831st Bombardment Squadron

[disneydave]

The image in this post is of an authentic WW II era leather patch for the 831st Bombardment Squadron of the 485th Bombardment Group.

 

The squadron was based for the most part out of Venosa Italy. The unit flew extremely dangerous missions against oil refineries and production factories located in Austria, Romania, and southern Germany.

 

 

I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with the squadron's Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. Dan Sjodin. His personal history was fascinating - he started off as the bugle boy of the Minnesota National Guard when he was 16 and by the time he reached 23 he was the Commanding Officer of the 831st Bombardment Squadron, responsible for the air and ground crew of 36 B-24 bombers.

 

In his career Lt. Col. Sjodin was a B-17 co-pilot, pilot and instructor pilot, and a B-24 co-pilot, pilot and instructor pilot. He preferred the B-24. He was also a personal friend of Jimmy Stewart and when Sjodin was given command of a squadron destined for England, he let Stewart have it, as Stewart wanted to get out of the United States, where he was involved with bond drives.

 

Lt. Col. Sjodin personally flew lead plane on many of the missions on the refineries at Florisdorf, Wiener-Neustadt and Ploetsi. He flew his 50 missions, was rotated back to the States and was being trained on the B-29 when the war ended. He flew C-47s on the Berlin Airlift and was later given command of an air refueling squadron. Well into his 80's, he occasionally tags along with the Minnesota Air Guard when they fly training missions.

 

One of the saddest things that happened to the unit during the war was when the unit was transferred to North Africa for further training before going into combat. The transport ship carrying around 150 of the Squadron's ground crew was bombed by a lone German plane near the coast of Morocco. The transport sank, killing all of the ground crew and many others.

 

Lt. Colonel Sjodin's Executive Officer contacted a friend at Disney's Studio to see about getting a patch for their squadron. Here is just a small part what Lt. Col. Sjodin remembered about the patch:

 

"[Disney] came up with Timothy Mouse on the wings of a B-24 tossing a bomb. We were so darned proud of that. It was such a moral boost to have a nice insignia. We were the first squadron [in our Group] that had a squadron insignia. It made our outfit tops."

 

The design for this insignia was created by Disney artist Hank Porter in early 1944.

[R. Watkins]

Dave,

 

This is one of the few WWII era Disney designed insignia displaying Walt Disney's

signature copyright notice. Do you happen to know the story regarding the actual

production of these patches? They don't have that typical 'RKO' look to them.

 

Thanks.

Bob

[Sabrejet]

 

 

Sabrejet

[disneydave]

Dave,

 

This is one of the few WWII era Disney designed insignia displaying Walt Disney's

signature copyright notice. Do you happen to know the story regarding the actual

production of these patches? They don't have that typical 'RKO' look to them.

 

Thanks.

Bob

 

I was told by the 831st Commanding Officer Dan Sjodin the unit had 500 patches made in Omaha, and when the men in his squadron wore them for the first time, they were the envy of all the other men in the 485th Bombardment Group.

 

By the way, those so-called RKO patches are just stinkers. I think they have the most atrocious reproductions on them imaginable!

[disneydave]

Sabrejet

 

Hi Sabrejet.

 

I've never seen that version of the 831st patch before.

 

Cheers,

 

David