Coloured Smoke - Its use?

Hello,

Looking to see if there is any set regulation for coloured smoke -

Its designation/meaning by color.

I am aware that Yellow was used for friendly troop recognition and red was used for target identification for aircraft. This comes from accounts of various units. Also the use of blue, yellow, purple to mark rally points.

Is there a manual, and or regulation that dictates what color is used for what, or was it left to the unit to determine what color will be used and put it out in an OP ORD?

Very Respectfully
Chris

 

What is your interest in the subject?

Annex LR 3 to the 2nd Army War diary for June 1944 has a report from XXX Corps dated 16 June in response to a questionnaire about various aspects of the campaign too date. On Air Co-operation the report says that coloured smoke from 25 pounders has been very successfully used to indicate targets for aircraft. However, "it will not be long before the enemy realizes the methods used and when he is shelled with red smoke he will fire it back at our own troops. It will therefore be necessary for Army to make a definite plan for the use of coloured smoke so that colours are changed as required." I do not know if that happened, but I suspect that the formation making the plan wopuld specify the colour of smoke to be used and that should have been in the orders. .

The RAF was not always consistent. Even though Yellow smoke was widely regarded as the marker colour for own troops, in one of the big friendly fire incidents in August (Op Totalize? Op Tractable?) the RAF were using yellow markers as target indicators, with predictable results....

 

(What is your interest in the subject?...)

Thanks for the info. I had not heard of the use of yellow to mark a target. Do you have a source for that?

My interest stems from a friend that had a question in its use. Knowing there were coloured smoke in production down to hand grenades. We began looking into was there a set designation.

I have looked in a few manuals and it just says it can be used to signal. Looking at accounts in the far east, when yellow was used by Japanese some mistook it for mustard gas and ran, which could imply the lack of use of yellow smoke by British forces.


So it is more a deep dive down the rabbit hole. ' What is the answer or most probable answer through documentation. '

Chris

 

It was the Eighth US Air Force USAAF which were using yellow smoke as target markers. .
Operation Totalize, 8-11 August 1944

 

Does anyone have Operation Orders that dictate colour of smoke to be used for xyz purpose? I know the Varsity OP Order dictated Red for target marking for aircraft. The number of accounts regarding yellow smoke to mark friendly troops had to of originated by an order of some kind.

Chris

 

23rd Cdn Field Regiment (SP) RCA, War Dairies

Verrieres
August 8th 1944

Towards noon the regiment finally got deployed near Verrieres right in the middle of what seemed the main tank paths for the armoured attack. Red smoke markers were fired for the USAAF, part of whose planes made one of the tragic mistakes of the war and bombed or own lines and rear areas, inflicting substantial casualties. Sgt R. A. Matson of the LAD lost his life in this bombing. It was also learned that Pte. Bob Audette who had been driving a scout car for the infantry on the night attack had also been killed.

Link to above on this site
23rd Field Regiment ( SP ) RCA

 

Some info from war diaries of 12th Cdn Field Regiment, showing use of RED SMOKE to support medium bombers and Typhoon aircraft






Planned RED SMOKE use for OPERATION UNDERGO

 

Backing up Sheldrake. As with flares and air recognition panels, the colour of smoke for each role was set in Operation Orders. This was to avoid enemy reacting to confuse the situation. I am aware some units tended towards standard colours, to avoid confusion, however these were not intended to be open ended. This is where the Intelligence Officer's earn their keep.
It is easy to see how people at the end of long orders chains might get confused - e.g. Aircrew. Especially if yesterday they were bombing red and avoiding yellow, today bombing yellow ...