Com Z patches Communication Zone Europe patches

[gwb123]

Photos

Now that is different.

[phillock]

Here is another COMZ AOA

 

Phill

[Just another collector]

My grandpa was in COMZ from the late 50s to early 60s. I inherited most of his uniforms and boots but I am missing his utilities.

[CROC]

A little ComZ update

 

ADSEC is for Advanced Section - Verdun

USAGDN is for US Army General Depot Nancy

FOD is for Fontenet Ordnance Depot

BRGD is for Braconne General Depot

BROD is for Braconne Ordnance Depot

 

I suspect that the "5" is for 5th Logistical Command, my be someone knows more about ?

 

 

Best

[Red Devil]

A little ComZ update

 

ADSEC is for Advanced Section - Verdun

USAGDN is for US Army General Depot Nancy

FOD is for Fontenet Ordnance Depot

BRGD is for Braconne General Depot

BROD is for Braconne Ordnance Depot

 

I suspect that the "5" is for 5th Logistical Command, my be someone knows more about ?

 

COMZ France.jpg

 

Best

 

Fantastic collection of DIs. Very seldom seen. Below are my two humble contributions to the thread.

[respectingthesacrifice]

 

My father-in-law, John S. Wilburn, was COM-Z. Attached is our contribution to this topic, one of our COM-Z/ADSEC trays.

Great collection you have!!! Love the variations and various tabs!

Thanks for sharing

[R A GUY]

I was R A for 3 years, enlisted,  stationed At Maison Forte from 10-1953 to 4-1956. Company B, 553rd Engr. Battalion. I have    100's of pictures i will digitize and post here if i can figure out how to.  

We did a lot of engineer[construction]  work in Versailles and all over France. Dug up old German Ammo dumps, built airstrips for NATO.  I ran a D-8 Cat, scrapper, wrecker, and did the steel erection of towers when necessary. Lived in tents at Maison Forte..

Went to 7th Army NCO Academy in Munich and lived in old German barracks that were awesome. 

Basic Training Graduation picture, and running a D-8 Cat digging up old German Ammo dump.

 

Paul

[patches]

On 10/17/2020 at 11:43 AM, R A GUY said:

I was R A for 3 years, enlisted,  stationed At Maison Forte from 10-1953 to 4-1956. Company B, 553rd Engr. Battalion. I have    100's of pictures i will digitize and post here if i can figure out how to.  

We did a lot of engineer[construction]  work in Versailles and all over France. Dug up old German Ammo dumps, built airstrips for NATO.  I ran a D-8 Cat, scrapper, wrecker, and did the steel erection of towers when necessary. Lived in tents at Maison Forte..

Went to 7th Army NCO Academy in Munich and lived in old German barracks that were awesome. 

Basic Training Graduation picture, and running a D-8 Cat digging up old German Ammo dump.

 

Paul

Welcome to the forum R A Guy, we thank you for your wanting to share your photos from you time in. I sent you a PM to help you on your way.

[Gilles Heccan]

 Retired from the French Air Force as Lieutnant-Colonel, I'm living in Orleans city (France) where thousands of US personnel also lived during the 1950-67 era.

 To date, very few studies have been made about that time and the American presence for Com Z.

 So, I recently start to search archives in the area trying to find documents, pictures and witnesses (maybe for a book in the future).

 I focuse my studies on the following sites in Orleans area and the units which were located there:

 

 - Coligny Barracks COM.Z HQ

 - Saran airfield and Signal Corps Site

  - “La Foret” Depot and Hospital (used as American school and OAC HQ)

  - La Chapelle Saint Mesmin hospital

  - Saint-Pryvé-Saint-Mesmin Quatermaster Depot (also called former SAMEC plant)

  - Maison-Fort and Harbord barracks

  - Saint-Ay maps depot (USAFE I think)

  - Saint-Lyé-La-Forêt Transmission Site

  - Olivet (chateau  La Mothe) and Donnery (chateau La Touche)

   officers' clubs

  - Chevilly and Orleans PX

 

  So, I would like to know if you have available informations (photos, documents in high definition) of US troops in Orleans I could use.

 

 Thanks again for your hepl, and I apologize for poor English writing.

 

 Sincerely yours

 Ltc ® Gilles HECCAN

[email protected]

 0033768401737

[Com-Z]

On 9/11/2016 at 10:10 AM, Cherokee said:

 

My father-in-law, John S. Wilburn, was COM-Z. Attached is our contribution to this topic, one of our COM-Z/ADSEC trays.

 

Cherokee, thanks so much for posting this; the SOS / Com-Z / TSF-ET in the ETO is my primary area of study about the war due to two of my relatives serving in that logistics side of the European Theater.  You know this stuff, but I am going to relate the broad strokes for the other members looking at this thread.

The Army divided itself into three basic functions in February 1942 under GEN Marshall's direction: Ground Forces under McNair, Air Forces under Arnold, and the Services of Supply under LTG Brehon B. Somervell, who had worked his way into the G-4 function in the 89th Division in the first war, and found his calling in logistics.  The chief of staff of that division was COL John C. H. Lee, at the time senior to LTC Somervell.  By May 1942, MG Lee was commanding the 2nd ID at Ft. Sam Houston, and on 3 May Somervell called him, and ordered him to come to Washington asap where he would be named CG-SOS-ETO.  Lee spent 3 weeks in the War Department selecting key staff and developing Operation Bolero, the plan to build up men and materiel in the UK for an eventual invasion of the continent.  He arrived in Britain on 27 May.

His command was gigantic.  In Britain it was divided geographically into Eastern, Western, Central, and Northern Ireland Bases, and it had 18 Special Staff Sections: Engineers, Quartermaster, Ordnance, Signal, Transportation, Medical, Chemical Warfare, JAG, AG, Provost Marshall, Anti-Aircraft Artillery, Fiscal, Claims, Exchange Service, Historical, Information and Education, Special Services, and Chaplain.  A huge wrench was thrown in the works just a month in when the powers that be decided to answer the pleas of Stalin, and fight somewhere to take pressure off Russia.  Operation Torch took a third of the SOS-ETO personnel and half of Lee's best men, aimed at North Africa, under Lee's original Deputy, BG Thomas Larkin.  Torch began 8 November 1942.

 

Sicily and Italy followed, and finally Overlord in Normandy came to pass on 6 June 1944.  On that day the SOS name was abolished, and the same entity became the Communications Zone, ETO, communications being the military term for all activity behind the lines.  On that day, the CG of the Eastern Base Section, BG Ewart Plank, became CG of the Advance Section (ADSEC) of the Com-Z, the part of the operation that followed most closely the advancing 1st, 3rd, and 9th Armies as they moved across France, Belgium, Holland, and into Germany.  As more and more territory came under Allied control, the Com-Z added geographic sections in France and the Low Countries.  A graphic below shows the various Base sections and their commanders, several of whom had commanded Base sections in the UK.

The Com-Z moved its HQ from Cheltenham, Gloustershire to Varennes, Normandy in late July, and then into Paris in September.  Though that move had happened at the direction of Lee's Chief of Staff, BG Royal B. Lord, it annoyed off Ike, and Lee took the hit even though Paris was the only place to take that headquarters in the fall of '44 for sound logistics reasons.

Peace came in May 1945, and the Com-Z eventually moved its HQ to Frankfurt.  No longer in communications in an active war zone, the named changed again to Theater Service Forces, European Theater (TSF/ET) to get the men home and do all the work necessary to wind down the war.  A little more later.  Here are those graphics; all of these are in 1945, at the end of this operation.  Some of these commanders may have had different duty during the war itself.  The last is a graphic of how a Theater of War is organized.
 

 

 

 

[tredhed2]

1 hour ago, Com-Z said:

Cherokee, thanks so much for posting this; the SOS / Com-Z / TSF-ET in the ETO is my primary area of study about the war due to two of my relatives serving in that logistics side of the European Theater.  You know this stuff, but I am going to relate the broad strokes for the other members looking at this thread.
The Army divided itself into three basic functions in February 1942 under GEN Marshall's direction: Ground Forces under McNair, Air Forces under Arnold, and the Services of Supply under LTG Brehon B. Somervell, who had worked his way into the G-4 function in the 89th Division in the first war, and found his calling in logistics.  The chief of staff of that division was COL John C. H. Lee, at the time senior to LTC Somervell.  By May 1942, MG Lee was commanding the 2nd ID at Ft. Sam Houston, and on 3 May Somervell called him, and ordered him to come to Washington asap where he would be named CG-SOS-ETO.  Lee spent 3 weeks in the War Department selecting key staff and developing Operation Bolero, the plan to build up men and materiel in the UK for an eventual invasion of the continent.  He arrived in Britain on 27 May.
His command was gigantic.  In Britain it was divided geographically into Eastern, Western, Central, and Northern Ireland Bases, and it had 18 Special Staff Sections: Engineers, Quartermaster, Ordnance, Signal, Transportation, Medical, Chemical Warfare, JAG, AG, Provost Marshall, Anti-Aircraft Artillery, Fiscal, Claims, Exchange Service, Historical, Information and Education, Special Services, and Chaplain.  A huge wrench was thrown in the works just a month in when the powers that be decided to answer the pleas of Stalin, and fight somewhere to take pressure off Russia.  Operation Torch took a third of the SOS-ETO personnel and half of Lee's best men, aimed at North Africa, under Lee's original Deputy, BG Thomas Larkin.  Torch began 8 November 1942.

Sicily and Italy followed, and finally Overlord in Normandy came to pass on 6 June 1944.  On that day the SOS name was abolished, and the same entity became the Communications Zone, ETO, communications being the military term for all activity behind the lines.  On that day, the CG of the Eastern Base Section, BG Ewart Plank, became CG of the Advance Section (ADSEC) of the Com-Z, the part of the operation that followed most closely the advancing 1st, 3rd, and 9th Armies as they moved across France, Belgium, Holland, and into Germany.  As more and more territory came under Allied control, the Com-Z added geographic sections in France and the Low Countries.  A graphic below shows the various Base sections and their commanders, several of whom had commanded Base sections in the UK.
The Com-Z moved its HQ from Cheltenham, Gloustershire to Varennes, Normandy in late July, and then into Paris in September.  Though that move had happened at the direction of Lee's Chief of Staff, BG Royal B. Lord, it annoyed off Ike, and Lee took the hit even though Paris was the only place to take that headquarters in the fall of '44 for sound logistics reasons.
Peace came in May 1945, and the Com-Z eventually moved its HQ to Frankfurt.  No longer in communications in an active war zone, the named changed again to Theater Service Forces, European Theater (TSF/ET) to get the men home and do all the work necessary to wind down the war.  A little more later.  Here are those graphics; all of these are in 1945, at the end of this operation.  Some of these commanders may have had different duty during the war itself.  The last is a graphic of how a Theater of War is organized.
 

Saying thanks seems insufficient but THANKS very much.

[seanmc1114]

On 1/12/2008 at 1:07 PM, Germanymp said:

Hi guys, here are some variants and tabs for the Com Z patch. No fancy bullions, just something I thought I'd share with you.

Here is the Honor GUard tab being worn.

[seanmc1114]

On 1/30/2018 at 12:39 PM, Tonomachi said:

I never saw this thread before but I remembered this later posting that might explain the airborne tab over the Comm Zone SSI:

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/153816-army-shirt-w-rigger-airborne-master-parachute/page-2?hl=demartini

 

I have in my collection a patch that was made by combining two patches together a Comm Zone SSI over a 557th Quartermaster Company SSI. The seller had removed it from the uniform but kept a photograph of the patch sewn on the uniform to prove that both patches came together.

Member of the 557th Quartermaster Company wearing the Theater Area Support Command Europe with AIRBORNE tab.

[468abnarm]

My references indicate it would be the Type 1 SSI for the 557th QM CO (AS)

 

[468abnarm]

On 1/30/2018 at 11:43 AM, Tonomachi said:

Photos

My references indicate it is the Type 1 SSI for the 557th QM CO (AS)