Vehicle markings, 234 Field Company RE,D-Day.

Discussion in 'Royal Engineers' started by 234RE1944, Aug 30, 2020.

  1. 234RE1944

    234RE1944 Member

    Dad was a member of the above on D-Day landing on Juno beach.
    He said the vehicles they used were identified by a white number 36 on a blue background.
    This marking is shown on the back page of the 234 Field Company book on this site (Ref http://www.tinyland.org/andy/the_circus_234 _field_company.pdf
    I would like to know if this marking was only used by 234 or did the marking apply to a larger portion of the Royal Engineers?
     
  2. Temujin

    Temujin Member

    AoS marking were assigned for each unit in Army, Corps, Divisions, Brigades. The COLOUR represented it function (Engineers, Arty, Infantry etc) and the NUMBER told you “what seniority” that unit was in the specific Corps or Division etc. In Canadian Corps, the Engineer units had the serials:

    34 Field Park Company
    35 Army Field Company (the Senior Unit)
    36 Army Field Company (the 2nd Unit)
    37 Army Field Company (the “junior” unit)

    The NUMBER 36 in this case would have told us that the 234 Field Company was the “2nd senior field company” in the CORPS it was assigned to.

    So, to answer your question, YES, their were other units that had the SAME number.....each Corps in the British and Canadian Armies would have had a “36” representing a Army Field Company......in the Case of the Canadians, their were 2 Canadian Corps so their would have been TWO units with that same marking......

    BUT, of course, each vehicle ALSO had the AoS marking of the Army, Corps, Division or Brigade that it belonged to also ON the vehicle.......so not only would the vehicle have the NO 36 on BLUE in this case, but the CORPS identifier, Division identifier or Brigade identifier on the vehicle......so you could also tell which CORPS this Engineer unit belonged to.

    I’m not sure which CORPS the 234 Field Company, RE was assigned to.

    Also, my knowledge is from CANADIAN AoS markings, which followed the British AoS marking system during the Second World War

    Hopefully that is clear, if not, post up again and we can point you to AoS marking drawings and diagrams that may help you out

    Oh, one more thing, as this was a CORPS engineer unit, the number 36 was in white, on a blue background with a “white” bar over it (the white bar represent that this unit was a CORPS unit).....so a BLUE SQUARE on the bottom, with WHITE NO 36 in the middle of the BLUE SQUARE, with a WHITE BAR OVER the BLUE SQUARE

    Hope all that makes sense

    ONE more item, their WERE units that had a number that they were the ONLY unit to carry that number. These were specialized units that usually their was only ONE of. For example, in the Canadian Army their were THREE Battalions of RCE and each had it’s own number, and they were the only units to have that specific number in the Canadian Army......
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2020
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  3. 234RE1944

    234RE1944 Member

    Hello Temujin
    Thanks very much for your very quick and detailed reply.
    Once I have taken it all in there may be more questions!
     
  4. 234 Fd Coy RE was part of 1 Corps.

    So, the white serial 36 on a cobalt blue AoS flash with a white bar above combined with the 1 Corps formation sign meant 234 Fd Coy and was unique to it.

    Michel
     
  5. It appears that Engineers added their personal touch to the Corps formation sign, by adding two blue (the colour of the Engineers) diagonal stripes to the 1 Corps sign:

    1 Corps sign:
    1 Corps.gif

    1 Corps (and other) Engineer Troops:
    Engineers.jpg

    Source: Royal engineers mainly ta cloth formation signs | Olympia Auctions

    Apparently this was the norm for shoulder badges, but I am not sure whether this applied to vehicles as well.

    Michel
     
    mark abbott likes this.
  6. Temujin

    Temujin Member

    Just a follow up......here is a diagram showing CORPS level AoS markings.....you can see the marking within the Engineer column that shows the AoS of a 36 in the blue box, with white bar over it

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2020
    mark abbott likes this.

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