"1st Airborne Recce Unit Flash" Topic

As part of my ongoing British Airborne project I have now arrived at the 1st Airborne Recce Squadron jeeps. There sems to be a question over the unit flash on the vehicles. The 'Pegasus' is straight forward but the unit '41' is variously portrayed as having a horizontal division between the colours and a diagonal one. The latter seems appropriate for recce troops but can anyone give a definitive source to answer the question?

G'day, Artilleryman. The recce tac plates were coloured green over blue, the number in white. The full range of 1st AB can be seen at link

Thanks for this. I have these charts and they seem quite clear showing the division between the colours as horizontal. However, I have also seen the division represented as diagonal. I am wondering which is accurate.

All my sources show horizontal division of the colours. What is your source for diagonal division?

"Definitive" in your question is a problem – "One interesting omission from the May 1944 file list of serials is any reference to airborne forces. In an appendix to 1 Airborne Division's war diary dated 13 March 1944 there is a list of postal addresses which also gives the serials of the units concerned. … it provides the fullest primary source list seen so far. It suggests that the serials were based on, if not entirely congruent with, those of a standard infantry division. Although the list does not give the arm of service colours there is no reason to suppose that they were in any way different from their equivalent in other formations and in the list below the probable colour has been indicated in italics …." (from page 96 of British Military Markings 1939 – 1945, Peter Hodges and Michael D Taylor, Cannon Publications, 1994, which is listed in the bibliographies of all my other sources).

The only diagonals I can in my books see for Airborne units are RASC companies, the recce is shown as horizontals. We've all got access to the same reference materials, so it would be very hard for someone to claim your recce flashes are 'wrong'.

Douglas Firbank in his memoir 'I bought a Star' actually served with 1st Airborne Recce Squadron but sadly he seemed more interesting in fighting the Germans than noting what colour the flashes on his jeep were!

Horizontal makes sense. Thanks everybody.