Item

A WWII U.S. Army officer's khaki tropical worsted service coat, clearly dated 1945 and identified to a historic armored regiment. The interior Quartermaster label reads "Uniform, Service, Officers, 2-Piece Khaki, Tropical Worsted, Size 37 Regular," Code No. 404, Dated June 14, 1945, Purchase Order 25216, Spec. No. PQD 301A, Pattern Date March 1945, Stock No. 55-U-10221, Phila. Q.M. Depot. It also carries the woven "Regulation Army Officer's Uniform" eagle label.

The coat is the classic four-pocket officer's cut in lightweight khaki tropical worsted wool, with a notched lapel, shoulder loops, gold-colored U.S. Great Seal eagle buttons, and the officer's mohair braid trim at each cuff. It is fully insignia'd (details below). It shows honest age and wear with scattered staining, a few small moth nips, and light soiling to the cloth, but it is complete and displays as a sharp, identifiable officer's coat. Measured flat across the chest it runs approximately 19 to 20 inches, consistent with the tagged size 37 Regular. Please treat measurements as close approximations.

Design & Insignia

The collar carries the officer's bright U.S. cipher on one side and the Armor branch insignia on the other, the M26 tank over crossed cavalry sabers, marking the wearer as an Armor officer. Both lapels wear the distinctive unit insignia of the 68th Armor, a green shield charged with silver arrows between two red-flamed torches over a scroll reading "FORGE THE THUNDERBOLT." The crests are maker marked on the reverse by A.H. Dondero Inc., Washington D.C. The shoulder loops are bare, so no rank insignia is present on the coat. The gold eagle buttons and cuff braid are the standard fittings of the WWII officer's service coat.

History

"Forge the Thunderbolt" is the motto of the 68th Armor, and in the Second World War the regiment's lineage was carried by the 68th Tank Battalion of the 6th Armored Division, the hard-charging outfit known as the "Super Sixth." The 6th Armored landed at Utah Beach on July 19, 1944, and fought the rest of the war as one of the spearhead divisions of General George S. Patton's Third Army. It raced across Brittany to the fortress port of Brest, battled through Lorraine to the German border, and in the crisis of the Battle of the Bulge was rushed north to the Bastogne sector, driving the enemy back across the Our River into Germany. In the final campaign the Super Sixth breached the Siegfried Line, crossed the Rhine at Oppenheim in March 1945, drove through Frankfurt, took part in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and pushed on to the Mulde River, where it stood at war's end. Patton rated it one of the two best divisions in his Third Army.

The June 14, 1945 date on this coat is striking in itself. That was the U.S. Army's birthday, just weeks after V-E Day, so this tropical worsted coat was produced right at the close of the war in Europe, for an Armor officer's continued summer and occupation service. A dated, branch- and unit-marked WWII officer's coat tied to a famous Third Army armored division is a genuinely desirable and displayable piece of history.

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