The olive green Mk III NBC Smock saw service for many years but had a number of areas that could be improved. It was a slip over the head garment and relied on a draw string to seal around the facepiece of the respirator. An updated version had been produced in DPM as the Mk IIIa, but a new improved design was still needed and this came in the form of the Mk IV. Despite the Mk IIIa being produced in DPM, the Mk IV was still produced in olive green initially, although later production woud see it manufactured in DPM and DDPM, I have seperate posts about both those variations with more details on the fabric and construction of the Mk IV. This variation however is the olive green one:

As with all these NBC Smocks, it was issued vacuum sealed in a small packet with the air sucked out to make it take up as little room as possible:

My sealed example dates from 1988, as seen by the large year number on the internal packing slip:

The date of manufacture was important as these suits had a definate shelf life and once this was expired they were no longer felt to be suitable for actual use in an NBC environment and were relegated to training duties only.

The smock itseld has a strip of elastic around the hood, to allow a close seal with the soldier’s respirator for better resistance to NBC agents:

This was a major advance over the old draw string. The other major change was to change from an over the head design to one with a front closure, secured by a zip and a velcro fly:

The smock has a number of velcro tabs for adjustment. There are two tabs at the waist:

And a further pair at the wrists:

Note also the darker patch to attach detector papers to. A small pocket for a field dressing is sewn to the upper left sleeve:

Over the left breast is a large pocket with space to write a soldier’s name, number and blood type on the flap:

The right breast pocket is just plain in comparison:

A standard label is sewn into the collar of the smock with sizing and store code etc. listed:

It is nice to have both a sealed and an open example of this smock and my thanks go to Martin Johnson who very kindly gave me these examples.