how to designate 6th brigade within a division?

[JerryBB]

If a division had more than 3 brigades how did they display that on uniform. The division in question I have read only used 4th, 5th & 6th brigades in WWII, so did that mean they used the same as they would for 1st to 3rd brigades, ie 1, 2 or 3 stripes?

[54Bty]

My understanding is:
The strips were to indicate Brigade seniority, one for the senior brigade (4th Bde), two for the intermediate (5th Bde) and three for the junior (6th Bde).

Marc

[JerryBB]

Originally Posted by 54Bty

My understanding is:
The strips were to indicate Brigade seniority, one for the senior brigade (4th Bde), two for the intermediate (5th Bde) and three for the junior (6th Bde).

Marc

Thanks Mark, that is what occured to me after I had posted, as you say so 6th brigade would be 3 strips

[JerryBB]

I had an epiphany as I thought about this so I looked at other infantry divisions and found the 1-3rd brigades were in first div and 2nd div had 4-6th brigades whilst the 4th div had 10-12th brigades and I assume this pattern continued throughout the infantry divisions, I never really worked this out prior to this even though I knew the 53rd welsh div had the 158th to 160th brigades.

[Mike Jackson]

It wasn't really that simple. As the War progressed most Inf Divs shed at least one of its original three Inf Bdes. For example 3 Inf Div (a Regular Army formation) started the war was composed of 7 Inf Bde (Guards), 8 Inf Bde and 9 Inf Bde. However in Sep 41 7 Inf Bde (Guards) left 3 Inf Div and was replaced in Dec 41 by 7 Inf Bde. The latter did not stay long, leaving in May 42 and being replaced by 33 Tk Bde - the so-called Mixed Division experiment. 33 Tk Bde left in Apr 43 and were replaced by 185 Inf Bde. The latter remained part of 3 Inf Div until the end of the War. With all this to-ing and fro-ing the matter of removing and replacing one, two or three small strips of red felt must have been a real pain for all concerned. No wonder some formations gave up the idea of wearing marks to indicate Bde seniority.

[JerryBB]

Mike, the whole system had excaped my attention before this, I suppose because it was 2nd div and brigades 4-6 that made me think about this. The reason I skipped 3rd div was because it was not typical of the basic system.

Thanks for commenting.