T-PATCH HISTORY

Bill Jary
T-Patch Editor

The Fighting 36th Historical Quarterly
Fall 1992

The original T-Patch was a meager mimeo, a news sheet born during the Carolina Maneuvers of 1942, to comply with VI Corps' request for a Public Relations Section. Lt. Mitchell C. Tackley was appointed PRO, James Farmer and myself were scribes, and unit correspondents were appointed throughout the division.

At Camp Edwards, security was tightened and the name "36th" could not be mentioned, but items about the men from Texas appeared in the Camp Edwards News under "Longhorn Lampoon." The T-Patch was resumed under Special Service, with Cartoonist Jack Burnett handling the stylus. These Cape Cod editions were tops in mimeo news sheets, the highlight being the Valentine 1942 edition, when PX perfume was mixed with red mimeo ink.

A ship's version of the T-Patch was published on the USS Brazil enroute to Oran, but the publication was not heard of again until a year later after the division had gone through Salerno, San Pietro, Rapido, Cassino and was bivouaced at Maddaloni. Here the T-Patch began to show signs of revival in full growth — a type-set 5 column tabloid newspaper.

Plans were put into motion by Capt. T. J. Nykiel, Ass't SSO, through negotia­tions with Lt. Col. A. B. Crowther and the division commander. In war-ravaged Italy, any publication was a precarious venture, loaded with shortages and heart­aches.

With the assistance from the 45th Division News, arrangements were finally made in Naples, only to be canceled by the 36th amphibious move to Anzio. The next opportunity to print came after the liberation of Rome. The first issue of the T-Patch rolled off the presses in Rome, June 27, 1944, after a hurried job of editing out of a brief case, just in time to be delivered to the troops who had moved back to the Salerno area.

Three editions were cranked out in Naples by commuting between Paestum and the Block House in Naples — and then, move again. This time, Southern France, the target. The PRO section headed by Capt. Dine and Jumbo Wilson stopped long enough in Frejus to get out a miniature edition, claiming "The First Yankee Rag On The Riviera." The swift movement north made publication a complicated affair. After Grenoble was cleared the Sept. 9, 1944, first anniversary edition of Salerno, was turned out in a hurry at the huge plant of Imprimerie Generale, Grenoble. But no time to linger here. Besancon had just been liberated, and the race was on. The Le Comtois in Besancon offered ideal facilities for the T-Patch.

Slow winter fighting in the Vosges made a move closer to the front impossible.

Beachhead News had taken over Epinal, and no other town near had a plant except Nancy, and the Stars and Stripes and 45th Division had it sewed up. A move to Strasbourg during Christmas was unsuccessful, and the T-Patch returned to Besancon. Editing was handled at the Rest Camp in Bains Les Bains, but publication continued in Besancon. Add to this the complications of having engravings made in Dijon, the nearest available engraving plant, 90 kilometers west.

Easter 1945 found the T-Patch in Strasbourg, under control of PRO, with Bob Seiger and John Hyman now active on the T-Patch staff, and Max Shaffer as official T-Patch photographer. On one occasion, news stories about the round-up of Nazi generals and bigwigs at the end of the war, were flown to Strasbourg via Piper Cub and made constant changes in the makeup of the front page necessary. Staff members labored all night to keep up with new captives, especially the surrender of Hermann Goering.

When Kaufbueren was occupied by the 36th, the T-Patch took over a huge plant formerly operated by the Nazi Naval Intelligence, and additional members were added to the staff, including our own linotype operator. Many changes now took place in the staff as high-point men headed for the states.

Subsequent issues were published at Geislingen, staffed partly by ex-members of the 63rd Division who filled gaps left by 36thers who had already returned home, until the division returned to the states in November 1945 for deactivation.