Post-1945 RCA Titles

[Phillip Herring]

Under appreciated and in some cases, extremely scarce.

[Bill A]

Quite right Phil. Some of these are extremely scarce and seldom seen. And a collector must be careful as there are some examples that have been "created" for the market.
The RCA was required to change their order of battle several times between 1946 and now, creating new titles and making others obsolete. It is an under-appreciated and under-collected area.

[Phillip Herring]

Originally Posted by Bill A

Quite right Phil. Some of these are extremely scarce and seldom seen. And a collector must be careful as there are some examples that have been "created" for the market.
The RCA was required to change their order of battle several times between 1946 and now, creating new titles and making others obsolete. It is an under-appreciated and under-collected area.

I ended up with some through an Ontario auctioneer that had been picked and hand embroidered into "more desirable" titles.

[fairlie63]

Originally Posted by Phillip Herring

Under appreciated and in some cases, extremely scarce.

Yes, you have a few there that would look good in my collection Phil. The CA, A TK, LAA and HAA all seem to be difficult to come by, particularly in Australia.

I have seen 2 A TK, 6 A TK, and 27 AA in the post 1946 style and have wondered why they have been modified from their original form. I can't understand the point of ruining a perfectly good title to create a title/s that never existed in the first place!

Thanks for showing them.

Keith

[Bill A]

Most of these RCA titles were for reserve units, and they varied in strength, but some were quite small. Part of the explanation as to the scarcity of titles is the length of time a unit existed. For example, the HAA regiments were on the order of battle circa 1946-1954, BUT titles were not authorzed for the post war RCA until 1948.

[Phillip Herring]

Bill, do you have a list of fantasy/collectors' market titles?

[Phillip Herring]

Originally Posted by Bill A

Most of these RCA titles were for reserve units, and they varied in strength, but some were quite small. Part of the explanation as to the scarcity of titles is the length of time a unit existed. For example, the HAA regiments were on the order of battle circa 1946-1954, BUT titles were not authorzed for the post war RCA until 1948.

The last image is Regular Force units.

[Bill A]

Hi Phil, I noted that most titles were for reserve units. There are approx 25 distinct titles for regular force units compared to approx 132 distinct reserve unit titles.
I don't have a list for phoney ones, but rather compare titles with the units on the RCA order of battle post war. Which can be a bit of a chore. There were all kinds of changes that didn't always result in a title. Sometimes a unit continued to wear a title which was not correct for their designation. This happened when Regiments were disbanded, and independent batteries continued on under the old designation. Eventually most of these received titles. Other times authorized units did not get titles. For example a 1 DRONE TROOP was authorized circa 1968, but it doesn't appear any titles were procured. Last fall an auction house had an 8 AT title, which in reality was a 48 AT with the 4 picked out. There was never an 8 AT authorized.

[Phillip Herring]

These are the ones that were altered and then sold at auction as part of a larger lot.

[Bill A]

Yuch. Some of those are terrible.