Original U.S. WWII 212th Artillery Group Battery A Swallowtail Guidon Pennant - Heavily Flown & Worn - 20 x 24”

Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. In the United States Military, a guidon is a military standard that company/battery/troop or platoon-sized detachments carry to signify their unit designation and branch/corps affiliation or the title of the individual who carries it. A basic guidon can be rectangular, but more often has a triangular portion removed from the fly (known as "swallow-tailed").

This is a heavily worn guidon for Battery A of the 212th Artillery Group, which was constituted on 3 February 1944. Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 212th Field Artillery Group was organized and activated on 20 April 1944 at Fort Riley, KS, and was assigned to XVI Corps. The group consisted of four truck-driven 105 mm howitzers and 81 enlisted men. In July 1944, the group was assigned to XXXVI Corps. The group headquarters prepared for duty in Europe while the battalions were reassigned to the United States in November 1944.

Assigned to and controlled by XXVI Corps during the remainder of WWII, the group participated in the Central European Campaign with the 9th Infantry Division in the general vicinity of Aachen in northern Germany. On 20 April 1946, the group was inactivated in Germany. The group was reconstituted on 17 September 1958 and allotted to the Regular Army. The same order activated the group on 15 October 1958 in Germany; the 212th FA Group was then further assigned to Seventh Army, and attached to V Corps. In the fall of 1967, the group was designed to redeploy to CONUS under project REFORGER. On 9 April 1968, the group departed Germany for its new home at Fort Lewis, Washington.

The guidon has a tag for the Philadelphia Quartermaster in the header and retains its two leather tabs. Both points of the swallowtail are heavily frayed and missing much material, a sign that this was flown heavily during the war.

A wonderful piece of U.S. WWII Artillery memorabilia to a unit that saw combat in the Central European Campaign, ready to frame and display!