Military Patch
c 1939-1945
British Army cloth shoulder patch for the Second Army.

On D-Day, the British Second Army, under Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey, comprised the eastern half of the Allies’ Normandy invasion force. The shoulder patch for the Second British Army’s Headquarters was reminiscent of knighthood in medieval times. The design was intended to represent the “Great Crusade” to rid Europe of Nazi oppression, a theme Eisenhower used in his pre D-Day address to the troops.

The Second British Army included British troops, as well as Canadian, Free French, and Polish soldiers. By mid-September 1944, Dempsey’s men had liberated much of Northern France and Belgium. Throughout the campaigns in Western Europe it was part of Montgomery’s 21st Army Group. On May 5, 1945, near the close of the war in Europe, the Second British Army had forced the German surrender in Denmark, the northern half of Holland, and north-west Germany.

Cloth. L 6.0, W 4.8 cm
Eisenhower National Historic Site, EISE 15733