Hey Rob,

Your grandfather arrived in theatre on the 18th of January 1944. Alright well, he definitely wasn't in Italy. The 7th U.S. Army after Sicily remained in Sicily and was under their new commander Gen. Patch. They also had elements in Corsica and Sardinia which is where of course the latter S. France Landings would be staged from. Hence why the 7th U.S. Army finds itself in Besacon, France in late 1944.

If he was in Italy he'd have been under Gen . Mark Clark and the U.S. 5th Army. It was the U.S. 5th and British 8th Armies that made the push up the boot of Italy from Sept. 1943 to May 1945.

Now, as for him coming ashore D-Day +10? YES! He was "Corp." level Field Artillery. Since they didn't have a lot of the M1 8" In. Heavy FA pieces to go around, the U.S. Army reserved them for corps level support artillery(they were only divied out by ETO HQ). If the divisional level artillery wasn't enough to do the job, they called in corps level support. Basically, its like calling in the heavy hitters.

U.S. 69th Infantry Division, U.S. 3rd Army:
Btry B, 997th FA Bn (8" How) 17 Apr 45-19 Apr 45
Btry B, 997th FA Bn (8" How) 23 Apr 45-25 Apr

Now as to how your grandfather received two different patches for serving in one unit. Now his uniform is commencerate with post WWII. There were guys wearing patches on both shoulders in mid-late 1945, before it was official to wear the patch of the unit you served in prior, to the new unit your were then assigned too. However, heres how your grandfather got the 7th U.S. Army patch you'll love this. He wasn't attached during the war as much as he was after the war.

Your grandfather had the ETO HQ patch for his service in the Corp. level field artillery. He received the U.S. 7th Army patch after the war when he didn't have enough points to be sent home he stayed for a short time in the occupation army in Germany. However, during that time the U.S. 3rd Army was inactivated from service and sent back stateside but, he was left there. Like many in the U.S. 3rd Army, a lot of those without the proper amount of points to go home were sent to the U.S. 7th Army that was left for occupation duty from 1945-1946. So, his old unit patch was moved to his right shoulder as his new U.S. 7th Army patch was placed to his left shoulder for his current unit assignment. As for the four hash marks he would have had to of stayed in the U.S. Army until 1954. If memory serves me correct I believe the 7th U.S. Army stayed in Germany, so thats probably where he stayed for the duration of this time in service but, he could have been sent to Korea!? I don't know, I'm not really up todate on the Korean conflict, you'd have to do more digging to find that out.

As for the postcard a LOT of GI's went sightseeing after the war was over and he might have simply stayed there in that particular room he circled while he was out sightseeing in Europe during mid-late1945-early 1946...

Hope this helps you out....

Regards,
MARNE

__________________

"ROCK OF THE MARNE"
Sgt. James Dunigan III
Able Co., U.S. 30th Infantry Regiment
U.S. 3rd Infantry Division(Reenacted)