help again with a couple of colour patches
 

hi all
i picked these up the other day and not sure what they are.
i thought i was buying
607 (glyde) RAA New Guinea Forces 42-45
615 (glyde) Mobile Search Light NG

however the overlay is in the wrong direction according to Keiths book.
any ideas
bc

Well the lightning flash has been glued to the blue rectangle, and the patch itself has been cut off its grey background. I don't know what the back looks like but it would have been automatically consigned to my fake box on the basis of the glue alone.

There were no static searchlight batteries deployed to New Guinea, they were all mobile, and the two AASL companies RAE there were converted to mobile after they became RAA. I used to have a mobile AA battery patch on NG Force background too but that didn't find its way into my book either due to the amount of glue holding it together.

There is no reason for the left hand patch to exist, the only 5 Aust Div artillery units serving in New Guinea were HQRAA 5 Aust Div, and 4 Bty (later renumbered 3 Bty), 101 Aust A Tk Regt, and as far as the latter is concerned the normal 5 Div Arty patch was worn, scarlet to the front/top. HQRAA 5 Aust Div were a pre-war unit and would have worn the standard patch too, I doubt they had time to arrange for any fancy patches as they were serving in North Queensland at the time functioning as HQRAA Yorkforce and moved to Milne Bay in dribs and drabs in Jan/Feb 1943.

However, check that the stitching on the base patch and the inset are identical, and that no glue has been used. It might be that an individual going on leave down South, or even a reinforcement warned for movement to NG might have had a patch made to show that he had served in or was going to serve in, NG, and the tailor only had colour patch plates from the Great War era available to see what a 5 Div Arty patch looked like.

Keith

thanks keith
not the answers i expected but very interesting and something i had never thought of.
i didnt even notice the glue but now you mention it it is really obvious.
also i never thought of it having been cut off the grey backing. so thanks for that.
here is the back pic
bc