower end of which incorporates a reinforced button hole. The rear tail of the coat is single-vented, with two dark brown finished wooden buttons sewn in place on the right side, facing an equal number of reinforced button holes on the left side. The inside is unlined, but comes with a large weather flap in a woven khaki hemp sewn in place across the shoulders, with a thin strap sewn in place at the collar for hanging the coat upon a hook. The opening on either side is reinforced with an additional panel, the left panel marked between the second and third button holes with the Chinese character for "Large". It measures 420 mm across the shoulders x 1,050 mm in length, exhibiting soiling throughout from active use, with most of the stitching intact. As worn.

Footnote: The Chinese Expeditionary Force (中国远征军) was an expeditionary unit of the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army that was dispatched to Burma and India in support of the Allied efforts against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion and occupation of Burma in the South-East Asian theatre in the Second World War.