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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Tank Corps Shoulder Colours


Gareth Davies

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There is a chance that the answer to my question is a date after the Great War. If that proves to be the case I will get this thread closed/moved.

 

On 18 January 1917 the decision was made to adopt distinctive coloured shoulder strap badges in order to identify and distinguish individual Battalions of the then Heavy Branch.  The colours chosen were:  

 

A Bn    Red

B Bn    Yellow

C Bn    Green

D Bn    Light Blue

 

At some stage the 4th Bn (as D Bn became) switched to a much darker blue. Does anyone know when this happened?  

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Hi Gareth, this happened in 1920 but hopefully the mods will allow a little leeway.  An account is given in the Historical Record of the 4th Tank Battalion, a slim volume published just after the war.  It mostly reproduces the typewritten History of the 4th Tank Battalion, which forms part of the War Diary in the National Archives.  However there are a couple of additional chapters describing what happened in the immediate post-war years, and I have attached one page of this describing the change of colours.

 

Cheers, John

26 Feb-Oct 1920.jpg

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Very interesting to learn of this now obscure change in unit colours.  Thank you both for posting.

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There was a superb Tank Corps/ RTC/ RTR/ RAC special edition of The Formation Sign from the Military Heraldry Society this summer.

 

It's No. 267 July-Sept 2017. I gather back numbers can be had via militaryheraldrysociety  AT gmail   DOT com if interested.

 

Cheers,

 

GT.

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You are quite right to say that it is a superb edition GT.  And there, on page 8 of that edition is the answer to my question in the form of a photo of the board that is in the Tank Museum! 

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Thanks, must get hold of that.

 

John

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Here's the board.

IMG_2510.jpg

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