Post WWI M1924/ M1926 “Transitional” Officers Uniform; CONVERTED STANDING COLLAR

Description

Post WWI M1924/1926 Spec 8-31/8-31A “Transitional” Officers Uniform;
Headquarters, 4th Infantry Division US Organized Reserves (Army Inactive)
This is a very rare and interesting piece. This was originally a US Army M1924 Spec 8-31 Officers Coat. This piece was modified by the Quartermasters Corps in the late 1920’s.
This coat is a 3 button coat. You can see where the material was added at where the 4th button would have been. The color doesn’t match. This is a telltale sign of the modifications made by the QMC during this period.
This coat has the signs of a pre M1926 Spec 8-31A Uniform. This particular coat doesn’t have belt hooks. This is a trait of the “Standing Collar” uniforms that predates 1924.
This coat has a beautifully embroidered 4th Infantry Division insignia on the left shoulder.
This piece has the very early twist back posts of the M1926 Collar Pins. This includes the infantry & US collar pins. The Captain’s shoulder pins are of the faux embroidered type from WWI.
The belt is a worn example of the M1921 Officers Service Belt. This is a particularly rare piece that was manufactured by the QMC at Jeffersonville in 1922. These belts are only ever seen dated 1922 and are extremely rare.
The hat is a M1934 Officers Cap with the wide chin strap as well as the back mounted chin strap as well.
Putting all of this information together, we can see that this uniform was tailored in the early to mid 1920’s. This uniform was modified in the late 1920’s by the QMC to meet the new standards of the 1926 design.
All of the accoutrements follow this assessment.
This tunic belonged to a Headquarters, 4th Division Captain. The division headquarters, as well as most of the other inactive units of the division, were authorized to be staffed by Organized Reserve personnel and designated as Regular Army Inactive units.
This uniform grouping includes:
• M1926 Spec 8-31A Officers Service Coat; Conversion from M1924 Spec 8-31 Officers Service Coat
• M1934 Officers Field Cap; Mounted Chin Strap
• M1921 Officers Service Belt
• M1902 Belt Hangers
• M1931 Mounted Service Boots
• M1911 Summer Mounted Breeches
• Faux Embroidered Captain Bars x2
• Infantry Collar Pin; Twist Back x2
• US Collar Pin; Twist Back x2
• Mexican Border War & WWI ribbon pins
*** Please note: THIS UNIFORM GROUPING DOES NOT INCLUDE THE SHIRT OR TIE.
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If this was a standard M1926 Spec 8-31A Officers Tunic, it wouldn’t be that valuable or rare.
This tunic on the other hand is EXTREMELY RARE because of the conversion from a “Standing Collar” uniform to a “Rolled Collar” uniform.
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4th Infantry Division
The 4th Infantry Division is a division of the United States Army based at Fort Carson, Colorado. It is composed of a division headquarters battalion, three brigade combat teams (two Stryker and one armor), a combat aviation brigade, a division sustainment brigade, and a division artillery.
The 4th Infantry Division's official nickname, "Ivy", is a play on words of the Roman numeral IV or 4. Ivy leaves symbolize tenacity and fidelity which is the basis of the division's motto: "Steadfast and Loyal". The second nickname, "Iron Horse", has been adopted to underscore the speed and power of the division and its soldiers.
THE GREAT WAR
The 4th Division was organized at Camp Greene, North Carolina on 10 December 1917 under the command of Maj. Gen. George H. Cameron. It was here they adopted their distinctive insignia, the four ivy leaves. The ivy leaf came from the Roman numerals for four (IV) and signified their motto "Steadfast and Loyal". The division was organized as part of the United States buildup following the Declaration of War on 6 April 1917 and the entry of the United States into the war on the side of the British and French.
Organization
Headquarters, 4th Division
• 7th Infantry Brigade
39th Infantry Regiment
47th Infantry Regiment
• 8th Infantry Brigade
58th Infantry Regiment
59th Infantry Regiment
•4th Field Artillery Brigade
13th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm)
16th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
77th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
4th Trench Mortar Battery
•4th Engineer Regiment
•8th Field Signal Battalion
•Headquarters Troop, 4th Division
•4th Train Headquarters and Military Police
4th Ammunition Train
4th Supply Train
4th Engineer Train
•4th Sanitary Train
19th, 21st, 28th, and 33rd Ambulance
Companies and Field Hospitals
Saint Migiel
For the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, the division moved into an area south of Verdun as part of the First United States Army. General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) on the Western Front, had gotten the French and British to agree that the AEF would fight under its own organizational elements. One of the first missions assigned to the AEF was the reduction of the Saint-Mihiel salient. The 4th Division, assigned to V Corps, was on the western face of the salient. The plan was for V Corps to push generally southeast and to meet IV Corps who was pushing northwest, thereby trapping the Germans in the St. Mihiel area.
The 59th Infantry Regiment moved into an area previously occupied by the French, deploying along a nine kilometer front. On 12 September, the first patrols were sent forward by the 59th. The 4th Division attack began on 14 September with the 8th Brigade capturing the town of Manheulles. All along the front, the American forces pressed forward and closed the St. Mihiel salient.
Occupation Duty
Under the terms of the Armistice, Germany was to evacuate all territory west of the Rhine. American troops were to relocate to the center section of this previously German-occupied area all the way to the Koblenz bridgehead on the Rhine. The 4th marched into Germany, covering 330 miles in 15 days where it was widely dispersed over an area with Bad Bertrich as Division headquarters. The division established training for the men as well as sports and educational activities. In April 1919 the division moved to a new occupation area further north on the Rhine.
The division went north to Ahrweiler, Germany, in the Rheinland-Pfalz area. In July the division returned to France and the last detachment sailed for the United States on 31 July 1919.
Intra War Period
The 4th Division was stationed at Camp Dodge, Iowa, until January 1920. After that date, it was stationed at Camp Lewis, Washington. On 21 September 1921, the 4th Division was inactivated due to funding cuts, but was represented in the Regular Army by its even-numbered infantry brigade (the 8th) and select supporting elements. The division headquarters, as well as most of the other inactive units of the division, were authorized to be staffed by Organized Reserve personnel and designated as Regular Army Inactive units. The division headquarters was occasionally reassembled, such as for the September 1936 U.S. Third Army command post exercise at Camp Bullis, Texas, or for the August 1938 maneuvers in the De Soto National Forest in Mississippi.
World War II
The 4th Division was reactivated on 1 June 1940 at Fort Benning, Georgia, under the command of Major General Walter Prosser. Commencing in August the formation was reorganized as a motorized division and assigned (along with the 2nd Armored Division) to I Armored Corps, being officially given its motorized title in parenthesized style and then formally as the 4th Motorized Division effective 11 July 1941. The division participated in Louisiana maneuvers held during August 1941 and then in the Carolina Maneuvers of October 1941, after which it returned to Fort Benning. The division transferred to Camp Gordon, Georgia, in December 1941, the month America entered World War II, and rehearsed training at the Carolina Maneuvers during the summer of 1942.
The division, now under the command of Major General Raymond O. Barton, then moved on 12 April 1943 to Fort Dix, New Jersey, where it was again reconfigured and redesignated the 4th Infantry Division on 4 August of that year. The division participated in battlefield maneuvers in Florida starting in September and after this fall training exercise arrived at Camp Jackson, South Carolina, on 1 December 1943. At this station the division was alerted for overseas movement and staged at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, beginning 4 January 1944 prior to departing the New York Port of Embarkation on 18 January 1944. The 4th Infantry Division sailed to England where it arrived on 26 January 1944.
France
The 4th Infantry Division assaulted the northern coast of German-held France during the Normandy landings, landing at Utah Beach, 6 June 1944. The 8th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division claimed being the first surface-borne Allied unit (as opposed to the parachutist formations that were air-dropped earlier) to hit the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Relieving the isolated 82nd Airborne Division at Sainte-Mère-Église, the 4th cleared the Cotentin peninsula and took part in the capture of Cherbourg on 25 June. After taking part in the fighting near Periers, 6–12 July, the division broke through the left flank of the German 7th Army, helping to stem the German drive toward Avranches.
By the end of August the division had moved to Paris, and gave French forces the first place in the liberation of their capital. During the liberation of Paris, Ernest Hemingway took on a self-appointed role as a civilian scout in the city of Paris for his friends in the 4 ID. He was with the 22nd Infantry Regiment when it advanced from Paris, northeast through Belgium, and into Germany. J. D. Salinger, who met Hemingway during the liberation of Paris, was with the 12th Infantry Regiment.
Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany
The 4th then moved into Belgium through Houffalize to attack the Siegfried Line at Schnee Eifel on 14 September, and made several penetrations. Slow progress into Germany continued in October, and by 6 November the division entered the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, where it was engaged in heavy fighting until early December. It then shifted to Luxembourg, only to meet the German Army's winter Ardennes Offensive head-on (in the Battle of the Bulge) starting on 16 December 1944. Although its lines were dented, it managed to hold the Germans at Dickweiler and Osweiler, and, counterattacking in January across the Sauer, overran German positions in Fouhren and Vianden.
Halted at the Prüm River in February by heavy enemy resistance, the division finally crossed on 28 February near Olzheim, and raced on across the Kyll on 7 March. After a short rest, the 4th moved across the Rhine on 29 March at Worms, attacked and secured Würzburg and by 3 April had established a bridgehead across the Main at Ochsenfurt. Speeding southeast across Bavaria, the division had reached Miesbach on the Isar on 2 May 1945, when it was relieved and placed on occupation duty. Writer J. D. Salinger served with the division from 1942–1945.
Order of Battle
•Headquarters, 4th Infantry Division
•8th Infantry Regiment
•12th Infantry Regiment
•22nd Infantry Regiment
•Headquarters and Headquarters Battery,
4th Infantry Division Artillery
20th Field Artillery Battalion (155 mm)
29th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
42nd Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
44th Field Artillery Battalion (105 mm)
•4th Engineer Combat Battalion
•4th Medical Battalion
•4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop
(Mechanized)
•Headquarters, Special Troops, 4th Infantry
Division
Headquarters Company, 4th Infantry Division
704th Ordnance Light Maintenance Company
4th Quartermaster Company
4th Signal Company
Military Police Platoon
Band
•4th Counterintelligence Corps Detachment
Occupation & Cold War
The division returned to the United States in July 1945 and was stationed at Camp Butner North Carolina, preparing for deployment to the Pacific. After the war ended it was deactivated on 5 March 1946. It was reactivated as a training division at Fort Ord, California on 15 July 1947.
On 1 October 1950, it was redesignated a combat division, training at Fort Benning, Georgia. In May 1951 it deployed to Germany as the first of four United States divisions committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the early years of the Cold War. The division headquarters was at Frankfurt. After a five-year tour in Germany, the division redeployed to Fort Lewis, Washington in May 1956.
The division was replaced in Germany by the 3rd Armored Division as part of an Operation Gyroscope deployment. The division was reduced to zero strength, the colors were transferred to Fort Lewis, Washington, and the division was reestablished by reflagging the 71st Infantry Division (which itself had just returned from Alaska) on 15 September 1956.
On 1 April 1957, the division was reorganized as a Pentomic Division. The division's three infantry regiments (the 8th, 12th and 22nd) were inactivated, with their elements reorganized into five infantry battle groups
On 1 October 1963, the division was reorganized as a Reorganization Objective Army Division (ROAD). Three Brigade Headquarters were activated and Infantry units were reorganized into battalions.
The 6th Tank Battalion of the 2d Armored Division, Fort Hood, Texas, was sent to Korea during the war to serve with the 24th Infantry Division. The lineages of the tank companies within the battalion are perpetuated by battalions of today's 66th and 67th Armor Regiments in the 4th Infantry Division.
Vietnam War
The 4th Infantry Division deployed from Fort Lewis to Camp Enari, Pleiku, Vietnam on 25 September 1966 and served more than four years, returning to Fort Carson, Colorado on 8 December 1970. Two brigades operated in the Central Highlands/II Corps Zone, but its 3rd Brigade, including the division's armor battalion, was sent to Tây Ninh Province northwest of Saigon to take part in Operation Attleboro (September to November 1966), and later Operation Junction City (February to May 1967), both in War Zone C. After nearly a year of combat, the 3rd Brigade's battalions officially became part of the 25th Infantry Division in exchange for the battalions of the 25th's 3rd Brigade, then in Quảng Ngãi Province as part of the division-sized Task Force Oregon.
Throughout its service in Vietnam the division conducted combat operations ranging from the western Central Highlands along the border between Cambodia and Vietnam to Qui Nhơn on the South China Sea. The division experienced intense combat against People's Army of Vietnam regular forces in the mountains surrounding Kontum in the autumn of 1967. The division's 3rd Brigade was withdrawn from Vietnam in April 1970 and deactivated at Fort Lewis.
In May the remainder of the division conducted cross-border operations during the Cambodian Incursion. The division then moved to An Khe. The "Ivy Division" returned from Vietnam on 7 December 1970, and was rejoined in Fort Carson by its former 3rd Brigade from Hawaii, where it had re-deployed as part of the withdrawal of the 25th Infantry Division. One battalion remained in Vietnam as a separate organization until January 1972.