11th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division Ike Jacket

[5th ID-Battle of Angers]

Hi,

 

Very happy to show you my last acquisition, thanks to Bill the Patch.

 

This Ike Jacket carries 11th Infantry Regiment DUIs and 5th Infantry Division OD border patch.

It was manufactured before June 1945 by Moda Coat Company. At the bottom of the left sleeve are sewn two “Overseas bars” and two “Service stripes” indicating six years of service in the US Army. On the chest, left side, are pinned 6 ribbons of decorations. They includes the Good Conduct medal, the American Defense Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two bronze stars rewarding participation in two campaigns (probably Northern France and Rhineland), the American Campaign Medal , the World War One Army of Occupation Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.

 

 

 

Inside of this jacket, the soldier wrote his “Laundry number”, composed of the initial of his name (P) and the last digits of his Army serial number (10760). Unfortunately, no correspondence allowed us to find the former owner of this beautiful jacket.

 

A nice piece I've been looking for a long time !

5th

 

 

[huntssurplus]

Did you look in the pockets for a ruptured duck? They probably didn’t get out until post 1947 hence the two service stripes indicating at least 6 years of service. They probably were either national guard or went into the service in 1940, and then maybe re-enlisted for occupation duty. Interesting it has the ww1 occupation ribbon as that is usually seen on men going home in the early occupation period.

Hunt


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[5th ID-Battle of Angers]

Thanks for your message Hunt. Unfortunately, nothing inside the pockets.

Concerning the WW1 Army of Occupation ribbon, I wonder if it was like reused after WW2 by soldiers who served in Germany from 1945 ?

 

5th

[huntssurplus]

Thanks for your message Hunt. Unfortunately, nothing inside the pockets.
Concerning the WW1 Army of Occupation ribbon, I wonder if it was like reused after WW2 by soldiers who served in Germany from 1945 ?
 
5th

The ribbon came out around the same time as the post WW2 occupation ribbon for soldiers who had served during the ww1 occupation of 1918-1923. There are many theories as to why they show up so commonly on WW2 uniforms, but many think they simply were given an “occupation ribbon” as mentioned on their discharge papers and those issuing the ribbons didn’t know the difference between the occupation ribbons as the ww1 occupation ribbon actually technically came out before the later ribbon and thus most likely was put into the supply chain earlier. Pretty confusing, but it is very common to see WW2 soldiers In the early occupation wearing it coming home.

Hunt


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[5th ID-Battle of Angers]

On 8/27/2020 at 9:28 PM, huntssurplus said:

The ribbon came out around the same time as the post WW2 occupation ribbon for soldiers who had served during the ww1 occupation of 1918-1923. There are many theories as to why they show up so commonly on WW2 uniforms, but many think they simply were given an “occupation ribbon” as mentioned on their discharge papers and those issuing the ribbons didn’t know the difference between the occupation ribbons as the ww1 occupation ribbon actually technically came out before the later ribbon and thus most likely was put into the supply chain earlier. Pretty confusing, but it is very common to see WW2 soldiers In the early occupation wearing it coming home.

Hunt


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Thanks for your answer. It is indeed quite confusing ! Looks plausible that WW1 occupation ribbons were (consciously or not) re-used for WW2 occupation.

 

5th

[huntssurplus]

9 hours ago, 5th ID-Battle of Angers said:

 

Thanks for your answer. It is indeed quite confusing ! Looks plausible that WW1 occupation ribbons were (consciously or not) re-used for WW2 occupation.

 

5th

 

It is confusing! Another thing to note is the WW1 Occupation ribbon was't "re-used" persay for WW2 as it came out as the same time almost as the WW2 Occupation ribbon. It was a retroactive award, similar to purple hearts that were awarded to WW1 veterans, that was released long after the occupation had ended. That's really the main source of confusion as to why it is seen on WW2 uniforms, because the Military released two occupation ribbons at about the same time and during an active occupation where millions of soldiers were eligible to receive an occupation ribbon. 

 

Another thing to note is the WW1 Occupation ribbon is really only seen on ETO WW2 uniforms as soldiers ended up coming home a lot earlier and being subsequently discharged, again supporting the theory of the WW1 ribbon being used exclusively in the early-early occupation (1945-1947) period exclusively. 

 

Hunt