Help wanted with identifications

[Kieron Hill]

Cheers Beppo,

After seeing your post I did a little bit of research myself
and everything fell together with the service sheets.

15th ARMY GROUP HISTORY (U.S. Fifth Army + 8th British Army) in Italy December 1944 - May 1945. Summary: This is a reprint of the Group's operational and combat history originally printed in Austria in 1945 immediately after Germany surrendered. The 15th Army Group was the senior command for forces in Italy at the end of World War II. December 1944-May 1945: The 15th Army Group under General Clark (the Fifth U.S. Army + the 8th British Army) was deployed with Armies abreast across Italy against fortified German Armies. Unique to the 15th Army Group was the divergent national elements: Americans (white, “colored”, Japanese Nisei)+brigades from India, Canada, New Zealand, Poland, South Africans, Brazilians+Jews and Italians.

ATTACHED U.S. Army Units: 34th Infantry Division, 85th Infantry Division, 88th Infantry Division, 91st Infantry Division, 92nd Infantry Division, 1st Armored Division, 10th Mountain Infantry Division, 442nd Infantry Brigade, 8th and 66th Anti-Aircraft Brigades, Fifth Army Artillery, Fifth Army Engineers.

ATTACHED ALLIED UNITS: 6th South African Armored Division, Italian Legnano Combat Group, Brazilian Expeditionary Force 1st Infantry Division, British Eight Army, 1st Canadian Armored Brigade, Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, Italian Cremona Combat Group, Italian Friuli Combat Group, 10th Indian Infantry Division, 2 Polish Corps Artillery and 5th Kresowa Infantry Division

You see this all fell together with regimental badges and the sheets.

Thanks for all your help

cheers

Kieron

[angie999]

Some of the formations with badges on display, such as 51st (Highland) Division and XXX Corps, were not part of 8th Army in 1945, but had been in the past, for instance when 8th Army was in the Western Desert.

[Bill Alexander]

Hello. A comment regarding the Canadian formation sign in this string. The sign pictured appears to be be the vehicle sign and not the patch worn on the uniform. The formation was 1 Canadian Corps which was composed of 1 Canadian Infantry Division, 5th Canadian Armoured Division. In addition, 1 Canadian Armoured Brigade served in Sicily and Italy.
The proper uniform patch for 1 Cdn Corps was a red diamond. Some corps had the corps abbreviation or a device embroidered on the diamond. (Eg the blue zig zag for Royal Canadian Artillery.) The patch for 1 Cdn Inf Div was a red rectangle, and a maroon patch for the 5th Canadian Armoured Division. The 1st Canadian Armoured Bde wore a red diamond with a black horizontal bar. Early in the campaign the regimental designation was over-embroidered on the black bar.
Those interested in the insignia of the Canadian army can go to theCanuck website. Lots of good information on Canadian insignia on the sidebar scrolls.

[tia28uk]

I got a 7 page print out of Cap Badges of various regiments from this site
http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Regiments/CapBadges.html

[EddieSlovik]

I picked up one of these 8th Army Thanksgiving Service items at a boot sale today.

Inside was a smaller item of ephemera - from 13th Corp's Thanksgiving Service.

Front and back cover:

[EddieSlovik]

This item was printed at Trieste.

Inside:

[Ron Goldstein]

My good friend Peter Ghiringhelli has just finished a masterly simple identification aid, aptly entitled "British Army Formation Signs of World War 2".
It can be seen at :
http://www.petergh.f2s.com/flashes.html

[PeterG]

Originally Posted by BeppoSapone

13) British - 44th (Home Counties) Division - Oval design represents Kennington Oval.

Beppo
I was very interested in what you said here about the Oval.

There is very little information about flashes on the Internet, other than scattered bits mainly in Militaria dealers lists. Because of this I decided to compile a webpage of flashes (completed today) http://www.petergh.f2s.com/flashes.html

Much is still unexplained, for example, the reason for:

1. The drum of 45th Infantry Div.
2. The yellow seahorse of 27th Armoured Brigade
3. The clock of 37th Ind. Inf. Brigade, is it perhaps 7 mins past 3, i.e., 37?
4. The initials NM of 148th Inf. Brigade.
5. The tulip of 212th Ind. Inf. Brigade.

Any explanation for the flashes of 219th, 223rd, 227th. and 303rd Ind. Inf. Brigades?

Peter

[Rich Payne]

I have a copy of Howard Cole's "Formation Badges of WW2". Lt.Col Cole was a G.S.O.2 in a staff Duties branch of the War Office and the book was first published in 1946 so his memory should have been fresh !

He gives the following info:-

45th (West Country Div) "Drake's drum was appropriately chosen" as 45th was a duplicate of 43rd (Wessex) composed of SW Territorial units.

27 Armoured Bde - No information.

37 Ind. Inf Bde - Good guess Peter - 0307 hours ! The diamond background referred to service with 12th Div as part of BEF

148 Ind Inf Bde. - No information.

212 Ind Inf Bde - The tulip was originally the badge of the Lincolnshire County Division. It reflects the bulb growing in Lincolnshire.

219 Ind Inf Bde - No information (but it is a phoenix)

223 Ind Inf Bde - The three saxes of the Essex county arms as worn by Essex County Division.

227 Ind Inf Bde - No mention of this unit found.

303 Ind Inf Bde - White Hart's head taken from the Arms of the Borough of Eastbourne. The Bde had connections with the town.

Well, it's a start but the last few are always the hardest ! Well Done, by the way with your substantial piece of research !

Rich

[PeterG]

Many thanks, Rich. I've incorporated that interesting information and attributed your input (scroll to the bottom)

Peter