| Festerfest | 06 Aug 2014 7:09 p.m. PST |
Slaving away on armor for a British force in NWE and I have hit a quandry. Would an artillery regiments Forward Observation Officer's Sherman tank carry any equivalent to the squadron identification symbol (circle square or triangle) used by the armoured regiment's vehicles? Thanks for any help. |
| carojon | 06 Aug 2014 11:27 p.m. PST |
No,the vehicles were quite separate from the "sabre" squadrons of the armoured regiments and carried their own RA unit markings and divisional markings front and back. In NWE they were usually covered in stowage so you would struggle to see them anyway. The link has a picture of the vehicle my dad was on serving with Guards Armoured in Eindhoven.
link |
| wrgmr1 | 07 Aug 2014 10:15 a.m. PST |
Very cool blog report JJ.
Great pictures of your dad. Sorry to hear he passed.
What a great looking model you built though! |
| carojon | 07 Aug 2014 3:46 p.m. PST |
Hi Thomas, thank you glad you enjoyed the read. |
| wrgmr1 | 07 Aug 2014 4:49 p.m. PST |
I should also say you've created a fitting tribute to your dad with your blog and diorama. |
| Festerfest | 07 Aug 2014 6:25 p.m. PST |
Thank You. I owe you a small debt and your father a larger one for what he accomplished as a young man. |
| Jemima Fawr | 10 Aug 2014 6:05 a.m. PST |
As Carojon says, Artillery OP tanks belonged to the Royal Artillery and were only attached to Armoured Regiments, so would only carry RA markings and not those of the Armoured Regiment. There's an excellent webpage on RA markings here: link SP Field Artillery Regiments belonging to Armoured Divisions typically had '76' as their AoS serial, on the RA's red-over-blue square. The battery markings would also be applied, as detailed in the link above. That said, the 3rd and 4th tanks in an Armoured Regiment HQ could also be used as OP tanks if required (they were fitted with additional radios) and it wasn't unknown for RA FOOs to ride in these. They would have the Armoured Regiment markings, with diamond RHQ Squadron signs. Note also that the majority of OP tanks were fuly armed with 75mm guns. It was generally only the battery commanders who had the OP tanks fitted with dummy gun. The Troop Commanders, who did most of the front line FOO work, had armed tanks. |
Marc33594  | 10 Aug 2014 8:07 a.m. PST |
Nice link Jemima, thanks. |
| christot | 12 Aug 2014 6:35 a.m. PST |
What a great blog, thanks for that. |
| Jemima Fawr | 12 Aug 2014 7:17 a.m. PST |
Agreed, we've discussed it before, but it's a great blog and a great article. Carojon, re the article; the 155th (Leics Yeo) Fd Regt had a very bad time of it in Normandy, being almost overrun by 9th SS Panthers during Operation 'Bluecoat' at a place called Maisoncelles, NE of Vire. That was when they lost most of their six lost Sherman OPs, as well as a few OP halftracks (though bagged themselves an Sdkfz 251). |
