I.D. Plates

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

Here are a couple of plates ..... with the "not clearly defined" "L", which I would like to see a definative explanation of.

I have asked that question on another Forum, and the response I received was that it was a British nomenclature practice for items that were for "Land" Service, as opposed to /N/ for Naval service. In the '20s, /A/ appeared for items for Air service. The practice continued through the '40s, and while the requirement continued for specific Land, Naval and Air service items continued, the marking by /L/ was discontinued.

While I could understand identifying types of ammunition or ordnance for specific environmental or operational conditions applying to Land, Naval or Air service, I could not see the need for identifying Carriers as specifically for "Land" service due to the bleeding obvious fact they dont float or fly!

As an example, I have these Very Signal cartridges. Of interest here are the 2 Red star MkXI T. Both are 42 produced, but the black one shows /L/ for Land service, while the buff one has no such indication. As can be seen in the ordnance ID diagram (which unfortunately does not cover the MkXI T to tell us if it was Land service only), there were different types specified for Land and Naval service for some types, although others could be used equally.