My OTHER grandfather was in the Army. 33rd Med Tank Bn. I have identified everything on his uniforms except this. Here is the image: Thanks in advance, you guys ROCK.
That is a shoulder patch for the 71st Infantry Division. BTW, are you sure it was the 33rd Medium Tank Battalion and not the 33rd Armored Regiment. There was no 33rd Medium Tank Battalion that I can find.
3rd or 33rd Armored Battalion? I'm not sure which you mean, as you have given both. 33rd Armored Division? There was no 33rd Armored Division in the US Army. Armored divisions were only numbered to 20 (skipping 17, 18 & 19), and the 20th saw very little action very late in the war.
Here's a link to a pretty good website on the 33rd Armored Regiment. Home Page And here's another article you might enjoy 3AD WWII Tank Aces - by Haynes W. Dugan Interestingly, I don't find the 33rd attached to the 71st Infantry (71st INFANTRY DIVISION), but I did find elements attached to the 26th ID (Units of the WWII 26th Infantry Division)
Best I can figure, the 71st ID and the 3rd AD never crossed paths, or if they did, it was a quick howdy-do. They both were in the 1st & 3rd Armies together for very short period of times, but were never in the same corps. The likelihood of them having much interaction is slim. I would need to look to see if the corps they each were in shared a boundary. If they did and the divisions were on the common corps boundary, it is possible they may have interacted minimally, but I would not bet the farm on it.