Help! - my left, your right????

[anon`]

No problem, glad to be of help!

And to answer the rest of your questions:

So now we have my problem ... this is the later official patch right? or at least the same orientation as the later patches....? And was designed for the left shoulder?

And this is a 'flip' of the earlier versions with the tigers head in the opposite direction?

The picture I posted is the original design. Prior to 1945, US soldiers and airmen were not authorized to wear anything on their right shoulder. All divisional patches were worn on the left. The change came in 1945 along with the "points" system for sending veterans home. Basically, under this system a lot of servicemen that had spent the entire war in one unit (read: fought and bled with) were suddenly reassigned to some random unit with a bunch of guys they'd never met before. In order to keep morale up, soldiers were granted the privilege of wearing what came to be known as a "combat patch" on their right shoulder. This could be any patch that the soldier had previously been authorized to wear, but was typically the unit he saw combat with, a sort of badge of honour and means to inform other soliders of where they'd been before.

How on earth can this be worn on the right shoulder and still face forwards in advance? It obviously can't - so are you saying that a mirror image of this exists for the purposes of the right shoulder? which would more or less look like the unofficially sanctioned versions which existed earlier for the right shoulder so other patches could be worn on the left shoulder?

You're right, it can't in the original form. I suspect that it was the institution of the "combat patch" that led to the mirror image being created, and yes, I think that the mirror image was created specifically to be worn on the right shoulder so that the tiger is facing forward on the wearer.
You can see this in modern US Army uniforms, which feature the flag on the right arm. The blue field of stars is displayed on the right side of the patch, thus:

This is the reverse of how the flag is (almost) always depicted elsewhere. Depending on whom you ask, this is either because it displays the flag "flapping the in the breeze" as the solider moves forward, or because the Flag Code dictates what when worn on the side, the star field always points to the wearer's front.

So the thing about the army changing the design is more or less a red herring - in reality this was a left shoulder patch wth something like a CBI on the right shoulder?

Yes, but as noted above, a CBI patch would only have appeared on the right shoulder during or after 1945, and only if the airman in question has served in the CBI Command earlier in the war, and had subsequently been transferred to another unit (such as the 14th AF).

 

[Speedbird]

phew .... thanks everyone!

that is the perfect well informed clear answer; all the more remarkable given how unclear and muddled my question was and how deep my confusion was.

Thanks to everyone who helped, and Dinerman especially for extrordinary patience with me - the photos and diagrams were inspired, even though they still didn't solve my problem of understanding which way the tiger was looking!

This left and right business is not as easy as one thinks! ...

Now dare I mention my dsycalculae??? ... :eusa_doh:

Only kidding ... lol

 

[Chanfan]

One other potential source of confusion - and I'm merely speculating here, it may not play in at all - is that in heraldry, sinister (left) and dexter (right) are always reversed for the observer, as they refer to how things are arranged from the point of view of the person holding a shield - so the display faces away from the bearer.

As such patches and unit insignia are not too far removed from this, one wonders if this might come in to play. Not certain that it does, mind you.

 

[Speedbird]

Heraldic language

Thanks Chanfan, I think you are on to something in what you say. I am not sure how wide spread heraldic language is used perhaps these days but I am sure it still is, and certainly was, in official descriptions and specifications:

e.g. for the very patch in question:

"Emblem: Azure, a winged Bengal tiger or with Sable and Argent markings, nose and langued gules armed White below and surmounting the lower points of a mullet of the fourth pierced of the fifth, all within an annulet and diminutive bordure Yellow."

Here is a related example:

"Azure a lightning flash palewise Or surmounted by a tiger salient to base proper, langued Gules winged Argent, all within a diminished bordure of the second. Approved for 23d Group on 24 Jan 1957 and used by 23d Wing since Jan 1964 (KE 17354). Motto: FLYING TIGERS. Approved on 10 Dec 1992."

That is basically gobbly-gook to me. I understand some of it intuitively but to understand with precision and exactitude what is being described must take years of study and descriptive practice to master.

The "sinsister" and "dexter" is very interesting - intuitively I understood those terms but I can not for the life of me think how! Certainly, your point that heraldry is described from the shield bearer's perspective ties in with what I was attempting to describe re: the tigers head being to the left or right as worn face on (i.e. on the chest).