Unidentified Blue Triangle Badge - 2RUR or 9th Infantry Brigade HQ
 

Hi

I have been directed to this forum by a member of WW2Talk forum as I have a query relating to an unidentified badge on my dad's battle dress (see attached).

My dad was commissioned to 2nd Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles as Lieutenant in 1943 and later that year was attached to 9th Infantry Brigade Headquarters as Camp Commandant/Defence Platoon Commander before landing on Sword on D-Day.

After travelling through France, Belgium and Holland he ended up near Bremen at the end of the war and in November 1945 was I believe appointed as "Town Major" with Control Commission of Germany in Kassel.

In February 1946 he was promoted to Acting Captain with Control Commission of Germany in Bad Oeynhausen.

I know Red/Black triangle and 2 stripes relate to Third Division and 9th British Infantry Brigade respectively, but have no idea what the dark blue triangle at the bottom relates to?

Looking at his photos from April/May 1944, it appears that:
- at least one other of the 9th Brigade (non RUR) officers may have one as well (third from left on front row)
- in the Defence Platoon photo, some of the RUR soldiers on the back row seem to have a similar badge, though those (non RUR) on the other rows don't?

Can anyone shed any light on this please?

Many thanks.

Quis Separabit

Hi Quis Separabit, welcome to the Forum. Your account is active and open for posts. Members should be able to assist in the identification.

Hi,

On the assumption that the patch is being worn under different cap badges in your photograph, and therefore unlikely to be solely associated to the RUR, then I would hazard a guess that it is probably an HQ designation, as I understand that certain Brigade Headquarters personnel of various Infantry Divisions wore a blue triangle sleeve badge, although I’m of the impression that this was worn horizontally (I suppose this could differ between HQ’s). My only other suggestion, the one I dismissed earlier, a Regimental Flash associated directly with the RUR. I hope this in some way helps, although I’m sure some of our more knowledgeable members should be able to nail it down still further for you.

Kind regards,
Zob.

Hi Zob

Thanks for the response, looking at a better resolution photo it seems that some (but not all) of troops from all 3 Regiments in the Defence Platoon have similar triangular badges and a few of the Officers (from differing Regiments) do as well.

"I understand that certain Brigade Headquarters personnel of various Infantry Divisions wore a blue triangle sleeve badge, although I’m of the impression that this was worn horizontally"

I'm not sure what you mean by "worn horizontally" as from my perspective the triangle is "horizontal" with the long side as its base?

Either way, I tend to agree that it looks like a Brigade Headquarters designation.

Do you know if this is something that would have been in place during the war or introduced after the end as I am hoping to use it to help identify 9th Brigade HQ troops in photos from Operation Fabius and D-Day photos.

Many thanks.

Quis Separabit

Sorry, that wasn’t very clear, what I meant was worn pennant fashion with the point (tip of the apex) facing either left or right or possible down (inverted).

On the point of this being in place during the war. Yes, this was certainly the practice during the war, however, the information I have refers specifically to the period 1944-45, and I wouldn’t be surprised for this to still have been the practice after hostilities ceased.

Zob

The relevant section from my book Badges on Battle Dress.

Jon

Certain formations added distinguishing marks under arm of service strips to identify Divisional and Brigade headquarters’ staff. Based on the First World War coloured flags and pennants which had marked the location of Divisional and Brigade headquarters , a small red, swallow-tailed flag identified those serving at divisional HQ, a blue pennant those at Brigade HQ . The red flag has so far only been recorded for 43rd and 61st Division (428) but blue pennants were worn by brigades in 4th , 38th, 51st, 53rd, 61st and 78th Divisions. A variation of this scheme seems to have been adopted by 3rd Division’s brigades with 8th Infantry Brigade wearing a blue square , 9th Infantry Brigade a blue equilateral triangle and 185th Infantry Brigade a blue disc.

Fantastic! This is what I had suspected but good to have independent verification.

Thanks for confirming and apologies for the delay in responding.....

Quis Separabit