laboisselle Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 I am trying to fathom what the unit markings would have been for vehicles of the 1st and the 6th Battalions, respectively, of the Royal West Kent Regiment during the Italy campaign. The Divisional emblem is the easy bit - circle quadrant (4th Inf Div) for the 1st and battleaxe (78th Inf Div) for the 6th. But what would their individual battalion unit numbers have been and presented in what format? Can anyone advise please? It's unfamiliar territory for me and I am a bit in the dark on how the system worked. Many thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryH57 Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 (edited) Firstly the 1st Bn RWK in the 4th Division; my records state they were the third (Junior) Battalion (Bn) in 12th Infantry Brigade, and the 12th Infantry Brigade was the third Brigade in seniority in the 4th Division when in Italy. So in addition to the 4th Div red circle sign the 1st Bn RWK would have for example their Carriers marked with a White 69 on a Brown square. 6th Bn RWK was the Senior Bn in the 36th Infantry Brigade (which was also by chance the third Brigade in seniority in the 78th Div). So that means a 6th Bn RWK Carrier would carry in addition to the Battleaxe Div sign a White 67 on a Brown square. This is according to 15th Army Group instructions from July 1943 and a quick check shows this is the same number and colour combination as for British Infantry Divisions in NW Europe on D-Day. Obviously in each Division there were many other Corps & Supporting units with their own arm of service markings, and some of these such as Signals or REME may have worked closely with each RWK Bn. As you can imagine working out seniority can be a bit of a nightmare especially as Bns came and went! I hope this helps Larry Edited August 26, 2016 by LarryH57 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laboisselle Posted August 26, 2016 Author Share Posted August 26, 2016 As you can imagine working out seniority can be a bit of a nightmare especially as Bns came and went! I hope this helps Larry Thank you sir - it certainly does! It was the seniority malarkey that I was finding hard to fathom, tbh. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisgrove Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 (edited) My records indicate that 11 Infantry Brigade left 4 Div in Jun 1942 so that 12 Inf Bde was the second senior Brigade of the 4th Division for the Italian and Greek campaigns. This conclusion is reinforced by the fact that the Royal West Kents have had (and still have, as far as I know)a club for members of 1RWK from the Italian campaign which is known as the 62 Club. When I asked why, I was advised that 1 RWK carried the AoS number 62 throughout the Italian campaign. That would suggest to me that their vehicles were marked with a white 62 on a green square, indicating the junior unit in the second senior brigade in the division (as well as the 4 Div sign, of course). My references also suggest that 1 Infantry Brigade (Guards) left 78 Infantry Division in March 1943 so that 36 Infantry Brigade was the second senior Brigade of 78 Div. I am also confused with the suggestion that 6RWK were the senior unit in the brigade, when, as far as I can see, 5 Buffs ought to be the senior. If I was going to mark up a vehicle of 6RWK (as I might very well do one day), I would give it a white 61 on a green square. You do not ask for details of 5RWK who were the senior unit (the only British Battalion) in 21 Indian Infantry brigade, the junior Brigade of 8 Indian Infantry Division. However, they ought to be showing white 69 on a brown square as well as the three yellow clover leaves (with stem) on a dark red background of 8 Indian Div. Hope this helps. Chris (not quite ex-RWK as they amalgamated just before I was commissioned) Edited August 27, 2016 by chrisgrove Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laboisselle Posted August 28, 2016 Author Share Posted August 28, 2016 Hope this helps. Chris (not quite ex-RWK as they amalgamated just before I was commissioned) Very interesting and thank you for taking the time to add your thoughts. Now I'm in a bit of a quandary! I'm looking at RWK as it's our 'local' regt so of a bit more interest to Joe public, around here. Was also thinking about a Polish unit from Italy or Normandy, as I have some connections. I was fortunate enough to have an ex-RWK Western Desert and Italy veteran as a next door neighbour for about a decade. He was always very complimentary about the Teds (Germans) - not a good thing to say about the Eyeties!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryH57 Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Chris is right - on both counts about the Brigades that left! So 1st RWK in 4th Div would have had 62 on a Green Square As for 78th Div and the 6th RWK in Italy a quick re-appraisal agrees with Chris that 36th Brigade was second in seniority which means a green square. But every reference I have suggests 6th RWK were the senior Bn in the Brigade (and not the 5th Buffs) so that means 60 on a green square not 61. Mad as it seems, in 1980 I was so interested in the Italian Campaign that I bought circa 220 photos from IWM which I still have so I'll find one of either the 6th RWK or the 5th Buffs to see which number is correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryH57 Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 (edited) Sadly for the foot soldiers of the 6th RWK every photo I have found shows them ...er on foot! I guess if they added up all the miles they would have found they had marched much of the length of Italy in nearly 2 years of the campaign. Edited August 28, 2016 by LarryH57 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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