British Vehicle Markings - a rough guide

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by SquireBev, May 30, 2020.

  1. JDKR

    JDKR Member

    Sorry to be really nerdy but the correct abbreviation for the Royal Corps of Signals is R Signals rather than RCS. That is certainly true today but perhaps in 1945 it was RCS. Standing by to be corrected!
     
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  2. You are perfectly correct, my bad. I thought I remembered having seen the acronym RCS in some documents, but can't find where anymore, so I must have been mistaken.

    The Army List abbreviation was indeed R Signals, while the official abbreviation (to be used in reports etc.) was R Sigs.
     
  3. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

    Righto, thanks. I'll update accordingly.
     
  4. chrisgrove

    chrisgrove Senior Member

    Very useful file, Christian. Thanks for posting.
    However, I can find no complete list of the AoS numbers of the LAA Regiments of 21 AG. I can find a couple of AoS for identified regiments, more AoS for unidentfiied LAA Regiments, but no complete list. What I can say is that there was no logical sequence to the numbers allocated; if there was. the enemy would have soon worked it out and been able to identify units. That said, there might well have been more than one unit with any given AoS number. For example, each type of Division had the same numbers allocated to the unit filling the same 'slot' in the Division, so you invariably need to be able to see the division (or other sized formation) sign on the vehicle before you can identify the unit.
    Chris
     
  5. Gary Kennedy

    Gary Kennedy Member

    And one niggle from me. The Divisional Battle School Cadre, at least in 21AG, was three officers and a CQMS, none of whom are referred to as APTC personnel. I hadn't noticed till I checked Bouchery's Vol2 that he identifies the School as APTC, I can't recall though seeing anything to suggest it was. I'd be inclined to just leave the APTC off.

    Gary
     
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  6. Christian Fletcher

    Christian Fletcher Well-Known Member

    There is a status report of all units in 21 AG and I mean all! (In fact, several updated versions exist but not the complete set for NWE. Like the lists of allocated serials it was a replace and destroy document.) It's huge and effectively useless for identifying units as it doesn't show either the command structure for all of them or the AoS numbers. I'll have a look and see if I sorted the part I've transferred to file. I might be able to give you a list of LAA Regts. It would include Divisional, Corps & Army regiments plus AA Bde regiments plus LoC, Army Group and GHQ regiments plus plus.....and in most cases you'd have to find the higher formations own serial number allocation instructions to discover who had what. About a year's worth of concentrated file searching in the PRO and you'd be left with an incomplete picture even after that.
     
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  7. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

    Apologies for the lack of updates this week. I'm back at work and it's a bloody nuisance!
     
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  8. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

    Still no more updates as yet, but I have launched a blog as a more permanent home for the guides. (I'm too cheap to pay for an actual website)

    UK Tank Markings
     
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  9. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

    Finally made some progress with the North Africa bits. Thanks to some very useful tables supplied by Chris C I've been able to fill in a lot of gaps and produce four "snapshots" of the makeup of Armoured Divisions in North Africa.

    As ever there are still a few gaps, and I'm sure there'll be the odd error or two, so feedback is welcome.

    UK - Middle East - Armoured Division - 1940-01.png UK - Middle East - Armoured Division - 1941 Early-01.png UK - Middle East - Armoured Division - 1941 Late-01.png UK - Middle East - Armoured Division - 1942-01.png

    Armoured Divisions (Middle East) - Structure and Arm of Service Markings
     
  10. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

  11. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

  12. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....

    Do you think you could add the Royal Artillery recognition letters and symbols?

    Each Royal Artillery vehicle had a letter and number depending on its role. Trux included a list on this thread Field Artillery - Field Regiment
     
  13. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

    I'll see what I can do!
     
  14. Christian Fletcher

    Christian Fletcher Well-Known Member

    At Alamein only 1 Arm Div had a SP regiment - 11 RHA had 24 105mm Priests. As far as I know, no British Arm Division ever had 2 SP regiments. Later in NWE Some Infantry Divisions got 1 - the Divisions that assaulted on D-Day had 1 plus an attached one (all Sextons on the British beaches, Priests with the Canadians) but had to turn them in for towed guns. The remaining SP regiments usually served with the AGRA's or were teamed up with specific Divisions or Independent Armoured Brigades (like 86 (Anglia)(AoS 1147 Army Group Troops) with 50 Div & 147 (Essex Yeomanry) (AoS 1177 Army Group Troops) with 8 Arm Brigade.
     
  15. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the info.

    I'd actually intended to remove all references to SP/towed but these must have slipped through the net!
     
  16. Christian Fletcher

    Christian Fletcher Well-Known Member

    These might be a start - lists all LAA Batteries & Regiments in 21 Army Group allocated. Stress the allocated - there were other regiments scattered about that didn't get in the list until December 44. I don't know why. There are 5 .pdf files. I'll send them one after the other. There seem to be missing pages but there aren't in fact it's just a staff officer leaving himself spaces for updates!!
     

    Attached Files:

  17. Christian Fletcher

    Christian Fletcher Well-Known Member

     

    Attached Files:

  18. Christian Fletcher

    Christian Fletcher Well-Known Member

     

    Attached Files:

  19. SquireBev

    SquireBev Well-Known Member

    As an aside, does anyone know anything about decal printing?

    Now I've done all this design work it'd be shame to let it go to waste...

    15mm - 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade-01.png
     
  20. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Only what I've read about... I know some people who have printed, so I understand that the whites can be a problem. Also, I know a few people who would love that in 1/48. :) Although that's an awful lot of ... one single Canadian division emblem? Could be wrong there.
     

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