67burwood Posted July 29, 2021 Share Posted July 29, 2021 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 🤔 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon king Posted July 29, 2021 Share Posted July 29, 2021 (edited) 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 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
67burwood Posted July 29, 2021 Author Share Posted July 29, 2021 It looks like 17418 or 17478, I will try to clean it carefully this weekend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10FM68 Posted July 29, 2021 Share Posted July 29, 2021 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon king Posted July 29, 2021 Share Posted July 29, 2021 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 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
67burwood Posted July 30, 2021 Author Share Posted July 30, 2021 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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