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WWII FSSF Uniform Questions...


Kadet
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I am in the process of restoring the correct insignia to a FSSF uniform and needed some advice. Did the men transferred to the 474th when the FSSF was disbanded wear crossed arrow or infantry collar brass? Also, would they have worn a lanyard? Regarding the lanyard, I have seen information that indicates it was worn on the "combat patch" side of the uniform, but am not sure...

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Typically when with 474th they wore the rifles.

 

A small group I have their is signal corps brass as the vet was a radio operator and repairman.He came to the Force and served the whole war with them.

 

I do see the cord being worn on the right or not at all.This said I have an ike to a member who went to the 101st then the 17th Airborne.He wears the cord on the left shoulder.This is the way he wore it(or how it was placed by him) when the uniform was obtained directly from him.He may have not known or cared if there was a correct way to wear the cord.He also chose to wear the arrows.

 

I have seen two uniforms from vets who were later replacements to the Force prior to Southern France and they wore no shoulder cord.Also no jump wings as they both were pulled from replacement pools and were standard infantry replacements.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is the uniform I am working on. It is named, and I'm fairly sure belonged to this man. The writing is very difficult to read though. I was sure enough to request his record to see if it was a match. The jacket has marks for CB color brass and CB CIB on the pocket. The CIB leads me to believe it would have had jump wings as well, and the owner definitely spent some time overseas,

post-110-0-29565900-1507803655_thumb.jpg

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Andy,

 

Most of the jump qualified troopers ended up going to the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions as replacements, though a few jump qualified troopers did end up in the 474th. They were mainly ones who had been injured or wounded and were no longer fit for being placed on jump status for whatever reason. I have also heard that some refused to go to airborne units saying that they would not jumps as they didn't want to be separated from their buddies. This evidently worked for some, but not for others. Most of the Forcemen who ended up in airborne units told me that they didn't ever really fit in with the others and so they pretty much kept to themselves.

 

I will also mention that not all of the rangers who ended up as replacements in the FSSF got all of the accoutrements of the FSSF. Some that I met back in the day never got the red, white and blue "barber poles," and I even found some who either never got crossed arrows brass or just preferred to wear their crossed rifle brass. As for the force oval, it was worn for such a very short time, that you can be sure that those wouldn't have been issued in theater to replacements who were jump qualified.

 

I only have two force groups which include uniforms. Both have the barber pole on the wearer's left shoulder. I can't say that I have ever seen photo evidence of it migrating to the right shoulder when the forcemen ended up in the 474th.

 

My two cents,

Allan

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There are mysteries about my father's (John E Gorski, misspelled Gerski in the Darby Ranger book list) jacket that I pictured. He is not listed in Burnham's listing of FSSF members but documented release to the FSSF as a patient from the 52nd Station Hosp on 8/3/45. He was documented as "Wounded in Action, Not Hospitalized" at the Chunzi Pass and pulled into the medical unit by the Ranger surgeon (Sheldon Sommers) who treated him. I have no documentation of him at Anzio. He visited his brother in the AAF in southern Italy around Feb 1944. The Ranger surgeon went into the FSSF and John was with him as an ambulance driver ) through to Nice. Documented qualified for a CMB. Already had a CIB. Then with Sommers in the 474th through Oslo. The name in the jacket is D. H. McCoullough. McCullough was in the FSSF HQ from the beginning. McCullough was in the 474th from Nice through Oslo. McCullough was the Quartermaster on the ship that John came home on. Everyone needed to be in uniform to disembark in NYC and McCullough gave his to John (according to waht John told me. McCullough was going home to Poala, KS where his dad had been the Chief of the fire dept. and also the Chief of Police. John was going home to poor parents that did not speak English and a 900 sq ft home with no indoor plumbing. John went on to become one of the top salesmen for the International Latex Corp. in the brassiere division. :)

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Interesting history on your Dad!

 

Coincidentally, I received my guy's record today (actually the medical summary and final pay info). It was a huge source of info though, and let me confirm the attribution.

 

He was wounded in the foot May 1944

He received parachute pay until 6 Jan 1945. This is the date that the 474th Infantry Regiment was established in France. Were he transferred to an airborne unit his jump pay would have continued. I think this confirms that he was transferred to the 474th

He returned to the US 14 Sep 1945 and was discharged 23 Sep 1945. These dates line up with the 474th, and also support the overseas stripes on the jacket.

 

Also, looking at pictures online, believe I found him in a group pic with his eyes open :) Standing, third from right.

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Andy,

 

I wonder if his being wounded in the foot in December,1944, just prior to the Force being disbanded and the unit being broken up, might have saved him from being sent to one of the airborne divisions as a replacement. He most likely would not have been fit for duty as a paratrooper at the time.

 

Great detective work. Good luck finishing out the jacket's restoration.

 

Allan

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Allan, actually the wound occurred in May 1944 and seems to have been minor. He was wounded in the heel by a shell fragment and treated at an aid station. I doubt this caused him to lose his jump status, but I'm not sure why the 474th vs an airborne unit. Perhaps in early '45 he had some other medical issue, or a special skill that made him needed in the 474th. His record isn't complete enough to ever know for sure. He was born in 1914, so was on the older side. Perhaps that was the reason. Born in Los Angeles, he served before the war in the California National Guard. After the war, he returned to Helena, MT and became a police officer and eventually a Sheriff.

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From what I have researched about the men of FSSF, at that point of the war, many were not eager to be sent to an Airborn unit as they had been through a year of hell in the mountains of Italy and had survived only by sheer luck. I read an account of a medic committing suicide just before loading on a truck to join the 474th.

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From what I have researched about the men of FSSF, at that point of the war, many were not eager to be sent to an Airborn unit as they had been through a year of hell in the mountains of Italy and had survived only by sheer luck. I read an account of a medic committing suicide just before loading on a truck to join the 474th.

Thanks and good point. In jan 1945, I'm sure the prospect of joining an airborne division wasn't very enticing to the FSSF guys.

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Thanks, I have a copy of the book so had seen that.

 

Here is another question for the experts; campaign credits. He would have served all the way through from the Aleutians to VE Day. Burhans lists the FSSF campaign credits as:

 

Aleutians

Naples-Foggia

Rome-Arno

Southern France

Rhineland

Arrowhead for S. France

 

This would mean a PTO ribbon w/ one star and an ETO ribbon w/ 4 stars and an arrowhead.

 

Did the 474th also earn an additional star for Central Europe?

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Dug a bit more and answered my own question. Central Europe was the 474th's only campaign credit, so he would have had 5 stars and an arrowhead on his ETO ribbon...

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I decided to use infantry brass, as this would have been technically "correct". An FSSF lanyard will be a fun thing to hunt at the SOS this year...

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