27th Div. Double Insignia Painted Helmet

[Don L.]

Commonwealth manufactured Mk-1 with 27th Div variant (no stars) painted insignia on one side and green triangle (subordinate??) insignia on the other. I have these with green, red, and yellow triangles, all in conjunction with the star-less 27th Div insignia. Please, if anyone can ID the meaning/subordinate unit of the triangles and a time frame for this insignia set I would definitely like to know. Thanks for looking,

Regards,

Don

 

[gsmilligan]

Hmmmmm....

 

Very interesting......

 

Generally, starless insignia was assumed to be painted on in country. The 27th ran contests for a divisional insignia and the starless NYD in red and black (New York Division- red for blood, black for iron) won. The stars are an afterthought- placed there to represent the constellation Orion as a pun on name of the division's CG- Maj. Gen. John F. O'Ryan. (you may already know the history- other readers might not!)

 

Prevailing thought is that these were painted on as soon as the early divisional insignia was released, in theater, and that by the time the units were shipped home they had ample time to repaint the helmets with the correct insignia. Starless helmets are much less common that starred ones. I can't imagine a Soldier being allowed in ranks at the NYC Welcome Home Parade (April 1919) without the stars. The starred insigia was well-known by then.

 

As far as the triangles go- my starless helmet has none. I do not know off the top of my head- but let me do a little digging through some of the Division Association's WWI files and I'll see if I can find something. Gut instinct tells me red=artillery, green=MP, etc, but it could be anything. Could only have been a specific unit within the 27th that did this.

 

Thanks for the challenge.

[Don L.]

gsmilligan,

Thank you very much!

Regards,

Don

[rolfi]

Also seen on a 27 Division helmet lacking the stars on the divisional insignia was this..

So we have red, yellow, green and a tri-coloured triangle; looks like a unit identification system to me.

 

Am I right in thinking that for the "welcome home" parade the division's helmets were painted dark green?

[gsmilligan]

Also seen on a 27 Division helmet lacking the stars on the divisional insignia was this..

So we have red, yellow, green and a tri-coloured triangle; looks like a unit identification system to me.

 

Am I right in thinking that for the "welcome home" parade the division's helmets were painted dark green?

 

From what I've read, it was only the 107th Infantry that did the dark green- so they would stand out. I have seen helmets provenanced to other units with the dark green as well- but mostly other units do not have it.

 

 

I've been looking around for info on the triangles- found nothing in what I've searched so far but there is a lot more to go. This has really got me interested.

[Don L.]

Thank you for the continued research on the triangles, I'll dig out the others and post them here when I find them.

[gsmilligan]

Still looking. I've dug through all the archive's photos and can find very few painted helmets at all. Most of the pics are just not good enough to see. I have done some reading to se if I can find a mention of the triangles. I imagine they didn't write much about them during the war to avoid the info getting to the enemy, and after the war it wasn't important enough to write about. But I'll keep my eyes open and post anything I find here.

[Don L.]

Thank you very much, I certainly appreciate your efforts!

Kind Regards,

Don