Original Item. Only One Available. This is a WWII Military Issue Army shirt, marked under the collar with size 14 ½ 32 and a laundry number, D5541. The shirt was reissued to an Axis Prisoner of War, most likely on the American Homefront.

As World War II raged on the other side of the globe, Allies, such as Great Britain, were running short of prison space to house POWs. From 1942 through 1945, more than 400,000 Axis prisoners were shipped to the United States and detained in camps in rural areas across the country. Some 500 POW facilities were built, mainly in the South and Southwest but also in the Great Plains and Midwest.

At the same time that the prison camps were filling up, farms and factories across America were struggling with acute labor shortages. The United States faced a dilemma. According to Geneva Convention protocols, POWs could be forced to work only if they were paid, but authorities were afraid of mass escapes that would endanger the American people. Eventually, they relented and put tens of thousands of enemy prisoners to work, assigning them to canneries and mills, to farms to harvest wheat or pick asparagus, and just about any other place they were needed and could work with minimum security.

The Prisoners of War sent to the United States were still clothed with their enemy uniform in which they were captured. Having to cloth Prisoners of War was yet another issue the U.S. Government has to contend with. The solution was to issue enemy POWs with reissued GI garments, obsolete garments, or factory defect garments. These items were occasionally dyed a different color, or simply stenciled with “P.W” (Prisoner War) on the front and back.  

This particular garment is a GI Army issue shirt reissued to an Axis Prisoner of War. The shirt exhibits minor wear overall and likely did not see heavy use during the war. The shirt features a black-stenciled “PW” on both the front and back. These are seldom found items today, as most were destroyed at the end of WWII following the release of the prisoners.

Ready to display.

Approximate Measurements:-
Collar to shoulder: 8.5"
Shoulder to sleeve: 22.5”
Shoulder to shoulder: 15"
Chest width: 17.5”
Waist: 16.5"
Hip: 18"
Front length: 28"