D-Day vehicle markings

[67burwood]

Someone on this forum will know the answer!! 
 

There are the remains of numbers painted on the front of my Matador, a colleague suggested that they might be a D-Day vehicle landing number, I’ve seen pictures of other vehicles with similar numbers but I have no idea what there for, if anyone can help please let me know. 
Every day is a learning curve 🤔

[simon king]

Perhaps too large for a Field Force Number (which can be up to 5 numbers) above coloured bars which would be used for mobilisation purposes. More likely to be a unit serial applied on a coloured (?red/blue) arm of service square. Is all the number readable?

If it is  (possibly) 74 on a red/blue square, that would indicate a Royal Artillery Field Regiment in an Armoured Division from 1944. Is there any further Divisional marking on the other side of the cab?

Edited July 29, 2021 by simon king

[67burwood]

It looks like 17418 or 17478, I will try to clean it carefully this weekend 

[10FM68]

I agree with Simon.  It looks as though the 74 and the 6 are of different sizes and, given the length of service this vehicle will have seen, that is entirely reasonable - the Arm of Service sign would have been repainted a number of times over the years.  74 on red/blue background split horizontally would certainly fit - a divisional field regiment RA both during the war and afterwards - well into the 50s, if not later.  46 would give you a post-war inf div fd regt RA while a 126 would offer up a Corps med regt or Corps CS regt from 1959 /1962 respectively.  I'm offering post-war options as they are most likely to be closest to the surface, and thus easiest to read and, of course, if the vehicle was rebuilt post-war as so many were, then it is likely that any earlier markings would be completely eradicated during the bodywork repreparation process.

[simon king]

There are no RA units with the 5 digit FFNs you quote in the list I have, and the presentation is way too large as well. FFNs were usually only about 1” lettering above the colour bars, as part of the preparation for overseas movement markings

[67burwood]

Thanks for the replies gents.

The different units marking make sense, it was overhauled in 1956 and cast in 1968 so it had a lengthy service and as you say was probably assigned to different regiments. 
unfortunately there’s no background colours left to narrow it down. 
Either way it’s still a nice piece of history.