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WWI First Army Insignia: Memorandum No. 45 & 46


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world war I nerd

Forum member George Morton (gomorton) was kind enough to send me a copy of 1st Army Memorandum No’s 45 & 46. Those two documents were thought to be the “Rosetta Stone”, or the key necessary to unlock and decipher all First World War, AEF, 1st Army insignia.

 

Unfortunately, the two memos were not exactly the “be all and end all” in respect to explaining the multitude of different 1st Army insignia comprised of various colors, shapes, symbols, numerals, initials and pictograms!

 

Nevertheless, some information is better than no information. Therefore we should all mentally shake George’s hand for providing the following information which is comprised of just 15 different 1st Army insignia. Even though the information may not be the touchdown we’d hoped for, it at least moves the ball a little further down the field.

 

If I am interpreting the memo, which is dated December 14, 1918, correctly, it would appear that it’s an attempt by the commander of the 1st Army, Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett, to restore some semblance of order to the chaos caused by the ensuing riot of shoulder insignia that suddenly appeared after GHQ authorized the wearing of a distinctive insignia by the Armies, Corps and Divisions that made up the AEF in November of 1918.

 

To fully understand which 1st Army insignia designs were worn prior to the issue of Memorandum No. 45, it would seem that copies of 1st Army General Orders No’s 28 and 35 need to be examined.

 

The memos were comprised of five pages total. Four were devoted to Memorandum No. 45 (one page of text & three pages showing 14 different insignia) and one page for No. 46, which contained just a few lines of text and one insignia. I have typed up the two pages of text exactly as they were written. Despite the fact that the word “dimensions” was mentioned, no measurements were present.

 

I did however, reformat the 15 drawings of insignia and created more legible titles. The only change I made to the text of the titles was that I abbreviated the word “miscellaneous”. I also did not add the initial “B” for black. It would have been used to indicate the color of the letter “A” on every insignia.

 

 

 

 

Memorandum 14 December 1918

No. 45

 

FOR CHIEFS OF ALL SECTIONS, SERVICES AND DEPARTMENTS

AND COMMANDING OFFICERS OF ARMY TROOPS IN THE

BAR-SUR-AUBE AREA:

1. For Army troops in the Bar-sur-Aube area, the provision of section II, General Orders No. 28, c.s., these Headquarters which require the distinctive insignia “A” to be worn by Army troops, are hereby re-established and amended as indicated hereafter: Section II, General Orders No. 35, c.s., these Headquarters is rescinded.

 

2. Army troops while stationed in the Bar-sur-Aube area will wear the shoulder insignia prescribed.

 

3. Units or detachments later taking station in the Bar-sur-Aube area will conform.

 

4. Secondary insignia for officers not assigned or attached to the organizations or services indicated hereafter, will be announced later.

 

5. The practice of wearing unauthorized insignia or adornment will cease forthwith.

 

6. Distinctive insignia for the several organizations of Army troops is authorized as indicated on the attached sheets, and troops specified in paragraph 2, will be provided with this insignia without delay. The letter “A” will have the dimensions as previously prescribed in Section II, General Orders No. 28, these Headquarters. The secondary insignia will be composed of red and white cloth of the relative general dimensions indicated except in the case of the Signal Troops who will wear the present orange insignia. Scrupulous care and supervision will be taken by commanders to ensure uniformity.

 

In the drawings “B” indicates black, “R” = red and “W” = white.

 

 

By command of Lieutenant General Liggett:

H.K. Loughry

mac Adjutant General

post-5143-0-43229600-1461151995.jpg

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world war I nerd

1st Army Insignia V … (Memorandum No. 46 applies only to the insignia on the far right)

 

HEADQUARTERS FIRST ARMY
AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES
FRANCE

18 December 1918

Memorandum )

:

No. 46 )

 

1. The Secondary insignia illustrated herewith is authorized for officers of the Headquarters, First Army, not assigned or attached to organizations or services as indicated in Memorandum No. 45, these Headquarters, c.s.

 

2. Attention is invited to the provisions of Memorandum No. 45.

 

By command of Lieutenant General Liggett:

H.K. Loughry

jhl Adjutant General

post-5143-0-12470900-1461152625.jpg

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Thank you for the excellent post! George is a wealth of information (whether he will admit it or not) and has taught me a ton of stuff the past couple of years. I don't think I have stumped him yet, but maybe I am not trying hard enough.

 

Thanks again to you guys for putting this together.

Mike

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This is still a great reference and hopefully some day the earlier memorandums will turn up and, even so, there will always be variations . This is still part of what makes Great War collecting fascinating. We were somewhat later than the other Allies to the war, but we came in and out with such a bang!! Thanks for all the research and sharing that Militaria Forum folks continue to practice. You all have greatly reinvigorated my interest in this period!

 

David

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OK I have 1st Army GO's #28 & #33 and will get them to WWI Nerd when I get his address, and I'm pretty sure he'll post them.

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