1944 Hell On Wheels complete dress uniform

[Screamingeagles101]

Hello, just picked this one up at a swap meet.

 

I'm not too good at uniforms, I was hoping someone can tell me about it. I'm curious about the rope going across the shoulder.

 

It has the jacket, pants, shirt, and hat. A complete uniform. Unfortunately some moths got to it. The seller said it was sitting in his attic for years.

 

It has the number:

5-0443

 

Would someone be able to find who this belonged to?

 

Also, would someone mind giving me an idea of value on it. I want to see if I did ok on it.

 

Thanks and best!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Screamingeagles101]

 

 

 

 

 

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[Screamingeagles101]

 

 

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[hbtcoveralls]

2nd Armored Division WWII, Infantry collar discs so most likely assigned to 41st Armored Infantry Regiment.

 

2.5 years overseas service as indicated by the hershey bars on the left sleeve

 

Cord is the Belgian Forranger awarded to the unit for action in liberating Belgium

 

Hell on Wheels tab is one of the earlier ones and the uniform probably dates to right around 1945

 

Ribbons are the Good conduct medal, the ETO ribbon with 4 campaign participation stars, and the WWII victory ribbon

 

No CIB is present

 

Laundry number probably S-0443 which returns 89 records including a bunch from New York, and at least one from Brooklyn. as the 2nd Armored had a lot of men assigned.

 

Tom Bowers

[TheGrayGhost]

Nice looking grouping!

[Screamingeagles101]

Thanks a lot guys!

Very happy to know its all original WW2.

I paid $50 for it.

 

 

 

 

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[Paul70]

It looks like one silver and three bronze stars, so 8 stars all together

[David D]

Very nice uniform! You did good for $50

[Screamingeagles101]

Thanks guys.

Would anyone be able to help me with value? I'm not sure if the movie "Fury" had the same impact on militaria as band of brothers haha.

I really want to keep this uniform, but I have no place to put it. Most of my space is occupied by helmets

I'm going to try to create some room for it, but if not I will have to part with it.

 

Thanks.

[hbtcoveralls]

It looks like one silver and three bronze stars, so 8 stars all together

It could be especially with 2.5 years overseas service. The light made it hard to see and so I thought it was 4 but it could easily by 8

[hbtcoveralls]

Thanks guys.

Would anyone be able to help me with value? I'm not sure if the movie "Fury" had the same impact on militaria as band of brothers haha.

I really want to keep this uniform, but I have no place to put it. Most of my space is occupied by helmets

I'm going to try to create some room for it, but if not I will have to part with it.

 

Thanks.

Value is not great because of the condition. If you can do some more research it may help the value by tying it to a specific person, you never know.

maybe he wrote a book about his war or was famous for something else, but find a name and it could really make a difference.

As it stands and with the moth damage I'd say it's in the 60-70 dollar range, mainly in the patches, ribbons and insignia

Tom Bowers

[jguy1986]

Was the 2nd AD eligible for 8 campaign stars?

[Screamingeagles101]

I'll have to check for a name when I get some time. I know it has some moth damage but I would have thought it'd hold a higher value considering it's a famous unit and a complete un-messed with grouping.

 

Here is a similar jacket that nearly sold for $200 recently.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/152214165236

 

Also note, mine has a service number, hat, pants, and shirt.

Again, I don't know much about uniforms.

This is just an observation.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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[hbtcoveralls]

The jacket you saw on E-bay isn't really similar, Tank Destroyer uniforms are hot and the one on E-bay wasn't mothy and has more bells and whistles.

 

Condition is very important in this case. There were something around 18000 men in the 2nd Armored Division at any given time including the armored infantry. If a collector wanted a 2nd Armored uniform, they could probably find a better one to purchase condition wise and it's a really big hit with the condition of the shirt being especially bad.

 

Drawbacks to the uniform, other than the condition:

 

researchable but not yet attributed

Cap has no branch of service piping

no Distinctive insignia pins for the regiment

Infantry branch insignia, but no Combat infantryman's badge

no valor award or purple heart

no qualification badge

patches are issue and not very rare or distinctive

 

I could be entirely wrong, and on a good day it could go higher, but moth damage hurts a lot

. Work on the attribution and that might make a big difference

[patches]

Was the 2nd AD eligible for 8 campaign stars?

Kinda of (Though I think the star is Bronze and the light is glaring it)

 

 

But for the record.

 

Algeria-French Morocco

 

Sicily

 

Normandy

 

Northern France

 

Ardennes Alsace

 

Rhineland

 

Central Europe

 

These are the official campaign credits for the 2nd Armored Division during the period of the Second World War. However, elmts of the 2nd Armd Div was in action in Tunisia, so if there is a Silver Star along with three Bronze ones for total of 8, then this could be a case of a member of the division was in one of those units that crossed into Tunisia, and he gave himself an "Unofficial" Star to signify this.

[Screamingeagles101]

 

 

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[Screamingeagles101]

all 4 stars look the same to me.

 

 

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[patches]

all 4 stars look the same to me.

 

 

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And they are, bronze, it was the sunshine. Seeing he has between 2 1/2 to 3 years of overseas duty (5 Overseas Bars, 2nd Armd Div lands in North Africa in December 1942), he probably was in all the campaigns of the 2nd Armd Div, 7 in all. Here it's common enough to see a lack of the proper amount stars on campaign ribbons on going home soldiers

[MattS]

As far as finding the vet, the laundry mark is the first letter of the last name (S) and the last 4 digits of the serial number (0443), so you can enter S0443 on this site (http://www.wwii-enlistment.com/) and search by laundry number. As stated, there's 89 results. Being as he was overseas in late 1942 (we assume), you can eliminate anyone who enlisted in 1943 or later right off the top, which by my quick count subtracts 32. Knowing where this uniform came from could help narrow it down further.

[jguy1986]

I will add a word of caution that the overseas stripes can be wrong, from time to time. I have examples where the guys "rounded up" their totals, e.g. 19 months foreign service, but they wore 4 overseas bars. There's another where the GI was with the 45th Division and wears 5 campaign stars, so you'd think it was just the last 5 campaigns, but he was actually with them from Sicily through Southern France and then sent stateside. For every rule, there's always an exception or something that throws the curve. All this is assuming he wasn't with another unit and then transferred to the 2nd AD, since not every guy chose to wear a right sleeve patch.