Austin K3

[john_g_kearney]

Would anybody care to comment please on the divisional sign worn by this Austin K3? It appears to be the 12th (Eastern) Division, but this was disbanded after Dunkirk. The photograph is not captioned, but it appears to show US infantry being disembarked from a liner so it was taken post Dunkirk. (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, 8e00065)

John.

 

[79x100]

There is nothing in Cole that matches it. It looks to me as if the darker square is very much part of the sign.

Several Indian formations used circles on square backgrounds but this looks like a square within a square.

Perhaps a local variation somewhere. Very much in the tropics I think.

[LarryH57]

I think this British truck is in North Africa some time after Operation Torch 1942, so that might help ID the Division; its not the 78th Inf. Div.

Edited March 21, 2018 by LarryH57

[john_g_kearney]

I too have been wondering if the photograph was taken in the latter part of the campaign in Tunisia.. An oddity though is that the American soldiers appear to be equipped with the M1917 helmet (see below) rather than the M1.

I wonder if the man on the right is the driver of the lorry? His sun helmet does not appear to be British. Could he be Free French, and the lorry also be allocated by the British to the French? If the badge on the lorry is French, it would explain why there is no arm of service marking.

John.