Recently been browsing www.britishbadgeforum.com and found some excellent examples of genuine insignia and info. Looking at RTR Assocs website which lists 'Colours of individual Regiments' under 'RTR Customs', 45 RTR is 'Black/Green with horizontal yellow stripe', 51RTR is 'Black/Grey. Both were raised from the 7th Bn Leeds Rifles (TA). Bearing in mind the traditional Rifle Brigade colours of Green and Black I note that 51 RTR wore a Green and Black 'slip on' strip on their shoulder straps under the 25th Tank Bde Black diabolo as opposed to the 'RTR designated' Black/Grey - and yet 45 RTR complied with their 'designated' Black/Green/Yellow. If 51 RTR (raised 1939) retained Rifles colours why didn't 45 RTR? - they were raised first (1938). I don't know of any other Armoured units raised from Rifle units but I'm curious. Why did RTR allocate Black/Grey? Is this a typo on the RTR website? Any definitive reasons for these minor discrepancies? - a minor point but just curious. Also noted 142 RAC (7 Bn The Suffolks) wore a Red/Yellow 'slip on' on their shoulder strap (Regimental Colours) in addition to the Yellow/Red AoS strip btw. Paddy
Plang876 The 142 RAC and 51st RTR were in 25th ATB along with NIH until Dec '44 - The 12th and 48th RTR were in 21st ATB with 145th RAC and all had different shoulder tab colours.....only ones I can recall is 48th RTR of Gold/Blue - so they were dubbed "Golden Tracks" as they seemed to be in reserve when it got noisy and the 145th RAC ( Duke of Wellingtons 8th Batt ) wore the Villa colours of Claret / Blue which was apt as my brother had signed for the Villa in '41 Cheers
Check out my post above - I refer to this list from RACs website and I note it still retains the colour scheme for 51 RTR as Black/Grey. Check out British Badge Forum and I'm now pretty sure, backed up by examples of Green and Black slip on colours worn on shoulder straps, that the RACs entry is either an oversight or typo. 51RTRs (Leeds Rifles) colours were Green and Black. Their war diary refers to the unit being identified as 'Green half and Black half when they were split in support of different units.
