My RAAC Badges

[slick_mick]

Hi Guys,

He are my 1948 to 1960 period Royal Australian Armoured Corps badges - hopefully soon to be properly mounted onto the board.

I'm also thinking of maybe adding a couple of 1930 to 42 period armoured badges onto it as well.

Just need to get a Hunter River Lancers small button to complete it.



Mick

[Mike]

very nice, going to look superb.

[slick_mick]

Thanks - I'm also looking to add buttons for each regiment and also might add some 1930 to 42 period armoured related badges - Australian Tank Corps and the 1st and 2nd Armoured Car Regiments.

Should look really good when complete.

Mick

[Bill A]

Mick, Excuse my ignorance, but I know little about the Aussie army. Was the Aussie army made up of regular (full time) regiments and reserve (militia, part time) regiments? Was there a major reorganization in 1960? (The reason for the cutoff that year?) And, from what I understand the regiments are organized on a regional basis? To bring this back to badges, are some more difficult to find than others? If there was a reorganization, did many of these regiments get chopped? Looking forward to a primer on collecting Aussie armoured badges.

[slick_mick]

Hi Bill,

To answer your question, yes there were a lot of changes after World War 2. Prior to the war, most of Australia's army was comprised of militia (ie reservist) units with a small cadre of permanent soldiers (Australian Instructional Corps).

The end of World War 2 saw a lot of change (and downsizing of the Australian Army) of which the formation of a permanent military force I would consider to be the most important. This happened around 1948 and it was also at this time the army introduced the bordered cloth shoulder flash which was worn on battledress tunics.

In relation to my RAAC collection I believe that the 1st Armoured Regiment was the only permanent ie Regular Army regiment up until around the 1960s.

The other regiments on my badge board (and up to 1960) were all reserve regiments (some of which were comprised of National Servicemen during the 1950s - 7/21st Australian Horse for example). I will have other boards made i future for my post 1960 badges.

1960 was a year of more change for the Australian Army and more amalgamations/disbandment for many regiments. In relation to the RAAC, regular army soldiers were posted to 4/19th PWLH which eventually (during the Vietnam War) became the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. The RAAC experienced a lot of chopping and changing during the 1966s and 70s and eventually reached today where the regular army units are 1st Armoured Regiment, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, B Sqn, 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment and my old unit the 2/14th Light Horse (QMI). 1960 was also considered to be the start of the introduction of anodised badges with pinbacks though many units wore the lugged 53-60 period badges into the 1970s!

Going back to my badge board, many of the badges I have there are very hard to find. I would consider the 15th Northern River Lancers, 7/21st Australian Horse and 6th New South Wales Mounted Rifles badges to be amongst the hardest to find as they only existed as regiments during the 1950s. The collar badges for these are extremely difficult to find as only officers and Senior NCOs would have been issued them.

The 15th NRL merged with the 1st Light Horse around 1960 to be the 1/15th Royal NSW Lancers, the 7/21st Australia Horse was disbanded in the late 1950s and the 6th NSW Mounted Rifles did something even worse in my opinion - became an infantry unit in 1960!!! It then became part of a battalion of the Royal New South Wales Regiment.

Another thing you may notice is that all Australian badges are chrome - none of this brass business for the RAAC!!!! Unlike the RCAC and RAC, the RAAC decided to adopt all chrome badges around 1948.

Anyway, I hope this makes some sense to you :-)

Mick

ps

Many of the RAAC units are "decendents" of the Australian Light Horse regiments of pre WW2 and that's why now they continue to wear emu plumes in their slouch hats.

pps

I'm might do a proper primer on the RAAC sometime.

[Bill A]

Excellent Mick. A good summary, which explains a lot for me.
Again, this shows how badges evolve, and it is interesting that there are significant similarities between the UK, Canada, and Australia in the ways in which insignia has developed since WW2.

[slick_mick]

Glad you liked it Bill. When I get a chance I'll do a bit of a write up on each RAAC badge and regiment.

Mick