Odd combo insignia on ebay

[loupie1961]

Recently seen on offer on Ebay: Seaforth Highlanders 51st Highland Division 3rd Corps,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/seaforth-.../391842176115?

and a 4th Division 42nd Company RE epaulette slip on, complete with the 6th South African Armured Division commemorative flash. Should not the RE arm of service strip face the other way? Were not commemorative flashes usually miniaturized rather than full size?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4th-INFAN...p2047675.l2557

[Mike Jackson]

I think the first combination (51 (H) Inf Div) is less implausible if the figleaf is not III Corps, but as worn later by HQ Land Forces Greece/British Forces in Greece. But I think it unlikely that the wearer would have been left behind in Italy when the Division returned to UK and the BLA.
The second combination - 42 Fd Coy RE - is a better bet in my opinion. I believe the full-size 6 SA Armd Div was worn at that period. The only reduced size sign I can recall is that of 1 Can Inf Div - quarter-size red rectangles were awarded to several British formations/units in Italy "for services rendered". Mike

[loupie1961]

Originally Posted by Mike Jackson

I think the first combination (51 (H) Inf Div) is less implausible if the figleaf is not III Corps, but as worn later by HQ Land Forces Greece/British Forces in Greece. But I think it unlikely that the wearer would have been left behind in Italy when the Division returned to UK and the BLA.
The second combination - 42 Fd Coy RE - is a better bet in my opinion. I believe the full-size 6 SA Armd Div was worn at that period. The only reduced size sign I can recall is that of 1 Can Inf Div - quarter-size red rectangles were awarded to several British formations/units in Italy "for services rendered". Mike

thank you Mike! I was just wondering wether the coexistence of two different divisional signs on the same epaulette could not be somehow confusing...

[Postwarden]

I'm inclined to think that the first combination is a pure fantasy.

There is plenty of evidence from the immediate post-war period of units/soldiers wearing two signs, their current one and a former one but the combination of 51st Highland and III Corps or its post-war alter ego does not gel.

The 4th Infantry Division combination is fine and unusual. The orientation of the arm of service strip shows it's a right arm slip-on, the blue to the front.

The 42nd Field Squadron, Royal Engineers joined 6th South African Armoured Division in June 1944. When the division left Italy 42nd Field Company, RE joined 4th Division in Greece where the divisional HQ granted the company right to wear the 6th South African Armoured Division sign locally as a mark of distinction a practice the 42nd continued until placed in suspended animation in 1947.

When the Company was re-formed in Egypt in 1950 it requested permission to resume wearing the sign. After a long battle the Chief Engineer ruled on 5th September 1957 that it could not be worn but could be used on notice boards and signs.

Details from The Formation Sign, Issue 144, October 1986.

A 42nd Company tie with the South African sign on recently appeared on Ebay.



Jon