Yardstick
Well-Known Member
I'm a big fan of those units where each constituent squadron used a unique version on the Group insignia. In the PTO there was the 90th BG with its squadron specific 'Jolly Roger' patches and the 22nd BG with colour coded versions of the 'Red Raiders' Group patch for each squadron. However, one of my favourites is the 44th Bomb Group of the 8th AAF. I love the simplicity of the 'Flying Eightballs' Group insignia and how this was adapted to each squadron with a different a coloured nose for the caricatured eightball. A few years back I made a couple of 44th BG patches in multi-piece felt but was never completely happy with how they came out. After much detective work and access to higher resolution images, I worked out the original patches were edged in robe braided cord trimming to give them a 3D relief effect. It took me a while to track down the right sort of cord and work out the technique used to attach it but having done this, I have now finished two more multi-piece patches with the correct cord trimming but also managed to retrofit cord to the original two. For good measure I also knocked up a canvas version of the 67th BS Flying Eightballs patch to complete the set.
So here there are: 66th BS (red nose), 67th BS (yellow), 68th BS (white - this one is a later variation where the base of the nose was yellow for all squadrons with only the tip coloured differently) and 506th BS (green). The bottom patch was used by the headquarters / tower personnel and combines all 4 squadron colours as well as a 'stop/go' sign and the 'Flying Control' motif. The final pic is an original 506th BS patch for reference.
So here there are: 66th BS (red nose), 67th BS (yellow), 68th BS (white - this one is a later variation where the base of the nose was yellow for all squadrons with only the tip coloured differently) and 506th BS (green). The bottom patch was used by the headquarters / tower personnel and combines all 4 squadron colours as well as a 'stop/go' sign and the 'Flying Control' motif. The final pic is an original 506th BS patch for reference.