Unit Sign red green 45

[Mike Timoshyk]

M38 Jeep with unit sign....can anyone help with the identity of the unit.


asking for the owner....


Cheers

Mike Timoshyk in windsor ontario

[Jon Skagfeld]

Mike: AFAIK, there was never a unit colour scheme of red over green, horizontally.

There are many unit signs with red over green, diagonally.

Matter of fact in Canadian Corps up 'til 1940, that diagonal pattern with "45" indicated Cypriot Pack Transport Coy.

I don't think that the answer you're looking for...perhaps that's why you want to contact the owner?

The way it's portrayed, I think it's bogus.

[Bruce MacMillan]

that looks like a British Columbia license plate from the mid 1960s. The vehicles around it date much later. Maybe someone from Western Command knows this jeep.

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Jon Skagfeld

Mike: AFAIK, there was never a unit colour scheme of red over green, horizontally.

There are many unit signs with red over green, diagonally.

........ The way it's portrayed, I think it's bogus.

Me too. That's an M38, circa 1952; AFAIK, there is no r/g 45-sign, period. It's a figment of someone's imagination methinks...

[Mike Timoshyk]

Hi guys,

Welll it is time to go back and get the peepers checked...

I missled you by indicating the 45 was imposed on red and green....it is actually red and blue.....suggesting "artillery"? perhaps....note the Mobile Command as well. It looks like a nice M38 Cdn. Also note the Variable Antenna mount for the C42 on the front fender...

so...any ideas/

Cheers

Mike Timoshyk in Windsor On

[rob love]

My money is on Artillery; I thought your photo looked more like red over blue. I have a unit marking on the end of the bench which went into the back of a 3/4 ton line truck. The unit was RCHA here in Shilo.




By the way, if anyone wants the bench, it's theirs for $5. Pickup only. I know where one of the lockers is located that goes on top of the bench, along with most of the other doo-dahs to make your common M37 into something rare (and even consume more fuel it that is possible).

[Mike Timoshyk]

Thanks Rob...I will pass the info on the the lucky owner.

cheers

Mike Timoshyk

[Jon Skagfeld]

Mike: Perhaps this is the final chapter on the Unit Sign.

I've run through Barry Beldham's Vol 1, Ed 4 and Vol 3, Ed 2 three times 'til my eyes are crossed.

The only such pictorial reference is of 11 Army Field Regt and 19 Army Field Regt, both on Sexton Mk 2s, Holland 1945.

The nagging question here is that First Canadian Army listings don't show these units.

Vol 2, IIRC, has Unit/Formation signs particular to Artillery, if you wish to persue this, but then, why...(Hmmm...how do I insert the "beating a dead horse" icon?

[super dave]

I have the same marking on the tailgate of a M135 that I purchased last year.

[Ingvar]

Greetings fellows. I have just joined your site and am the originator of the debate over the 45 blue over red plates on the front and back of one of my M38 Canadian built M38s. and yes the old license plate is BC - I live in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island actually. I suppose anything can turn out "bogus" but I have to say this is the most stock, least messed with M38 I have ever come accross and I have owned a number of them for over 30 years. It apparently came from a surplus plac near Shilo, Manitoba and the then owner actually drove it accross this wide land to this fine island year later in the late seventies. It sat in a barn and kept the geese company for about a decade before I bought it several years ago. I was told he had not done anything to it but for a 12 volt alternator (luckily he kept the 24 vold generator ) and I believed him. In short, I strongly doubt this 45 plate is bogus and one would surely wonder given the post above. Your input is most valued. Thanks and glad to be aboard!

Ingvar

p.s. the brass dash plates have it as F-101571 E-20LV7 742 Army. 7-31-52 Any way of tracing its history with the forces by way of its serial #? (My son's was built 5 days before!)

[Colin Macgregor Stevens]

Knowing the VIN number (maker's SN) is very useful but it is the Canadian Army Registration number (CAR) later called CFR # which is a main way by which one traces the history and painted on markings. Sadly, Canada DESTROYED her records of ex-military vehicles unlike the UK.

You are fortunate it is so original. The regular army used numbers on the coloured backgrounds whereas Militia tended to use abbreviated titles on a white bar above the coloured unit sign. The red/blue is artillery. Rob Love's info if most useful ... to to trace more of the history, one needs to look through the archives of the RCA Museum in CFB Shilo hoping to find in service photos of it and accident reports or lists of vehicles with showing the CAR/CFR number.

The CAR number was painted below each doorway and also stamped into the top of the left frame rail between the front bumper and the grille.

The jeep likely served 1952-c.1971. It may well have served with a variety of units and sanding down to find the markings is advised. The platform on the right front fender is for the Antenna Tuning Unit (ATU) for the C-42 radio. You will likely find a Western Command decal and udnrneath that, a Prairie Command decal.

Correct trailer for this would be the M100 or M100CDN.



Colin MacGregor Stevens
Richmond, BC

[rob love]

The Prairie Command and Western Command decals are strictly applicable to militia vehicles. Since your jeep belonged to a regular force unit. it will not likely have either of these, unless it had moved between units over the years.

[Ingvar]

Thanks for the follow-up. I took a close look and, sure enough, one can read the numbers below the doorways as 52-31587.