British Troops in Austria
 

Post VE Day, British Troops in Austria inherited Eighth Army's well known sign, but has the version with Gothic (?) letters BTA ever been seen as a cloth sign, or seen painted on a vehicle?
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HI Mike , thanks for showing, may be it was manufactured by a German jewler / craftsman who just happened to use gothic script with out really thinking as he had been for the last 13 years or so making nazi shields ??

Could be. The photograph was taken in the Museum of Army Transport, Leconfield about 20 year ago - I think it the design was painted on a metal rectangular plate - possibly once part of a unit signboard. Mike

My Dad was part of the BTA between 1951 & 1952 - with the Warwicks at Hawkesworth Barracks, Graz (formerly SS-Kaserne Wetzelsdorf (Waffen-SS Wetzelsdorf barracks)).

Unfortunately, I can only find two photos that show the formation sign, & both are rather grainy & indistinct - that said, there doesn't seem to be anything much written across the centre of the badge that I can make out.

Many thanks. It looks like a Vienna Garrison (?) sign on the left and the unadorned BTA on the right. Mike

The left hand sign is actually the Midland Brigade (to which belonged the Warwicks (the 'VI') & the Lincolns (the 'X'), both of whom my Dad served with post-war).

We were in those barracks in 53, 1st green Howard's and it was BTA3 post.

My father - also a Royal Warwick, an officer - was briefly attached to HQ BTA when en route to Palestine in 1947. He remembered wearing the Allied Commission Austria badge, but admitted that his memory was fuzzy nearly 40 years later.

By means of a parallel, in the film The Third Man (which got its uniform details right) Trevor Howard's character Major Calloway is a 7th Hussar, wearing Royal Armoured Corps shoulder titles - and the "8th Army" style formation sign, not/not the ACA version. Yet, when he drives away from Holly Martens at the end the jeep has an ACA badge painted on it...

Logic would dictate that the letters were in gothic script so the locals could figure out whom they had to deal with?

Rgds, Thomas.

Please don't forget that if someone doesn't speak our lingo a true Englishman will assist in their comprehension BY...SHOUTING...LOUDLY...AND...SLOWLY!

Stephen.

I live in Vienna and also spend a lot of time at my property in Styria (which was British occupied post war) so have always been interested in cloth insignia worn by allied troops whilst in Austria. I've got an ACA armband that I shall post up when I get home. I've also got some interesting international patrol US Helmets with MP insignia on. Did UK MPs wear any insignia on their helmets does anyone know?

I think that the CMP personnel working in BTA dressed as per these members of the Quadripartite Patrols in the centre of Vienna. Unlike the other three nations involved the British have never been too keen on steel helmets except when absolutely necessary. Mike
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Or the helmet liners frequently worn by the US GIs.

Marc

More Military Police in Vienna - CMP remain in caps whilst the other nations cannot make up their minds!
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KD in Austria, that's a new one on me!!.:)