In World War II why did some guys have spades on their helmets?

Answer 1

The Ace of Spades has been employed, on numerous occasions, in the theatre of war. In the Second World War, the soldiers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the American 101st Airborne Division were marked with the spades symbol painted on the sides of their helmets. In this capacity, it was used to represent good luck, due to its fortunate connotations in card playing. All four card suits were used for ease of identification of regiments within the airborne division following the confusion of a large scale combat airborne operation. Battalions within the regiments were denoted with tic marks or dots, marked from top clockwise; Headquarters at the twelve o'clock position, 1st Battalion at the three o'clock, et cetera.

Some twenty years later, the Ace of Spades was again used by American soldiers — this time as a psychological weapon in the Vietnam War. US troops erroneously believed that Vietnamese ancient traditions held the symbolism of the spade to mean death and ill-fortune and in a bid to scare away NLF soldiers without firefight, it was common practice to leave an Ace of Spades on the bodies of killed Vietnamese and even to litter the forested grounds and fields with the card. This custom was erroneously believed to be so effective, that the Bicycle Playing Cards company was asked to supply crates of that single card in bulk. The crates were often marked with "Bicycle Secret Weapon". [1]

The Ace of Spades, while not a symbol of superstitious fear to the VC, did help the morale of American soldiers. It was not unheard of for US soldiers and Marines to stick this card in their helmet band as a sort of anti-peace sign.

Answer 2

If you mean like the one from a deck of cards painted on the side and not an actual shovel. I know it was used in the 101st Airborne to make it easier to tell who belonged to what regiment. One used spades, another used clubs, etc, etc.

Answer 3

it was to distiguish a certain unit of the 101st airborne, most likely Easy company

Answer 4

for digging foxholes and trenches to hide from the ememy

Answer 5

For digging trenches and latrines

Answer 6

Trench digging for cover ~~

Answer 7

cause they wanted to

Answer 8

~Puerto Ricans weren't available.