British Vehicle Markings - a rough guide

Not really, because the Unit Serial Number alone is meaningless. Only when associated with the Arm of Service flash does it designate a type of unit, but not the individual unit, which can only be identified when the Formation Sign and the applicable Order of Battle are known.

The only single number which may unequivocally identify a unit is its unique Mobilisation Serial Number (e.g. 1126 for 13/18 H).

Additonally, "Tactical Signs" refer to the signs used to identify vehicles within a unit (e.g. Squadron, Troop etc.) and not to those used to identify the unit itself.

Michel

 

Slightly off-track with this one!
Colonel Cole's "Formation badges" p.124 - 16th Armoured Brigade apparently served in North Africa & Italy. I don't think so!

Arm badge shown dark blue diablos on a yellow disc with a red devil behind the diablos. Is this actually 25th Army Tank Brigade (before conversion the 25 Armoured Engineer Brigade and a new formation sign)? I did quick search but only found 25 AEB's badge with black diablos.
chris

 

Christian,

The Formation Badge you describe is given as "adopted in Italy in mid-summer 1944" by 21st Army Tank Brigade. See:
British Formation Signs
which also discusses Cole's assertion.

Michel

 

Michel. Thanks for that! I like that site you directed me to, as well. Not one I've seen before. Much good information to absorb.

It's good, living in the land of Oz - but difficult if you want to drop into the PRO or Bovington! Only 19 hours by air and then some.
chris

 

I'm not dead, honest!

Another timeline - this time covering the armoured regiments and motor battalions of armoured divisions in NW Europe and Italy.
Pieced together from various sources but mostly from the excellent OOB documents to be found here: Documents - British Military History

Comments, feedback, corrections, etc all welcome, as ever. I acknowledge that my information on the South African and Polish divisions may be a bit shaky, so I'd particularly welcome any feedback on these units in particular.

Edit: I also realise I haven't accounted for changes in seniority when regiments moved between divisions. I'll attempt to update accordingly.

Europe - Armoured Divisions

 

There is a lovely series ( in Polish) - Od "Acromy" do "Zwyciezcy" - in 10 vols that cover almost all the units of the Polish Army in the West. I have all but vol.9 - which I think gives the last composition of 1 Polish Armoured Division. I have vol 8 which gives the Division's composition from 24/9/42 but I think there were a few changes going by your time-line! I've attached a pdf of the table for your interest!

 

Interesting! A chap on another forum has sent a me a pdf containing very similar table, showing the composition from November 1943. It could well be from vol. 9!

See attached.

 

Great! First time I've seen anything from vol 9 - see page number! Great stuff! Can you tell me the forum this originated From, please?

 

Certainly - https://www.britmodeller.com/forums...kings-a-guide/&do=findComment&comment=3825515

 

Minor update - seniority in 7th Armd Div and the recce regiment in 1st Armd div:

 

Of possible interest: MMP books have issued a reprint of Dick Taylor's Warpaint Vol. 1, with the remaining volumes to follow over the next few months.

MMP Books » Książki

 

Wow, that's great news for anyone who doesn't have them. I did not think it would happen!

 

Perhaps they've been keeping an eye on this thread and the others I've started elsewhere and realised there's a demand?

 

Well, it's a fairly well known but hard-to-get set of books. When I started modelling a few years ago I was JUST able to get three of the books cheaply and only managed to get a used copy of #2 at a somewhat reasonable price later. Now apparently I can't even find copies for sale on abebooks but for a time they would be listed but for vastly inflated prices. So it's not just you who would like a copy

 

Added Commonwealth Infantry division insignia. I'm afraid I'm still being rather neglectful of the CBI/Far East/Pacific theatre - I will get around to it eventually, honest!



Divisional Insignia - Infantry Formations

 

Bit of a shameless plug, but I've started a Twitter account to run alongside the website: https://twitter.com/squire_bev

I thought it'd be useful to have one central place to post updates, and I'll also be posting brief histories of particular units and formations, along with snapshots of their structure and markings.

 

Extremely late to the party, but here is the source for the AoS 171 found on the colour image of the map case. It is indeed the number of the HQ for 3 Cdn Army Tank Brigade, date March '43:



regards,
Jack

 

I aten't dead!

After a long hiatus I've managed to pull my finger out and write a separate page for Royal Artillery tactical markings:

Royal Artillery Tactical Signs

Comments, corrections, feedback etc all welcome!

 

Neat!

The problem with gunners is that a lot of them like doing their thing. You might need to quote/show examples. For instance, most battery commanders X on the appropriate battery flash - I've never seen a Z1!. Likewise the 3rd gun in the 3rd troop would be CC of C Troop with appropriate battery flash. In a LAA Regt there would normally be a towed bofors with 3C as the 3rd gun in the 3rd troop - but with the 1st battery flash (3 troops to a battery). For that matter, some regiments used a different colour entirely - 102 Anti-tank Regt used an azure/light-ish blue colour on their battery flashes. I understand some horse gunners used different letters entirely but I don't have photo proof of that!

Keep it up!

 

Whoops, well spotted!