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WW I Shoulder & Helmet Insignia of the 35th Division, AEF


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Photo No. 125: Graphics depicting the five unidentified 35th Division insignia bearing a buff outer-ring as found in the image of the aforementioned patch blanket. At the time of posting, no information regarding 35th Division shoulder patches bearing buff outer-rings has been found. Buff, however, was the traditional branch of service color used by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. Therefore, that color could indicate a connection to that organization.

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Photo No. 126: There is no way to know if the outer ring on the 35th Division shoulder patch sewn on this enlisted men’s service coat was once yellow or if it was buff in color. The coat bears an infantry collar disc and the insignia was described as being that of the 138th Infantry Regiment (two yellow and two blue within a yellow outer-ring), on which one of its yellow quadrants had been replaced by a “lavender” quadrant.

 

Photos courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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35th Division: Miscellaneous Insignia

In addition to the Santa Fe Cross symbol painted onto steel helmets, and sewn onto Doughboy service coats, the 35th Division employed an assortment of other unusual insignia that were unique to that particular division.

 

In another forum post devoted to the insignia of the 35th Division, mention was made of a point up, black triangle sewn onto the left hand sleeve, midway between the elbow and the shoulder. In that thread it was said that:

 

The black triangle denotes an observer in the regimental intelligence section. I have written references, but this is the first I have seen of an actual example. Scouts wore a square and snipers a circle. These specialty marks were to be worn on the left sleeve. So far as I know the 35th Division is the only unit in the AEF that prescribed these specialty marks.

 

Unfortunately, the poster of that information did not cite the reference source from which the information came. Here is the link to that post:

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/236438-unusual-ssi-on-35th-division-uniform/

 

Photo No. 127: In this image of an unknown 35th Division regiment’s Intelligence Section, all but one man is wearing the observers’ triangle midway between the elbow and the shoulder on the left sleeve.

 

Photo courtesy of the Mccooper collection

 

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Photo No. 128: This image borrowed from a post war unit history depicts a captain, two sergeants and six privates first class; all members of the 139th Infantry Regiment’s Intelligence Section. The photo confirms that at least two of the men (8th & 9th from the left) are wearing black, triangular shaped symbols on their left arm.

 

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Photo No. 129: Closer views of the 35th Division’s so called “observers insignia”. At left is an unnamed enlisted soldier who’s Intelligence Section, observers’ insignia features the initial ‘R’ in its center. Next is an example of the mysterious black triangle stitched onto the sleeve of an enlisted man’s service coat bearing an as yet, unidentified blue-ringed 35th Division shoulder patch. On the far right is a period photo of what is reputed to be a Company I, 139th Infantry Regiment soldier whose coat bears a 35th Division insignia, and an Intelligence Section, observer’s insignia embroidered with the initial ‘B’. At the time of posting, the significance of the initial ‘R’ and the initial ‘B’ on the pair of observers’ insignia is not known.

 

Right hand photo courtesy of the Mccooper collection

Center photo courtesy of the WW2 Jake collection

Left hand photo courtesy of the Rolfi collection

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Photo No. 130: This five color, camouflage painted British “Brodies” helmet bears the insignia of the 139th Infantry Regiment on both sides. On its front a black square with the initial “B”, rendered in blue, has been painted. It is said that a symbol in the form of a black square represented a “scout” in the regiment’s intelligence section. A black circle is alleged to have been the insignia of a sniper within the intelligence section.

 

Photo courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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Photo No. 131: Close ups of the Intelligence Section, scout insignia (left) and one of the 139th Infantry Regiment insignia painted onto the side of the British made steel helmet.

 

Photos courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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Photo No. 132: Another example of a geometrical shaped 35th Division Intelligence Section symbols. In this case it’s, once again, a black observers’ triangle that has been stenciled or inked onto a gasmask haversack, along with the insignia of the 35th Infantry Division, one overseas service chevron, as well as the soldier’s initials, his serial number, and Company B.

 

Photos courtesy of the jayhawkhenry collection

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Photo No. 133: In addition to the 139th Infantry Regiment insignia that has been stenciled onto both sides of this steel helmet, either the numeral ‘8’ or the initial ‘B’ has also been painted above one of the two Santa Fe Crosses.

 

Photo courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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Photo No. 134: The initial ‘D’ has been stenciled above the painted insignia on the opposite side of the 139th Infantry Regiment helmet shown in the previous photo. The purpose of the letters or letter and numeral are not known.

 

Photo courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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Photo No. 135: Closer views of the secondary 35th Division helmet stencils as applied to the helmets depicted in photo numbers 133 (‘D’ or ‘8’), 134 (‘D’) and 89 (HQ) respectively. Note that all of the secondary stencils were made on helmets belonging to the 70th Infantry Brigade.

 

All photos courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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Photo No. 136: The red wool collar tabs behind the collar discs on this 128th MG Battalion, enlisted man’s service coat were not specific to the 35th Division. The red, rectangular shaped collar tabs, along with a Military Police (MP) Brassard were authorized during the war for the MP of all AEF organizations. The red flashes, prescribed for both officers and enlisted men, informed all observers that the wearer was a military law enforcement officer.

 

Photos courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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Photo No. 137: This passage lifted from Heroes of the Argonne, explained how the 35th Division identified friend from foe during that division’s first major trench raid on the opposing German trench line during the summer of 1918:

 

To guard against mistaking their own men, the Americans either wore helmets painted in white or girded with a white stripe. Large white handkerchiefs were worn around the neck. Only about one-fourth of the men were equipped with rifles, the rest with pistols. One man in each four carried four incendiary or smoke grenades, and each man had with him six O.F. grenades. Each party in the rear carried an automatic rifle to protect the retreat of the cleaning detachments.

 

Heroes of the Argonne, 1919, Charles B. Hoyt, page 48

Although there is no documentation to back this up, it is thought that the 35th Division went on to develop a series of identifying tactical marks, like the pointed white, rectangle painted on the back of this 110th Sanitary Train helmet to further identify friendly troops in combat.

 

Photos courtesy of the USMC-RECON0321 collection

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Photo No. 138: This close up, cropped from a larger photo taken on October 1, 1918, during the Argonne offensive is of 139th Infantry Regiment soldiers resting in an open field near Cheppy. What makes these two Doughboys so interesting is the fact that a crude, dark colored stripe has been painted around the bowl of their helmets just above the rim. So far, other than the mention of 35th Division helmets being “girded” by a white stripe, no additional information explaining these curious helmet stripes has been found.

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Photo No. 139: It is not known if the camouflage painted helmet worn by this 35th Division veteran with his sweetie was a souvenir bring back from “Over There” or a home-grown folk-art helmet created in the tool shed out back to commemorate his service during the Great War.

 

Photo courtesy of the John Adams-Graf collection

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Photo No. 140: Close up of the unidentified 35th Division insignia and camouflage paint job on the helmet worn in the above photograph.

 

Photo courtesy of the John Adams-Graf collection

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Photo No. 141: Another souvenir camouflage painted helmet bearing the insignia of the 129th MG Battalion.

Photo courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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Photo No. 142: Over the course of the 35th Division’s involvement in the First World War and beyond, the symbol of that division also managed to find its way onto a diverse selection of military and non-military articles. Two examples are The Swab, a wartime publication of the 110th Sanitary Train and an enameled 35th Division lapel pin worn post-war by veterans of that division.

 

Photos courtesy of Advance Guard Militaria.com

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Please be sure to add comments, both pro and con, as well as photos of any 35th Division material that you may have, and of course, if you can identify or have thoughts on any of the unknown color combinations, please let the rest of us know.

 

End of another very long post. Thanks for looking … World War I Nerd.

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It's my opinion that the position of the quadrants indicates battalion/company with in the regiment/battalion.

 

I am also pretty confident that the stenciled marking above the division insignia on some 139th Infantry helmets indicates the company.

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On your white painted 35th helmet with number 51 in the center, possible chance this is post war done for American Legion Post 51 in Missouri. Many of the helmets were painted white/silver for parade purposes post war by veterans and worn at functions. You've done an outstanding job on this, great research and well laid out, I give you a giant tip of the hat...George

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AEF1917, your observation regarding the placement of the colored quadrants representing battalions or companies makes a lot of sense. It's a possibility that never occurred to me when I was putting this post together, quite frankly, I wish I had thought of it because it has merit.

 

My conclusions in respect to the placement of the colored quadrants were based purely on the examination of scores of period photos and the location of the quadrants on existing patches as sewn onto service coats. Roughly 70% of them were sewn on as I described them in the text. The quadrants in the remaining 30% were situated at all four compass points.

 

For now, both of our theories have yet to be backed up by period documentation, so we must both keep open minds.

 

 

George, thank you for the compliment, and for ID of the white painted helmet bearing the numeral 51. Putting something together on the insignia of the 35th Division was something I'd wanted to do for a long time. It was only recently that I finally obtained images of all the division's authorized color combinations. The rest of the information, pretty much fell into my lap while researching ... I was lucky to find it.

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You might want to check with Hdq's Missouri NG as I know they have historical section and museum live next to Missouri and seldom find anything 35th, the boys from NE Mo. for most part are 89th guys.

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Good eye, Steve.

 

I usually look pretty closely at photos, but I completely missed the fact that it was a German cap cockade. Without ever taking a second look I incorrectly assumed that it was an enameled red, white & blue overseas service pin, which are commonly seen on overseas caps.On the enameled overseas service pins, the white is usually in the center, not around the outside. I should have noticed that.

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