1943 National Geograhic patches of the Army Air Corps

[Andrew]

For those who haven't seen it I've scanned these pages. It's not all together accurate or concise but it's a great reference just the same. It's interesting to see how much some of these patches changed over the next two years.

If you can't read it I have higher res images available.

 

[Anonymous]

Awesome dude, I had heard there was more than one edition with the patches.

 

[greyhound52]

That is so neat maybe we need to post the photo of the patches in the photo gallery as well.

 

[rick.canavar]

That's very cool, thanks for posting it.

 

[Stony]

There were two N.G. that had patches in them. The first one in 1943 had just a limited selection. After that, I believe in 1944, they came out with a special edition that had everything from ranks to patches and in between and sold for a wopping $1. Last I heard the special edition was bringing over $100 (if you can find it). I've had both, but not anymore.

 

[Hamsterbear]

Hi Guys!
There are THREE National Geographic magazines that have patches/uniforms and other insignia.
These are the ones collectors seek:
1) June, 1943 has color plates of INSIGNIA of the UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES
this is the one with the color plates scanned above, plus a lot more.
2) October, 1943 The HERALDRY of HEROISM
this has color plates of all the medals and awards/ribbons given to all branches
also, there is a section on Women in Uniform
3) December, 1943 "HEROES of WARTIME SERVICE and MERCY
this has color plates of the lesser known branches and organizations, US Maritime Service, US Public Health, Coast Guard and Geodetic Survey, US Army Transportation Corps Vessles [ did you know the Army had a Navy?], American Red Cross, Air Carrier Contract Personel ( the ATC) and of course the CAP, Civil Air Patrol
You can find these easily enough, search eBay, used book stores that have vintage NG magazines, or just do an internet search to see what comes up. These three are worthy of your WWII collection.
-Brian

 

[zoomer]

Fantastic pages up there...some of those units probably aren't represented anywhere else today...observation squadrons??? I know 100 and above were Air National Guard units mobilized mostly as photorecon, tactical recon or artillery liaison - I assume those below 100 were regular AAC units doing the same job. We got rid of all our "O" series observer planes as soon as we realized they were useless in a modern air war.

 

[Anonymous]

Personally never seen these NatGeo editions. I note the squadrons of the 23rd Fighter Group aren't shown. Some sort of patch is shown for the 74th Ftr Sqn but it seems to be incorrect. Surprising, during wartime, that so such information would be made so public.

 

[srivats]

Can you e-mail me hi-res versions of these scans? I'd love to look at them in more detail ...