10 Jan 2024 Garand Picture of the Day - Darby's Rangers

[Mark in Rochester]

Note the letter H on the rear of the helmet

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Helmet at bottom has seen some long miles.

[Mark in Rochester]

Helmet at bottom has seen some long miles.

barn find

[browningautorifle]

barn find

Looks like it was used to feed the chickens...

[mike181]

For those of us wo are ignorant but interested, what does the letter "H" indicate?

[browningautorifle]

what does the letter "H" indicate

I was never able to find out a simple answer on that. Just theories.

[Mark in Rochester]

What does the letter "H" indicate?

Could not find much but the first picture is from Anzio

second is 509th PIB "Gingerbread" Helmet During 1943–1944, the 509th PIR served in the Italian mainland campaign and invasion of southern France. Because of the terrain, in both campaigns the regiment often found itself serving as de facto mountain infantry.

[browningautorifle]

Good Possibility the H is associated with the Italian Campaign

One of the stories was that when practicing landing, they couldn't find their own guys/leaders during comin' ashore. From the back, they all look like a green helmet. They later marked using the orange diamond on side but this may have been initial as they appear to all be early pics. Normally a vertical bar is officer and horizontal is NCO so this is different from both. That's one theory I've read that made sense.