"Churchill Crocodile" Topic

I know crocs are assigned to the 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers (79th Armoured Division) and in Italy to the 21st & 25th Tank Brigades, late transformed into 25th Assault Engineer Brigade.

You can tell me which mark were using.
and if would be possible, omitting some signs, use for both scenarios.

thank you very much

All Crocs were based on the Churchill Mk VII, so fine for both fronts. Indeed, once the usefulness of the Crocodile was demonstrated in combat, all late-production Mk VIIs were manufactured with all the necessary fittings (trailer attachment point, fuel hoses, etc) in place for easy conversion to Crocodiles and Mk VIIs were then prioritised to Crocodile units – other units received very few.

However, 1st Assault Bde RE never received any Crocodiles. In NW Europe, all Crocs belonged initially to 144th RAC, which was part of the independent 31st Tank Bde and was not part of 79th Armoured Division until well after Normandy. That said, 144th RAC was virtually an independent regiment in its own right and elements of the regiment were often attched to a variety of units, in the same manner as AVREs from 1st Assault Bde RE.

Some time after Normandy, 31st Tank Brigade was absorbed into 79th Armoured Division as a dedicated Crocodile Brigade and by the winter of 1944/45 there were three Crocodile regiments in the brigade – 7 RTR, 1st Fife & Forfar Yeomanry and 144 RAC.

so this may be correct:

link

thus as regards the decals this product does not go well,
because there is no number 993!

link

have any suggestion?

Besides Battlefront and Gaming Models, who else makes the Crocodile in 15mm?

Sorry, I meant 141st RAC, not 144th RAC (who were a Sherman regiment in 33rd Armoured Bde)… Numerical dyslexia…

Yes, the North Irish Horse site is absolutely correct.

I paint markings, so am not really up to speed on who does decals. However, I do know that Dom of Dom's Decals doesn't do them either.

You could just use the 992 markings and use them as the post-Normandy 1st Fife & Forfar Yeomanry? 992 belonged to 9th RTR (a standard Churchill regiment) in Normandy, but the serial was transferred to 1st F&FY when they replaced 9 RTR in 31st Tank Bde (9 RTR transferred to 34th Tank Bde).

Note that after their transfer to 79th Armoured Division, the Crocs often carried both the 31st Tank Brigade's 'Green Diablo' sign AND the 79th Armoured Division's bull's head.

Squadron signs for 141st RAC would have been blue. Those of 1st F&F Yeo would have been yellow.

I'd imagine Skytrex and probably QRF make them in 15mm John.

Skytrex do a Croc. QRF do a Mk VII, but not the Croc trailer.