Markup View

Author: AgProv

Mar 22nd 2012 at 3:50:57 AM

Real  Life: in early 1942, one of the first American Army units to be sent to Britain was the 45th  infantry division raised in Arizona and New Mexico. The men of the division had been extensively briefed on their duty to be courteous and well-behaved to the British people and to understand they were arriving in a country that had been at total war with the Germans for nearly three years. Above all it was vital to avoid misunderstandings and cultural misperceptions.

However, it was only when this division left the South-West and was temporarily housed in barracks on the east coast prior to embarkation, that people remarked on what in New Mexico had been so commonplace as to be unremarkeable.

For this division's shoulder-patches and distinguishing emblem was a Native American sun-wheel, a sign of good luck and safe return from journeys known by Navaho, Apaches, et c.  It was only in New York and New Jersey that it was pointed out that 25,000 men arriving in Britain with a swastika on each shoulder would probably not give the desired impression on their British hosts, who in all probability were not especially up to speed with Navaho tribal symbols and would perhaps see something different here, like an insult.  The south-western division hastily commissioned a new shoulder patch..