Formation sign on a lorry, Palestine 1947?
 

This photograph is in an album that belonged to a W.O. in the Royal Artillery who served in the Middle East during WW2 and in Palestine just afterwards.

The photographs are not in strict chronological order and this one may be earlier than the Palestine photographs on the same page.

Can anyone please identify the formation sign on the door?

Can’t identify the marking on the door but it looks like the truck has been captured and is being used by the Afrika Corps. There is a Panzer III marked with a German cross and the truck may have an air recognition flag draped over the bonnet? Or perhaps the German tank has been captured by the 8th Army. Either way it is unlikely to be Palestine!

Tim

I don't know about it being a formation sign - to me it looks like a stylised marching cartoon figure wearing wellies or (perhaps more likely) jackboots...

There again, I am overdue an eye-test :)

Kevin

Truck looks like a Dodge D15

Tim

Its definitely a Dodge truck. Despite the original owner serving in the middle east, there are very few photographs of his time there. He was a W.O. in the H.Q. Coy of his battery.

I agree, it appears to be a man, with his head forward, striding ahead wearing black wellington boots. He appears to be doing the cartoon walk that Popeye used to do.

I think the image shows "Le Petit Poucet", "Little Thumbling"

https://nat.museum-digital.de/index....kt&oges=261722

and an example holding a staff:
https://oldthing.de/Litho-Siebenmeil...cht-0033368743

I think that you are correct and, the fact that it a continental character, would tend to suggest that it may have been a captured lorry.

Very few of the photographs are properly captioned but there is another one showing a sunken ship in Tobruk harbour.

Unfortunately the man's Royal Artillery Tracer Card has not survived, so I cannot link him to any specific unit during the war.

Hi, just to add to the mix, Seven League Boots, have been a part of European mythology for a long time and appear in British folklore as well, best wishes Mike