Vehicle Markings - Armoured Divisions

Thanks Ron, I appreciate it.

Adam, Paul, Owen or Gerard, if you want to split this tangent off into another thread, 'twill be alright with me. I was hesitant about dragging it off subject, but as Miguel often mentions about the quality of thread and it's being dragged off into left field...

 

Jeff is surely making allusion to Miguel de Unamuno's* Principle of Thread Onthology, which may be roughly summarised as:

"A thread unworthy of being hijacked isn't
worth of existence in the first place."



* - him of the anti-"Viva la Muerte" speech (much better in the original Spanish (for once :p ))

Per the criterium above this must be an uncommonally good thread, to be royally highjacked the way it has been

 

Most excellent!

Thanks M Kenny and Phil - exactly what I was looking for.
Za thank you anyway for the offer; it looks like I won't need to prevail upon you.

Glad that I was correct about "53"; really pleased to learn the others, so I can differentiate. This comes in very handy indeed. Am looking through film footage/pics - my Dad swears he saw himself on tank back in a TV documentary years ago and would really like to find something for him.


Di, do you have any idea where the footage was shot ?

 

cheers MK, have you also got 4th Cdn Armd ?

ARMOURED ACORN - The Canadian Armour Website

Here you can find markings for armoured units of 4th and 5th Canadian Armoured Divisions just like some others useful informations. This is also quite good site for modelers. There are lots of good drawings of armoured vehicles during ww2 and also post war era.

ARMOURED ACORN - The Canadian Armour Website

 

Be warned - there is an error in the Fortin 7th Armd Div table.

After 29/07/44 the codes in 22 Armd Bde should be:
51 - 5 DG
52 - 1 R Tks
53 - 5 R Tks

Unit codes were properly allocated according to regiments' or battalions' positions in the 'order of precedence' - the regimental pecking order. 4 CLY, a Yeomanry regiment, were junior to the regular R Tks. They were replaced by 5 DG who, being proper cavalry, were senior to the R Tks and moved to the top of the pile.
Unit codes for infantry battalions followed the same logic based on their former 'Umpteenth of Foot' titles.

 

I often wonder about this. There was a bit of Regiment swapping and also replacement/repaired tanks could have come form another Unit. Did they really take the time to alter the markings to the standard of pre-June Britain?
4th CLY seem not to have displayed any markings in 7th AD before they were amalgamated with 3rd CLy.

 

I often wonder about this. There was a bit of Regiment swapping and also replacement/repaired tanks could have come form another Unit. Did they really take the time to alter the markings to the standard of pre-June Britain?
4th CLY seem not to have displayed any markings in 7th AD before they were amalgamated with 3rd CLy.

I'd agree No markings seems very common after D-day. I have seen markings overpainted with fresh olive drab. I suppose that no markings is better than incorrect markings. Couple that to the British and Canadian liking for piling everything including the kitchen sink onto their vehicles, markings if they are there at all, are quite often concealed.

Two shots of the same tank. A Comet of 3 RTR of 11th Armd Div, May 1945.



They appear to show painted out Divisional and Unit serials.

Edit: Hands up anyone who spotted the cuddly toy attached to the radio aerial of the Humber scout.

 

Did they really take the time to alter the markings to the standard of pre-June Britain?
The theory is confirmed by a photo in 'Press On Regardless' of a B Sqn 5 R Tks Cromwell sporting a 53 code in Germany/Holland. How often it happened in practice is another matter...

 

cheers MK, have you also got 4th Cdn Armd ?