History lesson on the WW II Distinctive Insignia ( DI ) Disinctive Insignia ( DI ) are an important class of unit insignia by the United States Army. They take the form of a small enameled coat of arms, which often depict symbols of the history of the unit they represent and sometimes the motto of the unit. Whereas shoulder sleeve insignia ( patches ) are used for larger units, such as divisions. The distinctive insignia were used along side of them to indicate the smaller component units, such as regiments or battalions. They were worn on the front of the campaign hat, on the left side of the overseas cap, on the shoulder loops of officer's coats and on the lapels of enlisted men's coats. With the outbreak of World War II, DI's continued in use until it proved to be a burden to the Quartermaster Corps. With the large number of new units formed, all requesting approval for DI designs, there was a major backlog. In addition, DI's used brass, which was a strategic material. On December 29, 1942 it was anounced that the manufacture of distinctive insignia was to be discontinued, and that future request would only be considered under very special circumstances. On January 2, 1943 War Department Circular Number Six absolutely suspended the manufacture of existing DI's and the approval of new DI designs for the duration of the war. However, It did not discontinue the wearing of DI's that had been produced. There is evidence that units circumvented the regulations and had DI's made out of plastic and other materials. Groups of period insignia, saved by veterans, often include DI's although it is difficult to know if these were made prior to, during or after the lifting of the ban on manufacture. DI's of the World War II era and prior sometimes have the name of the manufacturer on the back. They commonly have either screw and post or pin attachments. Postwar DI's are often clutch backed and have a code marking for the manufacturer; for example, "D-22" that indicates the Denmark Co. of New York. DI's are still in use by the United States Army. My Dad after the war, notice the early first strike ( version ) of the 601st F.A. on his lapels.

Document showing the original 601st D.I. (Distintive Insignia) with it's approval to go into production. Submitted by James Morgan, 601st F.A. "C" Battery

Original First Strike (version) of the 602nd F.A. D.I.

Newer version of the 602nd F.A. Distinctive Insignia

This history of the 601st and 602nd Field Artillery is located on 9 different sites, this is the 8th. As I receive new information, it will be posted on the next site. The other sites are each full to the brim with all the information and photo's you would ever want on these two very unique battalions.

75 mm Pack Howitzer

This website was constructed on 9-16-08 This site last updated on 11-18-2009

On 9-12-08, I received an e-mail from Jean-Loup Gassend reference the 602nd fire support in Southern France. Jean-Loup is 27 years old, lives in France and has been interested in the battles which took place during the invasion of Southern France. Since he was a teen, he has been researching and following up on leads to battle sites. In the past few years his interest has been confined to the area just about 10 miles east of Nice, France. The small town of Villeneuve - Loubet. There he made contact with the towns people who were alive at the time the fighting took place. They were able to give him much needed information on the where abouts of a grave which contained the bodies of 14 German soldiers who had died that day. After going through all the legal paperwork, he was allowed to retrieve the fallen men, to be returned to their homeland families for proper burial. It seems that through his investigation, that some of the deceased were killed by artillery, most likely, the 602nd's or naval bombardments. Thank You Jean-Loup for allowing me to post your story on this site, and also for the wonderful work your doing in France.

Jean-Loup Gassend: Villeneuve - Loubet, France On August 15th 1944, the allies landed in Southern France, in the area west of Cannes (see red arrows) The Germans were between the landing beaches and the French-Italian border, they were not in any position to resist the allied advance. The Germans thus decided that they would set up defenses in the mountains at the border, and would try to resist there, as the mountain terrain would make attacks much more difficult for the allies. The troops between the border and the beach heads were to delay the allied advance as much as possible, to give time for the mountain defenses to be organized.

Southern Coast of France

As of August 20th, several paratrooper regiments, and the Canadian-American "First Special Service Force" (FSSF) rapidly started their advance towards the Italian border, meeting only sporadic resistance. In Villeneuve-Loubet (white square on the map) the Germans set up a definite point of resistance to stop this advance.

Villeneuve-Loubet was just a small village dominated by a medieval castle

Late in the day of August 24th, the Second Regiment of the FSSF arrived in the vicinity of Villeneuve (red arrow), advancing on the road, not expecting any more resistance. But a small team of Germans had installed itself on top of a hill, overlooking the road (black line), and they ambushed the Forcemen, opening fire with mortars and small arms fire.

A Sergeant who was leading the way into Villeneuve stated: "We got to Grasse and then down to Villeneuve-Loubet. We were probably out about a mile, not even a mile. It was at night, it was dark as hell. We were just approaching up to the whole company, we were ahead on patrol, so we sent scouts ahead, and they couldn't find nothing. The guy that was the chief scout, his name was Parker, reported back: "Everything looks OK," He no sooner got back and apparently the Germans saw him and started to mortar us. They had already figured out just where to go with those mortars ahead of time. They were dropping them right in there."

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