The Thirteenth Corps was activated on December 7th, 1942,
on the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor with Headquarters at
Providence, Rhode Island. The Corps moved to Fort DuPont,
Delaware, in May of 1943, where it was given the mission of
training many different types of units for overseas duty.
Following additional training at the A.P. Hill Military
Reservation in Virginia, the Thirteenth embarked for the
European Theater in July of 1944 and trained at Camp Knock,
Wiltshire, England, until September 28th when it landed on
Omaha Beach in Normandy.

The shoulder patch worn by the XIII Corps was approved by the
AGO on June 7th, 1923, when the Corps was allocated to the
Organized Reserves within the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania,
and Virginia. These three states were represented by the
triangle which is red to indicate that the original white
settlers of the area were English. The four-leaf clover is
for good luck and also forms a stylized Roman numeral "X"
(for 10) which, when added to the three sides of the
triangle represents the unit's designation "13."