Jerkin

A jerkin is a man's short close-fitting jacket, prepared typically of light-colored leather, and without sleeves, worn over the doublet in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Leather jerkins of the sixteenth century were repeatedly slashed and punched, both for adornment and to improve the fit.Jerkins were worn bunged at the neck and hanging open over the pea’s cod-bellied fashion of doublet (as worn by Martin Frobisher).

During the Normandy disgusting, American troops had little reasons to feel under provisioned compared to the Brits and Canadians, but the lack of leather jerkins was one major deficit.
During the post war period, a much less idiosyncratic PVC version was introduced to the armed forces. WD excess leather jerkins swamped the UK during the 1950s and 1960s and were a common sight on manual workmen across the country.