81 WEST AFRICAN DIVISION BADGE

[actionoke]

Got this together with the RWAFF shoulder tab .These guys came from the RWAFF and fought the Japanese with Wingates Special Force ie The Chindits .I believe it to be a rare patch but in all the books Ive read its described as a round patch....Any ideas on this?

[Mike Jackson]

Notwithstanding the illustration in Howard Cole's Heraldry in War and the MOI book The Campaign in Burma all cloth 81 WA Div signs I have (and have seen) are in the rectangular format. This includes examples in the RWAFF Museum in Kumasi, Ghana. The dotted lines around the spider in your example are the fold lines for the border - a rectangle is obviously intended. I believe (and this is born out by the a/m Museum) that the spider faces downwards. The sign on a disc may have been a variant or the fornat for a vehicle marking. The sign was worn in combination with a variety of coloured felt strips to indicate unit. For example a vertical red strip 1/4 in wide and 2 in long immediately below the sign was worn by 1 Gold Coast Regt (1 GCR) and 5 GCR. Interestingly the spider sign is perpetuated by the 81 Inf Bde of the current Ghana Army.

[ANGLE IRON]

As stated above , Mine is square and I have never come across a round one. Not a common formation sign so a good find, Kevin

[Rob Miller]

Across the dots mine is 53mm wide 50mm high, so not quite square.

Rob.