Can someone identify this case?

[Mike Cecil]

Well, yes, Dave, but I think I should explain that a little more.

We seem to be hijacking D's post, but what the heck, she's a big girl, she can take it!

PITA v PIAT: I remember some years ago a certain restorer from mid-Victoria taking me to task for calling a 2-pdr a Tank Attack (TA) gun. So I did some pretty detailed research, and found the actual changeover orders from AHQ, together with the changes to the unit nomenclature in their war establishment lists. I think I remember that I wrote it up in the VMVC newsletter. Anyway, the truth of the matter is that all equipment and units with the words 'anti-tank' (AT)were changed in Australia in about mid-1943 from AT to TA, which was the norm until just post-war, when it reverted to 'AT'. TA was adopted as it sounded more aggressive than defensive!! The 2-pdr carrier started out life as an Anti-tank carrier, but like all the other equipment, became a TA carrier in mid-1943. As it was declared obsolete BEFORE the reversion to AT, it ended its military life called a 'Carrier, 2-pdr, Tank Attack'. Now I don't know when the PIAT/PITA was declared obsolete (should go and search that out), but it certainly had the two names bestowed upon it in Oz at different times during its service with the Australian Army in WW2.

Mike C