Naming vehicles

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by kfz, Apr 9, 2007.

  1. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

    "A" sqn had names on all tanks starting with the letter "D" as in Decisive - Defender - Diogenes - Destroyer - in fact all but Deserter !- "B" and "C" had different initials to start their names - can't think of them now though !
    Not to leave your mob out Tom, this is the entry in "British Tank Markings and Names" for 145th RAC 145th Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps (Duke of Wellington's): The letter 'D', probably chosen becase of the association with the initial letter of its former title, was used for the AFV's of this Regiment. Some, or all, of the Regimental HQ tanks are believed to have had names beginning 'Duke of...'. Various names were used by the squadrons, such as Dorothy (a Churchill of 14th Troop 'C' Squadron in Tunisia); and Deserter a German Panther tank captured in Italy. The Churchills of this regiment were doubly distinctive - not only did they have a very unusual camouflage scheme (adopted during the Tunisian campaign) but their wireless aerials were also bent backwards thereby reducing the height and making them less conspicuous in, say, a hull-down position.
    There you go, and thanks for the veterans contributions. Cheers guys.

    Bod
     
  2. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Bodston-
    Thanks for that - I now recall that the Geman Panther was named "Deserter" - how that came about was during the fight of Ernest "Smokey" Smith of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - who knocked out one Panther with a PIAT - and killed a few PG's - on the Savio River when his "Tank Buster" section was attacked by three Panthers - he knocked the first one out - hit the secind who reversed into a ditch and the crew "Deserted" - the third saw that discretion was the better part of Valour and scampered - "Smokey" was awarded the V.C. and just died in Vancouver a few years ago...the second Panther was then recovered - checked and cleaned up and presented to "A" sqdn 145th RAC the next day - 22nd October '44 near Cesena.
    My good friend Walter Pollard was the gunner of this Panther and it was in use for some time and he enjoyed clobbering the Germans with their own long barrelled special 75mm.
    Unfortunately - while refuelling one day he stepped on a schuh mine and died on the way to the CCS in agony for two hours, and is buried at Cesena Cemetery - the date - November 11th 1944 !
     
    Owen likes this.
  3. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Gerry -
    still strolling the world's stage then - where do you call home these days ? - I should have been in London for the Cavalry dinner and parade on 10th/ 11th but the doctors put the kybosh on that trip - so I shall try again for Christmas for my daughter's birthday when she will be 18 again - she says !
    All the best Gerry - ragards to the family
     
  4. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

    I've tracked down 'Divine Discontent' it appears in a series of IWM photographs of Tanks of 29th Armoured Brigade of 11th Armoured Division on exercise in the town of Rottingdean 25th June 1942.

    At the time 29th Arm. Brig. consisted of 23rd Hussars, 24th Lancers and 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry. None of whose cap badges match the one in the photgraph. So I'm still a little in the dark.
     

    Attached Files:

  5. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  6. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

    Bod could they actually be 30th Armd Bde?
    They were with 11th Armd Div until going to 79th Armd Div.
    30th Armoured Brigade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    I think that the split had already happened Owen in May 1942. All the captions that relate to these few photos all say 29th Armd Bde too. In 'Taurus Persuant, a history of 11th Armd Div' it mentions the venturing south of the 29th to Surrey, while the 30th remained at Helmsley, Yorkshire.
    What it does not explain is the make-up of the 29th Armoured Brigade Headquarters, and this is the bit I'm struggling with. These Bde. HQ Valentines plainly wear the white number 50 on a Red Square.
    51 were the 23rd Hussars, 52 were the 24th Lancers and 53 were the 2nd Fife & Forfar Yeomanry.
    So were the HQ tanks crewed by a mixture of these three regiments or were they some entirely different, unknown Regiment? and does that explain why the cap badges don't match any of the Brigade/Division Regiments. I'm puzzled.
     
    Ramiles likes this.
  7. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  8. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

  9. kfz

    kfz Very Senior Member

  10. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    [​IMG]
    Title: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, 1939-1943.
    Collection No.: 4700-39 <!-- [View Collection Summary]-->

    Description: Leading Aircraftman Shepherd of Taunton, Somerset, mans the bren-gun of a Morris Light Reconnaissance Car of No. 2788 Field Squadron, Royal Air Force Regiment, serving with the 1st Army, at 'Tally Ho Corner', Tunisia.

    Imperial War Museum Collections Online Database
     
  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    A bit of post ww2 naming, from IWM collections again.

    [​IMG]
    Title: THE KOREAN WAR 1950 - 1953
    Collection No.: 5600-01 <!-- [View Collection Summary]-->

    Description: Men of the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in Korea with a picture of the race horse Alycidon, after whom they have named their Centurion tank.
    Period: 1945 - 1975
     
  12. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Just read today that one armoured unit in NW Europe had their names beginning with "S".
    The MO asked if he could have "Syphilis" on his vehicle.
     
  13. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

    An interesting passage from 'Band of Brigands' by Christy Campbell on the genesis of tank names.
    However, in an uncharacteristic lapse in War Office starchiness, at Yvrench something remarkable happened - the 'hush-hushes' were given names.
    Who sanctioned the move is unrecorded, as is exactly why. It was at the company commander's discretion and later in the war the practice of 'naming' tanks was unsportingly suppressed. But in summer 1916 there were precedents. Artillerymen gave their big guns names, so did fighter pilots and armoured-car crews of the Royal Naval Air Service.
    The army's Motor Machine Gun Service painted the names of girlfriends ('Gert', 'Daisy', 'Queenie') on the fuel tanks of their motorcycles. Perhaps it was a nod to the 'landships' naval origins. There was a ready excuse to get out the paintbrushes. Colonel Solomon's Fauvist daubs {eccentric camouflage patterns} applied at Elvedon had, meanwhile, proved too testing fro GHQ. The Heavy Section were ordered to paint over his 'pink sunsets' in sterner blobs of brown and grey.
    Names were applied on the bows of the tanks as on warships - tokens variously of military ferociousness, suburban whimsy and lovers' keepsakes. It was the individual tank commander's prerogative, as long as they kept to the alphabet and chose nothing too vulgar. D Company went for 'Die Hard' and 'Dracula', 'Delphine', 'Daphne' and 'Dolly'. C Company emptied the drinks cabinet - 'Champagne', 'Chartreuse', 'Chablis', 'Creme de Menthe' and 'Cordon Rouge'. Lieutenant Stuart Hastie in a horrid Scots pun called his machine numbered D. 17 'Dinnaken'. Second Lieutenant William Samson inevitably dubbed his tank 'Delilah'.

    My italics.
     
  14. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I named my Land Rover (KF74AA) in Iraq Raquel after my ex wife :)
     
  15. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    My fathers Recce unit in Italy had four white scout cars for a time, which were named after the Musketeers, D'Artagnan, Porthos, Aramis and Athos.

    I seem to recollect him telling me that they had cannons mounted on them, but no idea what calibre.

    Regards

    Tom
     
  16. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    List of Tank names in US 37th Tank Battalion, Company B, 1st Platoon from Pre-D Day Portsmouth roster, transported on LCT 838.
    (with crews - Interesting site, worth a shufti) :
    Tanker Jimmie Leach; Patton's Last WWII Tank Commander Tells His Story of War and Service

    Blockbuster: Leach, Coffee, Brown, Boggs (KIA), Popovitch (KIA).
    Boilermaker: Bohn, Peskar, McVicker (KIA), Porter, Rhoads.
    Brother Toby: Marston, Cueto, Niski, Chelmecki, Martin.
    Betty Boop: Fitzpatrick, Creviston, Clark (KIA), Baay, Reynolds.
    Bock Beer: Langmeier, Hauptman, Ross (KIA), Moe, Miller.
    Brooklyn Boy: Farese (KIA), Bordner, Troxell, Parks (KIA), Ritland (KIA).
    Bulldozer: Morphew, Sandrock, Hale, Kelley (KIA), Tyler.
    Ballantine: Del Vecchio, Wenrich (KIA), Gellman, Machen, Simcik.
    Blenheim: Whiteside (KIA), Chernick (KIA), McGuire (KIA), Paulus, Ayotte.
    Berlin Bound: Grady, Litherland, Nelsen, Caisey, Fitzgerald.
    Budweiser Lewis, Checki, Grieb, Wright (KIA), Kaczmarek.
    Blondie: Heintz, Ginoli (KIA), Daly, Irish, Graham.
    Beer Barrel: Kobela, Weitzman, Simo (KIA), Levins, Yaremchuk.
    Blue Ribbon: Sowers, O'Hearn, Bradley (KIA), Drew, Cunningham.
    Beaufighter: Krassner, Gregor, Cariello, Peck (KIA), Gagliardi.
     
  17. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    From Tank Alert by Ivor D Astley RA.
    He was in 59 AT Regt 43 Wessex Div.

    page 88.

    Our vehicles had some original names; here are a few from BHQ. The battery commander's carrier was 'British Lion' ; the Jeeps "London Pride" and "Welsh Harp"; the 15-cwts "English Rose" and "Portsmouth Lil"; the 3-tonners "Barmouth" and "Nelson" and last but not least in the BHQ convoy , the fitters' truck "Scotch Mist".
     
  18. Richard Harrison

    Richard Harrison Senior Member

    I know a lot of carriers were named too, Maid Marrion, etc etc normally a cheeky name for a cheeky little AFV though :D

    [​IMG]
     
  19. Richard Harrison

    Richard Harrison Senior Member

    According to 'British tank names and Markings' the Staghounds of HQ 1st Arm. Div. were first used on it's Valentines when they were the HQ squadron of 6th Arm. Div.
    Snow White was a favourite name, her portrait also adorns the differential housing of Sherman belonging to 5th Guards Arm. Brig.

    and I thought that I remembered the Snow White and the 7 dwarves thing from another place. Here is a picture of a recce platoon of carriers from the South African Armoured Corps in Italy. From George Forty's 'British Army Handbook'. Once again Snow White and the 7 Dwarves, the Jeep is called Prince Charming.

    my pal has a Mk2 carrier named Bashfull inspired from that platoon.

    [​IMG]
     
  20. KevinT

    KevinT Senior Member

    Vehicle serial numbers were used in the casualty reports appended to the monthly war diary return.

    The longest use of serial numbers I've come across is the attachment in the wind up of 27th Lancers where every single vehicle is listed on disbandment.

    Does anyone know if this information is still available?

    Cheers
    Kevin
     

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