[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Basically speaking, the red & white bars were Italian campaign markings, while the star (often painted cockeyed) was Northwest Europe. There IS evidence that some of the Italian campaign vehicles which accompanied their units from Italy to Holland in 1945 retained their original markings through to the end... but that close to the end of the war, there was little demand to add stars, and in fact, many of the NW Europe campaign vehicles had already had their original stars painted out.