Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill A
the melton 1 Cdn Corps AGRA patches, with the double thunder bolts
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Is that really what they are? Clive's book on distinguishing patches cites First Canadian Army orders as describing the badges as having a "zig-zag" pattern.
I'm just curious if the pattern was really intended to portray a thunderbolt, or if this is "collector's terminology". The patches were, I presumed, a successor to the artillery patches of the Canadian Corps, which were similarly described in contemporary accounts as a "jagged line".
The thunderbolt has generally been associated in military symbology with signals units (the R.C.C.S. cap badge is a good example, or even Wehrmacht signaller's trade badges for another).
Not trying to be sticky on this point, just genuinely curious why you refer here to them as "thunderbolts".
Admittedly, Clive's book doesn't directly quote the sources he cites in some cases, but paraphrases, in a way it seems that the terminology is a direct quote.
I double-checked with Falconer's BATTERY FLASHES, and interestingly, a written description of the RCA formation patches doesn't appear, except on page 468, almost as a footnote, when Falconer quotes a letter he received from DHist, Ottawa:
"With regard to formation patches, they are as described by you including the 1st Corps RCA patch...There were no Armoured Brigade Groups. We have no knowledge of a black horizontal diamond patch with red
zig-zag. Artillery 2 Corps wore a blue diamond with a red
zig-zag."
Emphasis is mine. The illustration that Falconer uses of the 1st Corps RCA patch also shows the ends of the "zig-zag" closed, unlike Michael's example, above, so no "thunderbolts", but rather, a single blue-outline of a "zig-zag".
Incidentally, also, both Falconer and Law show three different patches for high level Canadian artillery formations in the Second World War - one listed as being for AGRA (red diamond with blue bar horizontal and red zig-zag), and then two different patches for the corps artillery (a red diamond with blue zig-zag for 1st corps and a blue diamond with red zig-zag for 2nd Corps). AGRA and Corps artillery were two different things...