Hi all, This is the eBay snapshot of a set of photos I recently won. They should be in the mail now and when I get them I will be able to get better scans. There are a few pieces of information immediately visible: (1) the twin keys insignia of 2nd Division (2) an AoS of 10 (3) a vehicle number of what looks like I3 (4) daveydachs pointed out that the men are not wearing tropical kit, and one of the men appears to be wearing a pixie suit (5) the serial number of the Archer is quite late. If I match up the number with the monthly production values I think I would probably come up with a 1945 production date, but that doesn't seem to help much. (6) I don't know if anything can be made of the architecture in the building in the second photo? My first thought was "2nd division - must relate to India!" until Davey pointed out the pixie suit. I know nothing about an Arm of Service number of 10. I checked my copy of Warpaint - no dice. Wikipedia says that the division was disbanded in Malaya in 1946, but that in February 1947, 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division in Germany was redesignated 2nd Infantry Division. So now I wonder if maybe these photos are from that period. The "I3", if that's what it is, is not terribly informative except - it's an RA designation, which would mean the photo dates to no later than early 1951 (IIRC) when the RAC took over Archers.
PS the only regiment I'm aware of in Germany which had Archers was 10th Anti-Tank Regiment from 1949 on. One of Quarterly Historical Reports for 1949 does say "The GOC 2 Inf Div Major General C B CALLENDAR MC visited the Regiment on 14 February 1949 for the first time" suggesting they were in fact in 2nd Division and I've now found confirmation of that elsewhere.
Ok so I may just be talking to myself, but here is some of the documentation that helps me date these photos. Courtesy of Don Juan , these are two pages from WO 32-12357 which talk about one of the pitches made by the RAC to transfer the anti-tank role from the RA. This was part of the whole Russian heavy tank scare in which as I understand the Ministry of Supply had said (!) that it wasn't going to be possible to put a gun heavier than the 20-pounder into a turret. Why, I don't know. This led to the conclusion that self-propelled guns with heavier armament than the Centurion (in a rear limited-rotation mount at the back of the vehicle) would need to be integrated with the tanks. For the purposes of these photos though, the chart gives me a great snapshot of Archers in use in the summer of 1949. The important thing here is that 10th Anti-Tank Regiment was changing over to the Archer because their A30 Avengers were no longer runners. This gives an earliest possible date, I think, for the photos.
The latest possible date in my opinion is 1 March 1951. That is when the RAC did take over the anti-tank responsibility. It would be possible for the photos to actually be of RAC subjects except for the markings on the Archer. I'm not sure about battery vs squadron markings, but if these were from a divisional regiment RAC, the Arm of Service number should be 41 for the post-1950 period. Another piece of info, this time from Historic Steve : "Agree with early 49 that is when Major General CB Callender CB MC took command of the division, at this time the only anti-tank regiment in BAOR, have a record that in Oct 50 moved to 7th Armoured Division" We also have some bare trees in the photos - but not snow? - which suggest late fall or early spring.
Just tried to do a Google image search for BAOR barracks to see if I could match that distinctive building, but no luck. Amazingly though, I inadvertently came across the first in-service picture I have ever seen of an A30 Avenger: This presumably is from 10 ATR, although the pic is actually from the ParaData site.
What is interesting is that 10 ATR's quarterly historical reports suggest that the personnel of the regiment were a rum lot, and that picture really seems to confirm it.
Oh, it's great to see that Avenger photograph! Good idea to try searching for barracks images. I think those quarterly reports refer to "Ubique Barracks" and I'll try that. edit: it didn't work, but it did turn up this page Ubique Barracks - that seems a page worth investigating.
