Description
Physical description
A hexagonal patch made up of six triangles, black, red, blue, grey, green and maroon.
History note
The badge.
The six segments of the badge reflect the colours of the five divisions and the armoured brigades that served in Europe. It appears to have been worn with the junction point of the black and red colours at the top. When worn in conjunction with, usually superimposed on, other formation patches this signified a volunteer for service in the Pacific theatre.
The badge comes in two sizes, the large (3") to be worn on its own as a formation patch, the small (1.5") to superimpose on other formation patches to indicate volunteers.
This particular badge is the smaller volunteer version.
Formation history.
The Canadian Army Pacific Force, also called 6th Canadian Infantry Division, was raised in Canada in June 1945. Its role was to participate in the last phase of the war against Japan when it was thought that an Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands would be necessary.
An earlier 6th Division had been formed for service in the home army during 1942 and disbanded in December 1944. Because the new 6th Division would have to operate with the Americans it adopted essentially American structures and designations. For example the constituent brigades were designated "regiments", each regiment had a "cannon company" and the artillery regiments were designated "battalions". In addition, most weapons were American in order to facilitate logistics.
The constituent infantry units maintained Canadian lineage by adopting subsidiary titles reflecting the battalions that had served in 1st Canadian Infantry Division in Europe, and were in the same groupings as in that earlier Division, as follows.
1st Regiment.
Royal Canadian
Hastings and Prince Edward
48th Highlanders
2nd Regiment.
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
Seaforth Highlanders
Loyal Edmontons
3rd Regiment.
Royal 22nd
Carleton and York
West Nova Scotia.
The Cannon Company for each Regiment was provided by the Saskatoon Light Infantry, the original support battalion for 1st Division. There were four artillery battalions, numbered 1 through 4, again reflecting the fact that 1st Division had 1st, 2nd and 3rd Field Regiments under command.
Breaking with the 1st Division pattern, the reconnaissance element was a Troop of the Royal Montreal Regiment, which had at one point been designated 32nd Reconnaissance Battalion but had ended its service in Europe as infantry in the form of 1st Army HQ Defence Company.
In addition to full divisional corps and services (ie: Engineers, Signals, Service Corps, etc.) a Corps and Army Troops slice was also included. Armoured support was to be provided at this level with 22nd Canadian Tank Battalion (Canadian Grenadier Guards), a unit that had served in 4th Armoured Division.
The constituent units of the Division began to assemble at their home stations in August 1945. The Japanese surrender in September following the dropping of the two atomic bombs obviated the need for the Division and it was formally disbanded at the beginning of November 1945.