504th Parachute Infantry Regiment Airborne 504 Devils Patch

The 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment picked up the name Devils in Baggy Pants on the Anzio beachhead in 1944, and the regiment still goes by it. It was activated on May 1, 1942, and assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division under Maj. Gen. Matthew Ridgway. On December 1, 1942, Ridgway relieved the first commander and gave the regiment to Col. Reuben H. Tucker. Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Holland and the Ardennes all came under Tucker. The red devil dropping under a parachute on this patch is that nickname put into thread.

The 504th jumped into Sicily on July 11, 1943, and lost 23 aircraft when friendly ground and naval gunners mistook the transports for enemy planes. It fought at Salerno that September and then held its sector of the Anzio beachhead, where the nickname was born. In Holland during Operation Market Garden, the 3rd Battalion under Maj. Julian Cook crossed the Waal River at Nijmegen on the afternoon of September 20, 1944, in flimsy British canvas boats about 19 feet long, under heavy fire in broad daylight. Of the 26 boats that started across, by the most generous count only 13 were still usable when they reached the far bank. That December the regiment fought in the Battle of the Bulge, still under Tucker and still part of the 82nd.

This one measures 3.25 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall, with a black cut edge that follows the outline of the design. AIRBORNE runs across a gold banner at the top in black letters. Below it a white canopy opens over a horned devil in a red hood and sweeping red cape, with blue wings spread to either side. A gold panel across the front of the cape reads 504 DEVILS in black. It has an iron-on backing and can be sewn on as well.

The Devils in Baggy Pants name came out of the line at Anzio, and every trooper who has served in the 504th since has carried it. The Waal crossing is the action most 504th men can tell you about first: paratroopers trained to come in from the air, paddling canvas boats across a wide river under fire in daylight. The regiment stayed with the 82nd Airborne Division after the war. Men who served in its battalions decades later wore the same devil and answered to the same name.

It fits a shadow box with an 82nd Airborne patch and your jump wings, or the vest you wear to a 504th reunion. It also makes a good gift for a son or grandson whose family jumped with the Devils. Red devil, white canopy, blue wings.