Original Item. Only One Available. Jacob Loucks Devers was a United States Army general who commanded the 6th Army Group in the European Theater of World War II. He was involved in the development and adoption of numerous weapons, including the M4 Sherman and M26 Pershing tanks, the DUKW amphibious truck, the Bell H-13 Sioux helicopter, and the M16 rifle.

This is a lovely General Officer’s visor cap dating to the late 1950s, attributed by a provenance tag to Devers, the tag reading:

GEN. JACOB L.
DEVERS U.S.A.
OFF. GREEN BILLED
SERVICE HAT WITH
GOLD EAGLE

The visor was tailored by Berkshire DeLuxe, and has a size tag, 7⅜. There is a tag under the sweatband denoting that the garment was made under the specifications of April 25th, 1956, so this cap dates to after 1956. The Gold Eagle cap badge is in good shape and the gold tape chinstrap is held in by two Gilt eagle buttons. The visor has lovely bullion oak leaves and acorns. 

Devers retired on September 30th, 1949, but he was still active in events and organizations after his retirement:

“Devers also served briefly in 1951 as military advisor to Frank P. Graham, the United Nations mediator in the dispute between India and Pakistan over the status of Kashmir. Eisenhower, now president, had Devers represent the United States at 10th anniversary ceremonies for the invasion of Southern France in 1954, for the dedication of Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial and the Rhone American Cemetery and Memorial in France, and for that of the Sicily–Rome American Cemetery and Memorial in Italy. In 1960, as Devers was leaving Fairchild, Eisenhower asked him to replace Marshall as chairman of the American Battle Monuments Commission. He remained in that role until 1969. In May 1964, he joined a number of other retired generals, including Eaker, Clyde Eddleman and Merrill B. Twining, for Joint Exercise Desert Strike, a major military exercise.”

A great visor with a solid attribution, ready for display.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy, Devers was commissioned in the field artillery in 1909. During World War I, he was an instructor at the School of Fire at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and the November 11 armistice ended the fighting before he received orders to go to France. He traveled to France soon afterwards, where he attended the French artillery school at Treves. Between the world wars, he was a staunch advocate of mechanization when the idea of phasing out horses met strong resistance from conservative gunners.

When World War II broke out in Europe, Devers was stationed in Panama. He was promoted to major general in October 1940 and took command of the newly formed 9th Infantry Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a base whose construction he oversaw. Appointed Chief of the Armored Force in August 1941, he supervised its expansion from four armored divisions to sixteen. He was an articulate proponent of the emerging tactical doctrine of combined arms and rejected the American doctrine that held that tanks were for exploitation, not for fighting other tanks. He pressed American industry to produce more powerful engines and, often against the views of his superiors, pushed the development of the M4 Sherman, a medium tank with a 75 mm gun. Not satisfied with the Sherman, he called for still more heavily armed and -armored tanks. He wanted 250 of the new M26 Pershing tanks for Operation Overlord but was overruled.

In May 1943, Devers became European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) commander. His principal tasks were overseeing preparation of detailed plans and the buildup of men and materiel for Overlord, and supporting the Combined Bomber Offensive. He clashed with General Dwight D. Eisenhower over the diversion of ETOUSA resources to Eisenhower's North African Theater of Operations. Eisenhower succeeded him at ETOUSA in January 1944, and Devers went to the Mediterranean as Commander North African Theater of Operations, United States Army (NATOUSA), and Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater, to British General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson. Devers was involved in the organization, planning and leadership of Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France in August 1944. He led the 6th Army Group in France and Germany through the advance to the Rhine, the German counterattack in Operation Northwind, the operations to reduce the Colmar Pocket and the Western Allied invasion of Germany. After the war, he commanded the Army Ground Forces.