The Twelfth Corps was activated on August 29th, 1942,
with Headquarters at Columbia, South Carolina, and had one
change of station before participating in the 1944 Tennessee
maneuvers. The Corps embarked for the European Theater in April
of 1944 and landed on Utah Beach in Normandy on July 27th.

Following occupation duty in southern Germany along the
Czech border, the XII was inactivated on December 15th, 1945,
at Regensburg after having fought through four campaigns
and earning the nickname "Spearhead of Patton's Third Army."

The shoulder patch worn by the XII Corps was approved by the
AGO on October 26th, 1923, when the Corps was allocated to the
Organized Reserves in the New York-New Jersey area. The orange
and blue colors suggest the House of Nassau which provided the
original settlements in the area, and the Dutch windmill is
from the original seal of the City of New Amsterdam the original
name for the Dutch settlement which later became New York City.