unknown badge, help needed

[just]

Hello
do you know this badge ? what for ?
made in France by Arthus Bertrand Paris
thaks for answers
cordially
Didier

[John F.]

I can tell you that the 27th Engineer Battalion was part of the 82nd Airborne during WWII. However, I am unsure that they had a fire fighting mission

[Dave Alexander]

The 27th has a long history of being deactivated, reactivated, redesignated etc. In 1943 it was redesignated as the 209th and shipped to the Burma theater where it spent the rest of the war. The only connection to France was the fact that the 27th was attached to the French 6th Light Armored in the Iraq war. The nearest that they have come to France is when they served in Bosnia. Of course none of this means much as a French company could make badges for anyone.

[A. Bogan]

The organic engineers of the 82nd in WW2 were the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion. The badge could be for an engineer firefighting detachment or even a seperate company rather than a battalion. Or the number could simply be for firefighter (maybe a civilian Army Civil Service employee) number 27 of the fire department at someplace in France where US troops were based before Charles De Gaulle asked us to leave called "V.M.P." Versailles Military Post?

[tredhed2]

During WW 2, there were many fire fighting platoons in the US Army (includes AAF) and it appears at war's end, the FF plts had 4 digit numbers. These FF plts were assigned to the engineer branch. This is most likely a badge belonging to to a GI in a FF plt.

As stated previously, the 27 may be the badge number - after all, civilian FDs had numbered badges (as did some MPs, like numbered PD badges), and the VMP refers to the station of assignment. Since the 27 and the VMP appear to have been inscribed subequent to the manufacture of the badge, it doesn't seem likely to be for a specific, numbered engr unit.

In a 2005 article which was published in The Trading Post, it was indicated that the Army had, in addition to Army base and post FDs, engr avn FF plts, AAF base utility dets; and companies and plts assigned to FF missions.

[just]

Hello Gentlemen
thank you
cordially
Didier