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Looking at the tanks at Bovington my daughter asked what the triangles mean, also they have different colours, HELP please

 

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The colour identifies the regiment within the brigade : red for senior, then yellow, blue, and green. Independent regiments used white. The colours dont always match up, as units got moved, and it seems to be a bit haphazard.

 

The shape identifies the squadron within that:

- Diamond for HQ

- Trangle for A sqdn

- Square for B sqdn

- Circle for C sqdn

- Solid rectangle for D sqdn

 

The number inside is the troop within the squadron.

 

There's a useful book called "World war 2 Military vehicle markings" be Terence Wise, also going through the major formation markings etc. for both allies and axis.

Edited by Lauren Child
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I've seen those geometric shapes on the doors of softskin vehicles . Were these vehicles in service with similar armour squadrons ? Many years ago I was given some Morris PU 8 cwt bits , including a door skin with a faded yellow triangle on it.

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  • 5 years later...
On 7/5/2017 at 8:25 AM, goanna said:

I've seen those geometric shapes on the doors of softskin vehicles . Were these vehicles in service with similar armour squadrons ? Many years ago I was given some Morris PU 8 cwt bits , including a door skin with a faded yellow triangle on it.

Short answer, Yes. CO and 2ic had rovers (Land Rover), as did squadron leaders. SQMS A and B echelons had Land Rovers. Etc.

In 1976, in BAOR the brigade concept was dropped in favour of task forces (Alpha and Bravo in 1 Armd Div, Charlie and Delta 2 Div, Echo and Foxtrot 3 Div (from 78) and Golf and Hotel, 4 Div. The objectives were to be more flexible and improve the ratio of teeth arm headcount against logistic tail.

By definition, a task force was a composite all arms unit based on a TF HQ.

A battlegroup was ditto on a major unit (RAC or infantry) HQ.

A combat team was ditto on a squadron/ company HQ.

The idea was that armour was added to infantry formations as required and vice versa with artillery as required for the upcoming operation. Very flexible, and any of the three formations might be bigger or smaller than you might expect because of atts and dets.

15/19H were the divisional recce regiment, and wouldn't have been assigned to a junior or senior brigade anyway. A Squadron close recce Scimitar troops were permanently detached to battlegroups. B and C medium recce Scorpions provided the recce screen across the divisional frontage, but not assigned to Task Forces. We may or may not have artillery attached. We reported directly to HQ 3 Armd Div.

But there was no longer a senior and a junior brigade. From 1977, our squadron tac signs were a single spray of matt white over a template, not particularly bright because camouflage. I can't remember when/ whether by 82 we'd started painting our tac signs green on black and black on green. We had painted our bridge classification in battleship grey (from yellow).

The Task Force experiment ended after Spearpoint 80 and TF HQs reverted to brigade HQs.

TF Echo HQ and Signal Troop (colocated with 15/19H) became 33 Armd Bde HQ and Signal Squadron, as they reverted to increased manpower to do their job effectively.

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