simon king Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 In the run up to D-Day, I think I've read that Div signs and AoS signs were to be removed for security reasons. Every unit was allocated a 5-digit number as an identifier. Looking at many pictures, this seems to have been painted on the front offside and rear nearside over three coloured bars. These three bars are each separate and are not part of a standard AoS sign. Pictures showing this include the picture of a Morris Utility heading a Golden Arrow radio station convoy and the picture of airborne jeeps - with their lightweight trailers stacked on top of them - and QLs ( QLR shows this marking) on board an LST in transit as well as a number of pictures in the new Tankograd book on British Military Trucks I think this is separate from the strips required to be painted on to vehicles to indicated their preparedness for wading stage - but then again it might be linked - does anybody know more - I can't find any mention of this in the standard references. Thanks sk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Wheres the picture of the Golden Arrow convoy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon king Posted September 25, 2012 Author Share Posted September 25, 2012 Wheres the picture of the Golden Arrow convoy? centre page - Wheels and Tracks 25 or Tilly Colours page 70 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Thanks very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
79x100 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 These 'Movement Serials' date back to the beginning of the war (at least) and were certainly used by the BEF. In some cases, the serials remained unchanged from 1939 - 1944. They are obscurely referred to in a number of official documents. There were ten colours allocated, each one denoting a particular cipher (0 - 9 incl). In addition to the painting of the full movement code, for easy visual identification the last two digits (the tens and units) were displayed as three coloured bands - the colour for the tens, followed by the colour for the units and then the tens again. These colours were also applied to baggage and presumably the use of the same colour top and bottom was to allow them to be the same even if viewed upside down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon king Posted September 26, 2012 Author Share Posted September 26, 2012 Thanks for that - I read that these coloured bars were very much associated with the BEF and had fallen out of use by around 1943. They were also in a different form to the strips seen in the run up to D-Day in that they were presented in a single block made up of the 3 strips rather than the three strips being separated. So was this re-introduced in a slightly different form for D-Day?. There seems to be a consistency in placement (front o/s and rear n/s) and presentation (3 separate strips) sk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanceng156 Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 Sorry to bump this old thread, been wondering about these coded stripes for a while as wanting to finish marking up my jeep. You can see from the attached picture, to the right of the windscreen base (right of the "PNR") is these three horizontal stripes. Is there anyway of working out what the colours should be? Cheers Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanceng156 Posted September 1, 2013 Share Posted September 1, 2013 To give it is correct title it should be: Preparation for Overseas Movement Markings (or POM Markings) anyone have a list of British codes please? Cheers danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon king Posted September 4, 2013 Author Share Posted September 4, 2013 that a nice shot of one of the earliest British jeeps - it must be a script body without a jerrycan as the brackets for the 2 gallon cans - now bent and used for jerrycans - have been fitted to the angled part of the front wings. It's also another shot of a jeep towing a 10cwt GS trailer - which in itself is pretty uncommon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanceng156 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Any ideas please chaps? Three bands should be present looking at it enlarged possibly Red/Yellow/Green??? Based on comparing shades to other known items. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanceng156 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Is the code below Pioneer 636? According to: http://www.med-dept.com/pom/about.php Would mean Blue/Yellow/Blue Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
79x100 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 That US website is quite amusing. It gives the impression that it was an American invention but it seems as if they adopted the British system. I've never seen the numbers referred to as 'POM's in British documents. Are you assuming that the marking here relates to shipment by the Americans ? I have quite a lot of details relating to BEF units but that doesn't help with 11th Armoured. Would the AoS '63' indicate 3 Monmouthshire ? Was the photo taken in Belgium or later ? If the colours do relate to the movement serial then it should certainly be the same colour top and bottom. It doesn't look far off the yellow background of the formation sign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanceng156 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Hello! Thanks for your reply, 63 indicates 1st Herefordshire in the 11th Armoured. The 636 I believe is the number partly obsquired by the Sten, as 3 is yellow according to that US site. The photo was taken in Sept 44 in Holland. Cheers Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon king Posted May 8, 2014 Author Share Posted May 8, 2014 Any ideas please chaps? Three bands should be present looking at it enlarged possibly Red/Yellow/Green??? Based on comparing shades to other known items. In the run up to D_Day, Red, yellow and BLUE strips - each one about 3" X 1" were painted on vehicles to show what stage of preparedness for wading had been completed and signed off - could these strips be those?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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