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Female Psychological Warfare Division Coat


squidres
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Guys, thought I would share a recent find. About three years ago, I found a male version of this coat, and never thought I would locate a female one as well...well here it is....she was a big girl, but it is awesome!post-1282-0-80781100-1416339640.jpg

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The bullion Belgian made collar devices. Many mistakenly identify them as OSS. They are actually for SHAEF Psychological Warfare Division, the folks who created all of those surrender and propaganda leaflets.

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The bullion Belgian made collar devices. Many mistakenly identify them as OSS. They are actually for SHAEF Psychological Warfare Division, the folks who created all of those surrender and propaganda leaflets.

 

Thanks for the information. Very interesting....Kat

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The historical significance of this uniform is very interesting, but really is there any woman that is not involved in Psychological warfare??? Yes I an just kidding (kind of)

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It is interesting, the configuration of the patches is identical to the male one that I already had, and there are several other uniforms in the group. She actually wore a male hat.....all insignia on all the uniforms is Belgian made, quite wonderful and interesting. Will post more photos at a later time.

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  • 1 month later...
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Patchcollector

Neat item!Psyops is now referred to as"Military Information Support Operations,” or MISO.It seems our new politically correct leaders have deemed "Psychological Warfare" to be too intimidating! :lol:

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Neat item!Psyops is now referred to as"Military Information Support Operations,” or MISO.It seems our new politically correct leaders have deemed "Psychological Warfare" to be too intimidating! :lol:

 

Yep, I just loved when they did that to us. Nothing like taking the bite out of "Psyop" and turning it into some BS wishy-washy deal.

 

Of course, saying, "MISO horny!" in morning brief after the change didn't help things, either.

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The bullion Belgian made collar devices. Many mistakenly identify them as OSS. They are actually for SHAEF Psychological Warfare Division, the folks who created all of those surrender and propaganda leaflets.

Hi there Squidres

 

Now I wanted to find out about the chain of command and the link between OSS , PWD & SHAEF (not familiar with this military/non military operation-organization) and the comment made re below and define this in two parts:
"The bullion Belgian made collar devices. Many mistakenly identify them as OSS. They are actually for SHAEF Psychological Warfare Division, the folks who created all of those surrender and propaganda leaflets."
These are OSS collar device- they were only worn by OSS assigned personnel who served in PWD/SHAEF, this has been documented by Les Hughs.
The wording is incorrect "SHAEF Psychological Warfare Division" the correct official wording is PWD/SHAEF, now I know that sounds weird but here's the breakdown"
  • Activated Psychological Warfare Branch(PWB) @Allied Forces North Africa Nov. 1942
  • Expanded and renamed Political Warfare Division PWD/SHAEF February 1944 by the orders of Eisenhower
    • Reason Eisenhower wanted to bring under control the myriad of American and British agencies
    • Definition PWD/SHAEF "the dissemination of propaganda designed to undermine the enemies will to resist , demoralize his forces and sustain the morale of our supporters."

Now the interesting part is the organizational make up unlike other divisions within SHAEF, PWD had staff planning and operational functions, the insigne worn actually explains the thread:

 

Head of PWD was BG Robert McClure under him were 4 civilian Agencies:
  • US OWI Office of War Information
  • US OSS Office Off Strategic Service
  • GB Foreign Office - (PID) Political Intelligence Office
  • GB Ministry Of Information (MOI)
So the wearer of the uniform was an OSS (more likely civilian than military background) working for the PWD under SHAEF. You would have to find more about the individual service records.
The US Diamond patch needs explaining and is my conjecture stand for (US in a Diamond) Civilian and the colours black and white which grouped the US Civilian Agencies:
  • Black OSS retained the responsibility for black propaganda (ie information issued from from a concealed and falsified reports) essentially to lower the enemy's morale.
  • White OWI controlled all propaganda in the US (ie Known information official or otherwise plainly issued from a known source) also in March 1943 added responsibilities for conducting foreign information and overt propaganda operations and its activities to be coordinated with plans of the military services.

The OSS patch pictured is from the JBro's collection (with permission).

There is an official drawing by the Institute of Heraldry.Although unauthorized during the war I do not have the drawing and it was possibly authorized immediately post WWII (?).

All of the above has been documented thru various sources including PWD/SHAEF(1951), Les Hughes and the Johnson Brothers.

Phill

post-7582-0-28109200-1425142352.jpg

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Hi sorry just have to correct one part , the patch used was off the internet and the conversation I had was with Steve Johnson regarding PWD/SHAEF re the collar disc used and was from the OSS original design pictured , apologies for the confusion ,that's what happens when you are typing at 4.30am

 

 

Phill

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One minor correction

 

"Expanded and renamed Political Warfare Division PWD/SHAEF February 1944 by the orders of Eisenhower"

 

 

This should read Psychological not Political.

 

 

 

Phill

 

 

 

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The woman is a civilian, as was the male version. I have now accounted for 4 known sets of the bullion Belgian made insignia. Another set (uncut) was offered to me a few weeks ago. The other set was cut to share between collectors. If anyone else is aware of any other examples on uniform, would be very interested. All of this woman's uniforms have variations of the civilian US.

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Hi Squidres

 

Can we have a close up of the OSS collar disks also is the SHAEF patch US or British made?

 

Just as an added note they (OSS)started radio broadcasts that eventually became Radio Free Europe. It was also called Radio Luxembourg , all of this has been documented.

 

So you have a great uniform , would of liked to know what she actual did!!

 

Cheers

 

Phill

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Researching her pretty aggressively. Will try and get a photo later on. The civilian patches are all different, but the SHAEF is the standard uk made

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