A34 Comet & other AFVs

I have found another early picture with the full 172 partially visible.

 

It may be, here is an enlargement.

 

Potentially but after the system used in 1940 I'm not aware of 17 being used for anything.

 

Bear in mind the 'Army Troops' bar underneath the unit serial. That makes sense in the context of Crabs and Kangaroos but Comets seem a bit OTT for command tanks or hacks.

 

Reference post #21
Looks to me like:
Royal Tank Regiment cap badges
An 'A' Squadron triangle in yellow(?)
173 in white with a white bar underneath.

 

The Officer glancing at the camera appears to have a Jerboa arm badge and other markings on the tanks and uniforms appear to be Army (21AG?, 2Army?, BAOR?)....so could be 1RTR in 22AB post War? Must be post War as they are clearly not 11th Armoured Division.

 

Thank you for the update. I think that the photograph in post 21 was taking during the war and the ones showing the Comets were taken after hostilities had ceased, possibly as late as 1946.

 

None of the Crabs, Kangeroos or Comets have unit serial numbers that I can see. Only the two earlier war time photographs show them. I think that finding out which units Patrick Gready served with will help to identify the units.

 

This officer doesn't appear to be wearing a Royal Tank Regiment cap badge. From what I can see, I wonder if he might be County of London Yeomanry. He is also wearing a cloth shoulder title, but it is too unclear to read.

I agree that he is wearing the Jerboa of the 7th Armoured Division, who by late war were indeed part of the 21st Army Group.

 

The other officer, a Second Lieutenant, is wearing two coloured stripes on his epaulette and has a different, shield shaped formation sign to the other officer. I cannot make out if it is that of the 2nd Army or that of the H.Q. 21st Army Group, but would plump for the latter if pushed.

 

I agree re the CLY. Definitely 7AD Jerboa. Could be them 'playing with their new toys in anticipation of the Berlin Victory Parade?'....or not, as the case may be

Edit:....except I've just realised (ok, courtesy of Wikipedia so might not be correct) that CLY were transferred to 4th Armoured Brigade in about August 1944 so that could be a 4AB Jerboa if it is indeed CLY.

 

The same officer is visible in the back row at the extreme left, but again the photograph is not too clear.

 

The Lieutenant (I think there's a second pip on the battalion stripes) is definitely R Tks as he's wearing the tank badge on his arm. The stripes on the epaulette are another R Tks affectation that denote the 'Battalion'.

CLY looks likely for the other officer. It's definitely a 4 Armd Bde jerboa as 7 Armd's NWE 'kangaroo' was orange on black.

 

You are right, he is clearly a Lieutenant, I should have been paying attention.

 

I'm now totally confused! The chap front row fourth from left appears to have a Fife and Forfar Yeomanry cap badge. Several other (Regimental) cap badges also present. Implies a HQ or training unit of some sort?

 

I'm quite certain (sic) that the shield shaped arm badge is early post-War BAOR....and the centre piece is a Torch rather than a Sword: if correct that means it's a BAOR Training Unit.

 

I agree, but it does illustrate the problem of precise identification of formation signs when you only have faded, out of focus photographs to work from.

 

I wonder if the photographs are of a Comet conversion course as there are indeed several different cap badges being worn. Hard to make them out as most seem to be white blobs but I would hazard a guess that there are some City of London Yeomanry amongst them.

 

If it's a conversion course I think this might have been at Belsen. As far as I'm aware during this period Belsen was for tank training, Vogelsang was for infantry cooperation, and Lommel in Belgum was for gunnery training. That said, arrangements were fairly fluid at this time.

As for Vogelsang, here's an extract from 1 RTR's regimental magazine in 1947. If anyone wants a HQ version of this photo, PM me.