Also called a "unit crest" or a DUI, the Distinctive Unit Insignia of the 333rd Field Artillery Regiment was originally approved on 28 November 1972, but it saw several redesignations over a relatively short time span. On 10 November 1943, it was redesignated for the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion, then on 4 March 1947 it was redesignated for the 446th Field Artillery Battalion. A change in Army organization of branches led to its redesignation for the 333rd Artillery Regiment on 26 May 1960, and it was redesignated for the final time, for the 333rd Field Artillery Regiment, on 1 September 1971.
Distinctive Unit Insignias are worn by all Soldiers (except General Officers) in units that have been authorized to be issued the device. It is worn centered on the shoulder loops of the Army Green Service Uniform (AGSU) and the blue Army Service Uniform (ASU, Enlisted only) with the base of the insignia toward the outside shoulder seam. DUIs are not worn on the Dress variations of either uniform, however.
Full guidance on wear of the DUI is found in DA Pamphlet 670-1,
Section 21-22, "Distinctive unit insignia."♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
While the Regiment also earned a Valorous Unit Award for its service in all three campaigns of the Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991, it was a noble and heroic sacrifice made by some of its personnel during World War II that ensured its place in Army history.
A Battalion made up entirely of African-Americans at a time when the Army was still segregated, the 333rd had provided Artillery support for American forces from July until early October, when it was assigned to provide support for the green 106th Infantry Division stationed near the small town of Schönberg in the Ardennes—the precise area where the German launched “Watch On The Rhine,” now known as the Battle of the Bulge.
Like many other non-Infantry units, many of the Artillerists of the 333rd picked up rifles and fought alongside the men of the 106th Infantry Division in addition to the manning their 155mm Howitzers. But overwhelming numbers of Germans made retreat inevitable, and batteries of both the 333rd and 969th Field Artillery Battalions began to pull back to avoid being overrun—but then stopped and held their ground at the request of the 106th ID Commander. Their Artillery support enabled some Americans to escape, but eventually the Germans overran their positions.
But eleven men of the 333rd FA Battalion managed to elude the Germans and were taken in by a local civilian in the town of Wereth who provided them shelter—until a neighbor sympathetic to Nazi ideology reported their presence to the 1st SS
Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Panzer Division. Viewing their captives as sub-humans because of their race, the Germans took the Americans into the forest, brutally tortured them, and eventually killed them.
Sadly, reports of the massacre of the “Wereth Eleven” went ignored by Army agents who were assigned to investigate the famous massacre at Malmedy—also carried out by the 1st SS
Leibstandarte—which occurred on the same day, 17 December 1944. But in 1994, members of the family who had attempted to shelter the Americans erected a memorial in their honor, and a decade later expanded it. But it was not until 2017 that Congress passed a resolution that officially recognized the bravery and sacrifice of these Soldiers who were fighting not only for their own country, but also to free those who had fallen under the brutal tyranny of the Nazi regime.