PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS DIVISION

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY

FORCE - WWII

The following information comes from the follwoing link:   http://www.insigne.org/OSS-Spearhead.htm

THE SPEARHEAD INSIGNIA

The Shoulder Sleeve Insigne

Although the gold-on-black spearhead design is widely known among insignia collectors as that of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), few, it seems, judging from what one reads and hears, know its history. 

In 1943, General Donovan requested that the Army approve an insigne in the spearhead design for OSS. Anticipating that approval would be granted, General Donovan proceeded to procure, according to an OSS document dated 9 July 1943, 195 cloth shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI) and 200 metal collar devices in the proposed design. When the Joint Chiefs of Staff rejected Donovan’s request, the General was left holding insignia he could not use to represent OSS. Precisely what happened to General Donovan’s insignia is far from clear.

Evidence suggests that the bulk of the spearhead SSI, manufactured by the Middlesex Lace & Embroidery Company, were sent to the Philadelphia QM Depot, where they are reported to have been seen as late as the early ‘50s.  Judging from the number of authentic examples in private collections today, few appear to have survived.  A reasonable explanation for the fate of the SSI is that they were destroyed when the Army purged its inventory of obsolete insignia—most of the few that survived having been pilfered by Depot personnel.  

The Collar Insigne

As for the metal collar insignia—intended as a branch-of-service insigne and not as a distinctive insigne (DI)—OSS documents provide slightly more insight into their fate, slightly being the operative word. Two types of collar insignia were proposed: a version (illustrated above) for officers featuring a gold spearhead on a black enameled oval, and a version for enlisted personnel featuring a spearhead on a brass disk.  There is no evidence that the EM version was produced.  (Recently, what was purported to be an example of the EM version turned up in the UK and was offered at auction - see image.  Given the energy devoted these days to faking all sorts of insignia - no small portion of it being expended in Europe - and knowing the history of the OSS insignia, I chose not to avail myself of the opportunity to acquire this piece.)  

An OSS memorandum dated 12 April 1944 states:

“The insignia in question were received by General Donovan. In all 442 were received in a single package weighing 12 pounds. The die and forcer was not received. In a telephone call with Mr. Long of the Heraldrie Section of the OQMG... Mr. Long said the die and forcer were undoubtedly held at the Philadelphia depot or at the factory. He said we might add a footnote indicating we have not in fact received them into our possession. Recently General Donovan had the insignia forwarded to London for use by PWB there.”

What was PWB? While there existed a Psychological Warfare Branch, which was referred to as PWB, it conducted psychological warfare in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations for AFHQ and was not an OSS organization. The reference to ‘PWB’ in London probably referred to OSS's psychological warfare personnel based in England who were attached to SHAEF.  Support of this view is lent by The War Diary of OSS’s London Office of the Research & Analysis Branch, which refers to "PWB/SHAEF" and "PWD/FUSAG". 

The question of who would have the overall responsibility for conducting psychological warfare had led to in-fighting among the various organizations vying for the honor. In the ETO the record is clear: responsibility for the conduct of psychological warfare in northern Europe was given to SHAEF’s Psychological Warfare Division (PWD/SHAEF). As a result, it appears that PWD/SHAEF inherited both OSS’s psychological warfare personnel—who were attached to its various organizations—and the spearhead collar insignia. Indeed, there is clear evidence that the spearhead insigne enjoyed some degree of formal recognition by PWD/SHAEF: the design appears on the cover of PWD/SHAEF’s own history [2]. 

In spite of the appearance of the spearhead insigne on the cover of PWD/SHAEF’s own history, the status of the insigne within that organization is ill-defined. Not only is there no mention of the insigne in the text of the history, the majority of PWD veterans queried by the author report never having seen the spearhead insigne, and several offered assurances that no such insigne existed within PWD [1]. This leads one to conclude that the distribution of these insignia was restricted within PWD. The PWD/SHAEF veterans to whom the insignia were issued recall being told to be circumspect in wearing them—that they should be worn only in the course of discharging their PWD duties and not in casual situations. It is worth noting that all of the documented instances of the insignia being worn involve civilian members of OSS serving in uniform, with officer rank, with 12th Army Group’s Publicity and Psychological Warfare Detachment, which was part of PWD/SHAEF (this includes both Brewster Morgan and Saul Padover, whose photographs are included here). 

Examples of the spearhead insigne, with screw and post fastener, bearing the name of the Robbins Company of Attleboro, MA, have been circulating among collectors for decades, and there is evidence this version of the insigne was worn: the collector who acquired the collar insigne of Saul Padover  reports that it was Robbins-made. Indeed, for decades the widespread, but erroneous, belief among collectors seems to have been that the spearhead collar insignia were made for OSS only by the Robbins Company.  The author was able to unambiguously document three sets of the spearhead collar insignia to veterans of PWD/SHAEF/OSS other than Padover. These spearhead collar insignia are constructed identically, and they are characterized by clutch fasteners and an absence of manufacturer’s marks [1]. Neither of two veterans interviewed could recall exactly where or when he had acquired the insignia, but each stated that the insignia had been issued, i.e., neither had procured the insignia privately.

Some readers will have noted that the original number of collar insignia was placed at 200, while the number shipped to London was 442. Thus one may reasonably wonder whether there were two procurements; one from the Robbins Company and one from a different manufacturer. A side-by-side comparison of the version with clutch fasteners and the Robbins version reveals that, with the exception of the different fasteners and the Robbins name, they appear essentially identical: size; thickness; quality of enamel work; finish of the metal backs. That is, from the front they are nearly indistinguishable, even on close examination. While the statement of the OSS document quoted earlier: “…the die and forcer were undoubtedly held at the Philadelphia depot or at the factory,” would seem to imply that all 442 came from the same manufacturer, is it possible that they simply struck from the same die?  That is, did OSS pass the die along to another manufacturer and request a second batch after receipt of those of Robbins? Or perhaps vice versa: the Robbins version was the second? One can only speculate.

Of the 30 to 40 veterans of PWD/SHAEF interviewed in one study, only about one in ten was familiar with the spearhead collar insigne, which leads one to conclude that the insignia were not widely distributed. That being the case, it seems reasonable that the 442 insignia that General Donovan ordered sent to London would have been a supply sufficient to preclude subsequent procurements. But the fact is that there are more than two variants of this insignia in circulation.  (This does not take into consideration examples of the collar insignia that were woven.  Close examination of the photograph of Brewster Morgan leads one to conclude that he is wearing woven versions of the collar insignia.  Also illustrated here is a version in bullion that was among the military artifacts in the estate of a veteran of OSS/PWD.)

A number of these insignia can be found in collections attributed neither to OSS/PWD nor to just OSS, but rather to  the Information Control Division. What is this all about? There was an Information Control Division, but it was not part of OSS or of PWD/SHAEF. Quoting from the history of PWD/SHAEF [2]: “SHAEF was dissolved officially as of 2400 hours 13 July 1945. With the dissolution of SHAEF, the Anglo-American aspect of PWD’s operation disappeared On the British side an organization known as the Information Services Control Branch, Control Commission for Germany, came into being. On the American side, the successor to PWD was designated the Information Control Division, Hqs. U.S. Forces European Theater, and the Information Control Service, U.S. Group Control Council. ...The reader should recognize that despite these changes in designation, and despite the separation as between Britain and America, the activities of the successors to PWD continued separately in much the same paths on July 14 as they had been traversing before midnight on July 13.”

In the introduction to his history of psychological warfare operations against Germany, published in 1949, Daniel Lerner speaks of the Information Control Division in the present tense, implying that the organization was still in existence, in some form, at the time he wrote his book (after the OSS was disbanded in in October 1945) [3]. If that inference is correct, it is not unreasonable to imagine the use of the spearhead collar insigne extending well into the occupation period, a situation that would explain the existence of some of the unusual versions of the collar insigne that reside in some collections. 

Unusual versions of the spearhead insigne continue to surface. In the past two years the author has encountered a version (illustrated here) that in one instance bore on the back the name plaque of Gaunt and in another was stamped Firmin. This version, which is of jeweler quality, certainly looks nice, but in reality it is virtually impossible to ascertain the circumstances or the period of its manufacture.  The Firmin-made insigne in question was offered for sale on eBay, where it was advertised as having been worn by “OSS’s paratroopers.” Upon being told that the insigne was not worn by “OSS’s paratroopers,” the seller responded that he was simply citing what he had been told by two “experienced” dealers of militaria.  Such is the level of ignorance regarding this insigne, even among those regarded as experienced. 

Indeed, sixty years after their procurement by OSS, the history of the spearhead collar and sleeve insignia—their manufacture, use, and fate—is a puzzle from which many pieces are missing. And with each passing year, as time thins the ranks of those who wore these insignia and who have first-hand knowledge of them, the probability diminishes that we will find the missing pieces of the puzzle. In the absence of first-hand information, stories and speculation have arisen that, with time, have been embraced by many as the truth. The author hopes that the information presented here will provide collectors with the ability to discern fact from myth where these insignia are concerned. 

References

1. Hughes, Les, "Insignia of the OSS," The Trading Post, Spring 1993.

2. The Psychological Warfare Division Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force: An Account Of Its Operations in the Western European Campaign, 1944-1945, published in Bad Homberg, Germany, October 1945. (Although the spearhead insigne appears on the cover, I found no reference to it in the text.)

3. Lerner, Daniel, Sykewar, New York: George W. Stewart, Inc., 1949.

4.  Brunner, John W., OSS Weapons, Phillips Publications, 1994.