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How late was the SHAEF patch worn?


Garandomatic
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Recently got a uniform that I hoped to identify, but might be on a wild goose chase. Has the black-backed SHAEF patch on the left. The fellow I had my hunch about was in the 12th Armored, re-enlisted in the Fall of '45 since he had low points and qualified for a more immediate furlough home. Went back to Germany and came home for good in late '46. He was late enough that it was just almost past the time for the award of the ruptured duck, which is another clue for the uniform I found.

 

Would it be plausible for a man on occupation duty in Germany around this time to come home with the black-backed SHAEF patch and not the USAEUR blue one?

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It's possible he wore the patch in error. The command was disbanded in July 1945 and the European Command took over. US Army Europe didn't get activated until 1947.

 

-Ski

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USFET (United States Forces in the European Theatre) was active prior to US ARMY Europe.The patch was basically the same(blue shield) and derived from the SHAEF patch.

 

This may add some info to the Commands of SHAEF- ETOUSA -USFET etc.

 

When the war ended in Europe on 8 May 1945, the ETOUSA headquarters was located in Versailles, France, just outside Paris. As Eisenhower and his staff began to prepare for the occupation of Germany, the ETOUSA headquarters staff moved to Frankfurt, Germany, and co-located with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces and the Office of Military Government, United States. ETOUSA was redesignated Headquarters, United States Forces European Theater (HQ USFET) on 1 July 1945, with its headquarters remaining at Frankfurt. At the end of the war, the total U.S. Army strength in Europe was 2.4 million: two Army groups (6th and 12th), five field armies (First, Third, Seventh, Sixth and Ninth), 13 corps headquarters, and 62 combat divisions (43 infantry, 16 armor, and 3 airborne) as well as 11,000 tanks and armored fighting vehicles. Within a year rapid redeployments had brought the occupation forces down to fewer than 290,000 personnel, and many of the larger formations had departed or been inactivated. Seventh Army headquarters remained in control of the western portion of the American zone, and Third Army controlled the eastern portion. In November 1945, the two field army commanders organized district "constabularies" based on cavalry groups, and on 1 May 1946, the zone-wide U.S. Constabulary headquarters was activated at Bamberg. From then until the early 1950s, the structure of the American occupation forces consisted of the 1st Infantry Division, a separate infantry regiment, and the U.S. Constabulary of 10 cavalry regiments. Seventh Army was inactivated in March 1946, in Germany, reactivated for a short time at Atlanta, Georgia, and assigned to the Regular Army with headquarters at Vaihingen, Germany, in November 1950.

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