ww2marine Posted March 17, 2019 Share #1 Posted March 17, 2019 Hi guys, I thought I would share this for St. Paddy's day. This group belonged to Clifford Armstrong from Somerville, MA. Armstrong joined the Corps in March of 1942 and had a preferense for sea duty, however, the Corps had different plans for him. They sent him to Londonderry, Ireland to guard a secret Navy radio base. He spent two years there, from June 10, 1942 to August 20, 1944. After returning to the states he spent the rest of his time at Quantico, VA. Armstrong was discharge in March of 1946. On a side note I went to Londonderry (Or Derry if you're southern Irish) last year and they still talk about the Marines to this day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ww2marine Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share #2 Posted March 17, 2019 Armstrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themick Posted March 17, 2019 Share #3 Posted March 17, 2019 Outstanding!! That's a rare group. In fact, I've never seen a Londonderry group with uniforms (plural) with the Londonderry patch. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobgee Posted March 17, 2019 Share #4 Posted March 17, 2019 Wonderful group to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brig Posted March 17, 2019 Share #5 Posted March 17, 2019 Agreed, Londonderry groups are scarce and interesting...any photos of him wearing the uniforms? I have seen no evidence that these patches were ever actually sewn on, particularly as he should have removed them upon being stationed at Quantico Was Clifford of Irish roots? It seems the ranks were filled with lots of Irish Marines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ww2marine Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share #6 Posted March 17, 2019 Agreed, Londonderry groups are scarce and interesting...any photos of him wearing the uniforms? I have seen no evidence that these patches were ever actually sewn on, particularly as he should have removed them upon being stationed at Quantico Was Clifford of Irish roots? It seems the ranks were filled with lots of Irish Marines Nope, no photos. This group came fresh from his estate In Malden, MA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ww2marine Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share #7 Posted March 17, 2019 Agreed, Londonderry groups are scarce and interesting...any photos of him wearing the uniforms? I have seen no evidence that these patches were ever actually sewn on, particularly as he should have removed them upon being stationed at Quantico Was Clifford of Irish roots? It seems the ranks were filled with lots of Irish Marines As far as his roots go I have no idea. Im just a USMC collector, I havent studied his family genealogy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumpin Jack Posted March 17, 2019 Share #8 Posted March 17, 2019 Wow! Beautiful grouping! I have a liking for WWII Marine material. If you are so inclined, you might go to "Jumpin Jack's Collection" under the Display Forum for some interesting viewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ww2marine Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share #9 Posted March 17, 2019 An honest question.. Why would he remove the Londonderry patch? I have a ton on early war uniforms where guys returned from the Pacific to do various types of duty stateside, and never removed their division patches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brig Posted March 17, 2019 Share #10 Posted March 17, 2019 Londonderry was a detachment, not division. He would have changed to whoever he fell under at Quantico. While a lot of regs were indeed ignored or blatantly disregarded during WWII, Quantico would have been one of the harder places to get away with it. It's also possible he removed it, and sewed it on again after the war for reunions, parades, or simply the fond memories Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLeo Posted March 17, 2019 Share #11 Posted March 17, 2019 Very nice group. I've run across several of those patches, but I don't think I've ever seen a set of uniforms with that patch before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katieony Posted March 17, 2019 Share #12 Posted March 17, 2019 A rare USMC group...thank you for sharing the images and this Marine's story! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt Barickman Posted March 18, 2019 Share #13 Posted March 18, 2019 Kevin, Really great and rare group. Kurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jguy1986 Posted March 18, 2019 Share #14 Posted March 18, 2019 As a Massachusetts collector, this is fantastic to see. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamski Posted March 18, 2019 Share #15 Posted March 18, 2019 Awesome grouping! Can we get a closeup of the patch? -Ski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ww2marine Posted March 18, 2019 Author Share #16 Posted March 18, 2019 Awesome grouping! Can we get a closeup of the patch? -Ski of course, I hope this pic is adequate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timberwolf Posted March 19, 2019 Share #17 Posted March 19, 2019 What an incredibly rare set of greens! I don't think I ever recall seeing this patch on a uniform. To add to the discussion, I have two uniforms where the Marine's kept their SSI of their former unit after being rotated stateside for duty (both were V MAC Marines) so I would say this Marine opted to continue the wear of his prior unit patch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lerenfort Posted March 19, 2019 Share #18 Posted March 19, 2019 Fantastic group of items and with the rare patch as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamski Posted March 19, 2019 Share #19 Posted March 19, 2019 Thanks for the close up! Those are examples that were purchased at the PX in Londonderry. There was a thread long ago that disappeared that had a letter from a Marine with one of those in it explaining that it came from the PX. -Ski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Queen Posted March 20, 2019 Share #20 Posted March 20, 2019 On face value a very nice grouping. Have to admit though I would love to see a photo of that patch (and many others) actually being worn during the war or directly after. Of course lack of photographic evidence does not mean it did not happen but would be nice to see from a historical perspective. Same goes for the Marine War Dog Platoons patch and a number of others. Interesting to note that this patch was also produced in wool. Of course we most likely will never know for sure but I agree with Brig that it could also be possible that the man put the patches on the uniforms directly after the war. This may have happened more that we think. One example is a good friend of mine who was with the 1st Marine War Dog Platoon attached to the Raiders. After Bougainville he was transferred to the III Amphibious Corps and served on Guam. After the war he was reassigned to the War Dog Training School at Pendleton, then later the camp post office. During this time be bought another Raider patch and replaced the III Amphibious patch on this greens. This was like 2 years after the Raider were disbanded. No one seemed to care. It would be interesting to start a thread on how many US made USMC patches can be documented with photographic evidence. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themick Posted March 20, 2019 Share #21 Posted March 20, 2019 Do we know how large the Marine Londonderry detachment was at any given time? Also, how long did it exist? Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brig Posted March 20, 2019 Share #22 Posted March 20, 2019 They arrived in 42...interesting article on Londonderry Detachment here... https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/npswapa/extcontent/usmc/pcn-190-003125-00/sec4.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themick Posted March 20, 2019 Share #23 Posted March 20, 2019 Thanks, Brig, for the article. Not only did it answer my questions, but also described well the role of Marines in the ETO. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul70 Posted March 20, 2019 Share #24 Posted March 20, 2019 Marines were allowed to wear there former unit patches IF the new unit had no patch. I have the regs saved on my computer somewhere. Have you looked at Fold3 for records? I have a Navy officer that was stationed in Londonderry at one point and found some great records on there. Great set. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ww2marine Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share #25 Posted March 20, 2019 I wish I did have a pic of him wearing the patch, but I don't. What you see in the group is what came out of his estate. Maybe something will surface some day as Id love to see one too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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