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Canadian Vehicle Markings

UNIT AND FORMATION MARKINGS
OF THE CANADIAN ARMY
1939 to 1954

Available in single volumes once again!

Volume 1 Edition 4: A loose leaf collection of the markings of the Canadian army during the Second World War and Korea. This includes all unit signs, formation signs, and typical numbers. Orders of battle include changes throughout the war years and Korea as well. Additionally, complete coverage of all armoured units throughout the war, generic Corps and Division (up to 1940) and complete numerical listings of the Canadian Army in May of 1942 and June of 1944 are included.
125 pages, 64 colour.

Canadian Residents: $75.00 CDN (Includes Shipping)

Rest of the World: $75.00 US (Includes Shipping)

Volume 2 Edition 1: Covers all Artillery unit and formation markings from Troop to Regiment and all the formations they supported. In addition, there are listings of specific and unique equipments. Six pages cover the complex series of troop/battery/regimental tactical signs unique to the artillery.
39 pages, 34 colour.

Canadian Residents: $25.00 CDN (Includes Shipping)

Rest of the World: $25.00 US (Includes Shipping)

Volume 3 Edition 2: Covers War Department numbers (with example serials by vehicle type), squadron and miscellaneous markings including all the tank names for the armoured units within 5th Armoured Division, as well as 65 pages containing a photograph and a colour drawing of the markings for that vehicle. As much vehicular variety as possible has been used, including soft-skins. Also added, Canadian armoured division tactical numbers from May of 1942 (you know, the huge A, B, C and Z numbers on the turret!).
80 pages, 70 colour.

Canadian Residents: $50.00 CDN (Includes Shipping)

Rest of the World: $50.00 US (Includes Shipping)

Upgrades

If you already have Vols 1 Edition 3 and Vol 3 Edition 1, the following applies:

Vol 1 Edition 4 Upgrade (30 pages, 16 colour), .

	Canadian Residents: $15.00 CDN (Includes Shipping)
	Rest of the World: $15.00 US (Includes Shipping)

Vol 3 Edition 2 upgrade (38 pages, 35 colour), $25.00

Canadian Residents: $25.00 CDN (Includes Shipping)

Rest of the World: $15.00 US (Includes Shipping)

Note: All prices are in Canadian dollars for Canadian residents and U.S. dollars for the rest of the world (this helps offset the ridiculous postage rates for anywhere further than eight feet away).

This is a unique publication unavailable anywhere else. All pages are printed on a high performance colour bubblejet printer for maximum quality and appearance. There simply is no other place from which this data can be obtained in a visual presentation.

To order, use the Paypal Shopping cart system, or send a Cheque or Money Order payable to "Barry Beldam" to:

Barry Beldam
419 Fieldstone Drive,
Kingston, ON
K7K 7E2
Canada

The following is the text portion of my book, CVM, which accompanies the coloured drawings of the Orbats of the Canadian Army. We have added sample colour patches to illustrate formation signs and unit colours. It is difficult to demonstrate the comprehensive nature of the document itself without showing a page; consequently, you get the written data and merely a sample of the content. Each colour page contains between twenty and ninety six coloured boxes bearing the numbers for each unit in the Canadian Army for the dates specified. With this guide, any unit can be identified and its markings readily made available for modelling or full-size reconstruction.

Background: I have been asked, ordered and pleaded with for the last 20 years or so to produce a work on this topic. Until the advent of the computer a cost effective method of doing so was not at hand. I now have the technology so I have finally taken an initial stab at it. This will not be the final document nor do I, for a minute, think that it is the catch-all end-all on the topic. I will continue to expand what I have and what I know about Canadian Vehicle Markings. Anyone who has further knowledge on Canadian markings is welcome to throw their bit into the pot, I am always willing to hear another point of view and augment my limited knowledge on this topic. I do, however, feel that what I have here is correct, as far as it goes, but know that it is incomplete. If you disagree with what I have here, fair ball, convince me. I encourage everyone to express an opinion, pro or con, and to tell me what else would be a worthwhile project.

Barry Beldam

The Canadian Army in WW2:

When the Canadian government declared war on Germany in September of 1939 the Canadian Army numbered less than 5000 troops. Mechanical equipment was practically non-existent as were most modern equipments. Through trial and error and a great deal of effort the army was modernized, updated and forged into an extremely efficient fighting force. As was the case in the First World War the Canadian Army quickly gained a reputation for fierce aggressive spirit and was not the most favoured foe to face on the battlefield. The Canadian Army has been quietly overlooked and ignored by friend and foe alike and has been left out of most of the histories written about the war. Even in Canada the efforts of the army have been ignored.

The fact that Canada, a country of 11 million persons, fielded an army of 630,000, all volunteers, is not trivial. Of that figure 360,000 served in the European Theatre. The fact that 75,000 Canadians were casualties and that almost 23,000 were killed is also not trivial. Canada's army fought in Italy, France, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Hong Kong. Canadians also served with the British Army everywhere it fought. One of the 5 designated beaches at Normandy was Canadian. Canada fielded 3 Infantry Divisions, 2 Armoured Divisions, 2 Independent Armoured Brigades, 2 Corps HQs and an Army HQ.

The 1st Canadian Infantry Division was formed at the outbreak of war, received elementary training and was in place in Britain by Feb of 1940. Following the Dunkirk evacuation, the 1st Division was the only fully equipped, fully manned and fully trained division in the south of England. By Christmas of 1940 the 2nd Division was on the ground in England, concurrent with the formation of the 1st Canadian Corps. By this time (Dec 1940) there were 57,000 Canadian troops in Britain.

In the autumn of 1940 the 3rd Infantry Division was being formed in the Maritimes and the 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade was brought up to strength. By June of 1941 the 1st Tank Brigade was in England and training vigorously. They had been trained in Canada on Renault FT-17s and when in England were among the first to be issued Churchill tanks. They ultimately trained with Matildas, Churchills and Rams, before being issued with Shermans. By September 1941 the 3rd Infantry Division was also in Britain. In November the 14,000 men of the 5th Armoured Division (earlier named the 1st Canadian Armoured Division) were in England, bringing the total strength of the Canadian Army in England to 125,000. The 2nd Division's artillery, at this time, were equipped with a variety of French 75mm, British 18Prs and a few 2 and 25 Pr guns. By the end of 1941 the 1st Army Tank Brigade was fully equipped with Churchill tanks, including the 'little known' 3" SP variant. 5 Armoured Division was equipped with Lees and Stuarts until the Rams came on line in Feb 1942.

1942 had seen the influx of Canadian units exceed the command abilities of a single corps, consequently it was decided to create another corps HQ (2nd Canadian Corps) and an army HQ. 1st Canadian Army HQ came into existence in April 1942 but the 2nd Canadian Corps could not be brought on line due to a lack of trained staff officers. 2 Corps was not formed until 1943. 1st Corps had been designed to command 3 infantry divisions and 2 tank brigades, 2 Corps was to command 2 armoured divisions, consequently the 4th Infantry Division (still in Canada) was redesignated and retrained as the 4th Armoured Division. Meanwhile, in Canada, the other 3 divisions, the 6th, 7th and 8th were being manned and ultimately would defend the Pacific (6th and 8th) and Atlantic (7th) coasts. By Oct 1942 the 4th Armoured Division was retrained and in-theatre.

A reorganization of British armoured divisions in 1942 directly affected Canada's army as well. Armoured divisions were reorganized with 1 armoured brigade and 1 infantry brigade rather than the 2 armoured brigades hitherto used. This change left 3 armoured regts surplus in England, consequently, General McNaughton organized the 3rd Army Tank Brigade to employ them. The government did not approve the retention of this unit, so when the 2nd Army Tank Brigade arrived overseas in June 1943 it was disbanded and the 3rd was renamed the 2nd in its place. The excess troops were allocated as a future manpower pool. Both army tank brigades became armoured brigades at this time. The Canadian Army overseas numbered 242,000 by the end of 1943.

The Dieppe raid of August 1942 is well beyond the scope of this presentation but mention must be made in the context of units committed and markings seen. Not to belittle the efforts of any of the participants, but as vehicle markings are paramount in this, the Calgary Regiment's tanks and armoured cars are what are important. 30 Churchill tanks embarked, 27 made the beaches with 3 Dingo armoured cars, so that is that.

During 1943 the Canadian Army eliminated most of the unique Canadian 'peculiarities' in its makeup, sliding firmly in line with British organization. This was mainly felt in the service support units, eg: RCASC, RCOC and what would become the RCEME. In April 1943 the government changed its hitherto fast policy of no piece-meal use of Canadian forces and decided to allow 1st Canadian Division and the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade to participate in the invasion of Sicily. These two units joined the 8th Army under General Montgomery and landed on the island of Sicily on 10 July 1943. The Canadians were positioned between the British Army on the right and the American Army on the left flank, providing a buffer, so to speak. 1st Division would go on to fight right through the Italian campaign and into North West Europe, experiencing some of the most savage and difficult fighting to be undertaken by any of the allied combatants. The division was withdrawn after 38 days of fighting, to train for the invasion of the mainland, and took no part in the US/British meeting in Messina.

1st Divisions' 3rd Brigade took the right flank for the invasion of Italy on 3 September. This right flank position would continue throughout the campaign up the Italian boot. The 2 units already in theatre were to be joined by the 5th Armoured Division and 1 Corps HQ late in 1943. Although in theatre by Nov 43, 5 Div was not prepared to fight as a division until the new year. Transport shortages had necessitated sending personnel and light weapons only and had resulted in a heavy equipment exchange with the British 7th Armoured Division (the Desert Rats), who were on their way home to prepare for the Normandy invasion. Equipment differences, fewer vehicles than establishments called for and a somewhat less than adequate state of repair resulted in heavy delays for 5 Armoured Division.

1 Cdn Corps, 1 Cdn Infantry Division, 5 Cdn Armoured Division and 1 Cdn Armoured Brigade continued to support 8th Army on the right flank of Italy until February 1945 when they moved into France to join with 2 Corps to finally reunite all the Canadian units under 1 Canadian Army command.

For the invasion of Normandy, 3rd Infantry Division and 2nd Armoured Brigade were landed on Juno beach. By 11 July 2nd Corps had taken over control of 2 and 3 Infantry Divisions and 2nd Armoured Brigade in the Caen area. On 23 July 1st Canadian Army assumed control of Canadian and some British units as they waited the American breakout to the west. In the final week of July 1944 4th Armoured Division, the last Canadian formation to reach France, relieved 3rd Infantry Division after 56 days of continuous combat. 1st Canadian Army would continue the advance to Germany along the left flank of Europe through France, Belgium and the Netherlands. During February 1945 General Crerar, commander 1st Canadian Army, had under his command 13 divisions totalling over 470,000 troops. By 15 March the 1st Corps troops had arrived from Italy and were incorporated into the 1st Canadian Army order of battle. On 5 May 1945 the Canadian Army ceased operations and on 8 May, the war was over.

Unit Colours:

Armour: There were far too many types of tanks and other armoured vehicles used by the Canadian Army during WW2 to document here, consequently I will leave that type of study to others, or myself at some later date. I will, however, touch on some of the 'strange' ones while meandering through armoured unit colours. Initially, when armoured divisions had 2 armoured brigades and only 2 motor infantry and a machine gun regt in support, unit markings copied those of the infantry brigades, senior being a red square and junior a green one. When the change in 1943 was instituted units went to green over blue and the motor infantry unit took over red, while the brigade units used green. It should be observed that there were 4 types of armoured units: armoured car regts, armoured recce regts, armoured regts and recce regts. The anomalies were the 25th Armoured Delivery Regt and the 1st Canadian Armoured Personnel Carrier regt. Each of these units used different wheeled and tracked vehicles including American, Canadian and British made scout cars (Lynx, Staghound, Humber, Fox, Otter, Daimler AC and Dingo), American, British and Canadian made tanks (Sherman, Ram, Valentine, Matilda, Churchill, Lee, Stuart, including variants of Crusader, Cromwell and Churchill). Each infantry division had a recce regt and the armoured divisions had an armoured recce regt and armoured regts. The two independent armoured brigades had 3 armoured regts. Markings for them stayed the same throughout the war, blue over brown for the 1st and red with a white bar under (usually only used by Army troops) for the 2nd. While the second had double numbers, the first had triple. Ah well.

Infantry: Within infantry divisions the three brigades used red for the senior, green for the second and brown for the junior. MG units were originally red but went to black. Within armoured divisions the motorized infantry regt adopted the colour of the brigade it supported, earlier they had been brown.

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Royal Canadian Artillery and Royal Canadian Horse Artillery: Artillery units are red over blue.

Royal Canadian Engineers: Engineers used a dark blue square.

Royal Canadian Corps of Signals: Signals units are white over blue with red numbers.

Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps: Early in the war ordnance units used black but changed to blue/red/blue vertically divided.

Royal Canadian Army Service Corps: Service corps used red/green squares divided from left upper corner to right lower, red on the right. Service Corps provided transport vehicles, bridging units, ambulance convoys, cooks, ammunition and petrol transport to all the units in the army, consequently they had companies at every level in every unit.

Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers: RCEME was formed early in 1944 at which time their colours of blue/gold/red divided horizontally were incorporated. Prior to that time their maintenance and recovery tasks were undertaken by mechanics employed with ordnance, service and engineers. They had used black squares.

Medical, Postal, Intelligence, Provost (MPs), Pay and Dental units all used black squares.

Not Covered: There were a number of things to note regarding markings. If a unit had designated support provided (such as RCASC, RCEME or Signals) the supporting unit would use the number of the supported unit on its own colours. This can be seen throughout the colour sheets. Units like the motor ambulance convoys could have detachments with several units, so don't be surprised to see several 1 MACs.

HQ defence, defence and employment platoons and ground defence platoons were usually companies detached from parent regts to guard a specific headquarters. This applied to armoured units as well as infantry, consequently there were many units who served in theatre which did not appear on the official orbat: eg; 6th Duke of Connaught's Royal Canadian Hussars, Prince Edward Island Light Horse, 7/11th Hussars and the Lorne Scots to mention a few.

White stars were used on Canadian units but there were few efforts to standardize. In Britain, early in the war, red/white/red armour stripes were used, especially on 1 Armoured Brigade vehicles, this persisted into Italy but had almost disappeared by wars end. Early in Italy some 1 Div vehicles had air recognition roundels, as was British practice.

Colours: Divisional colours: 1st Division-red, 2nd Division-Dark Blue, 3rd Division- French Grey, 4th Division- Dark Green and 5th Division- Maroon. Due to printing limitations I have not been able to accurately reproduce the French Grey required for the 3rd Division, maybe in the future. All other colours are as seen, but a word to the wise; although intended and frequently applied as dark colours, they usually faded with time. Indeed, the brown of the blue over brown of the 1st Armoured Brigade units faded to a light tan very quickly. Anyone painting models of Canadian vehicles is reminded that unlike aircraft modellers (who are individually convinced that they and they alone know the 'exact' colour of everything) armour modellers must paint with a smile and not get too warped about 'exact' colour. Basic vehicles were khaki (pronounced karky) drab which could be any one of several dozen 'exact' colours.

Numbers: There was a standard number style to be followed when painting Canadian vehicles, but it was not always followed (understatement of the decade). Individual units and individual skills usually resulted in whatever remained when the painter (not artist) was done. If in doubt, try to find a photo. Coloured squares were to be 9.5" wide and 8.5" high (but only if they fit, such as on carriers) and numbers 5" high by 2.5" wide. Numbers were to be centred on the square and evenly spaced. This would lead to the logical conclusion that the units with 3 or 4 numbers would not be able to draw them within the guidelines. Right you are, they drew them to fit the square, which was painted to fit the vehicle, ergo: the standards seldom were. Serial numbers were 3" high.

Positioning: Where do these pretty coloured doeys go on the vehicle, you ask? When standing facing either the front or the rear of the vehicle, the formation sign goes to the right and the unit sign goes on the left (although there were exceptions to this rule, as with every other rule). I plan on extending this document with some line drawings to illustrate the positions of serial numbers, squadron markings, bridge class markings etc, but that will depend on time and whether anyone really wishes the topic to be covered.

In Conclusion: There is much that I do not know, but also a good deal that I do. What I do is here. Units, such as 2nd Armoured Brigade, I am still looking for, if you can help, please do so. I would very much like to hear any suggestions on improving this product (as my good friend Steve Guthrie is want to say "anatomically impossible suggestions will be ignored") so please feel free to make comments as you see fit. Finally, yes indeed, I have heard that some armoured units were not changed to green/blue, but were red. I have seen nothing to substantiate this, but am always willing to keep looking.

It should always be borne in mind that paper changes initiated and published at headquarters were not always carried out in the field, nor were they implemented always as directed. In the case of numbers and maple leaves, stencils wore out very quickly and usually would not even do a single squadron. Improvisation was the order of the day. I have seen literally dozens of different shapes for both of these items. My maple leaves merely reflect the norm as desired by headquarters.

Sample Page
Note: the actual pages are crystal clear and colour-fast. Unfortunately, during the conversion process for presentation here, some degree of fuzziness and colour shifting has occurred.