WW2 Colour Patch ID
 

Hi Guys,

Is anyone able to ID this patch?

Keith - Any ideas? I'm not able to locate this in your book?

Mick

Hi Mick,

I had a good look at these when they were on ebay and came to the conclusion that the pair of these and the pair of 16 Aust Fd Regt patches were made up.

I based my conclusions on the fact that:
1. These appeared to have glue behind the blue portion. Sure sign of a modified patch.
2. The base patch is a Western Australian manufactured item - if you compare the stitching with the two colour patches (red/blue and black/red) with the colours obliquely divided, you will note the type of stitching used and the fact that the coloured shapes are joined prior to being sewn onto the grey background. In the case of the patch you have illustrated, the blue colour has been sewn on separately with an entirely different machine and thread over the top of the original stitching. The same has happened in the case of the 16 Fd Regt patches.

The two 108 A Tk Regt colour patches appear to be ok, I'm not sure about those unless I had a close look at them but initial thoughts are that they are probably NSW manufacture.

All the Western Australian patches came from a collection of militaria and native artifacts auctioned off in 1975, the patches having come from a military outfitters in WA. I was fortunate enough to have been able to go through them in 1976, there were thousands, all for units raised, serving in, or reinforced from WA and probably dating from mid to late 1943 onwards. The patch you show was not included amongst them.

The design of this patch was submitted by HQ 1 Aust Armd Div to HQ 3 Aust Corps in mid 1943 and was intended for 3 Aust Fd Regt (AIF), which joined 1 Armd Div about April 1943. At the same time the patch for HQRAA 1 Aust Armd Div that is illustrated in my book was put up for approval. HQ 3 Aust Corps forwarded the proposed designs to LHQ with a recommendation that the HQRAA patch be adopted for all RAA units of the div - LHQ categorically refused both designs, pointing out that a patch had already been approved and supplied for the div RAA. This was the blue pentagon with red diamond in the upper part of the patch.

It is highly unlikely that the patch for 16 Fd Regt in that ebay purchase was ever worn although it was originally approved - subsequent research shows that 16 Army Fd Regt wore the RAA(Field) non-divisional units patch until it was replaced by the authorised RAA 1 Armd Div patch in late 1942 at least.

The patch for HQRAA 1 Aust Armd Div was manufactured in some numbers obviously, perhaps on the strength of the HQ 3 Aust Corps recommendation but the patches for 3 and 16 Fd Regt were not manufactured in WA.

I do have the auction catalogue and the original file referring to the patches downstairs, I am on leave at the moment so I have time I will dig for them and give you the finer details.

Cheers, Keith

Thanks Keith.

A mate of mine has this. Will pass on this info to him.

Mick

RAA 1 Aust Armd Div colour patch
 

Hi Mick, as promised some pages from the file for the above. Sorry about the shade falling across it, first sunshine I've seen in two weeks but window frame interfered with desk space :)

As I pointed out in a long past post, if you turn the HQRAA 1 Aust Armd Div patch upside down it is then identical to the authorised patch for RAA units of 2 Aust Mot Div. However no unit with an origin within the latter formation served in WA - 29 and 30 A Tk Btys and 227 LAA Bty originated in 108 A Tk Regt while 228 LAA Bty was formed from pers ex-103 A Tk Regt which probably wore the RAA 1 Aust Div patch while it was with 1 and 10 Aust Divs. So no patch would have been manufactured in WA for 2 Aust Mot Div artillery units.

Keith