# M113; the early years (1970s) - tac signs and licence plates in Germany



## Michael OLeary (11 Jun 2013)

Following my earlier question on camouflage colours, I am now also looking for any photos or references to confirm tac signs, bridge class markings, etc.  on the early M113 fleet in Germany. Also, any photo that shows the style of licence plate in use at the time would be welcome.

Thanks

Mike


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## Old Sweat (11 Jun 2013)

Michael, as I recall we did not have licence plates on the early M113 fleet in Germany. In fact, I was surprised to see provincial plates on the M113 family vehicles in CFB Shilo when I arrived there in September 1967 from Germany.


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## Jammer (11 Jun 2013)

You might want to try this:

http://www.ruhrmemories.ca/military/4-cibg/


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## Jammer (11 Jun 2013)

...or this.


You'll have to do some digging, but there are great shots of trials vehicles and experimental cam patterns as well.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/169232/


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## Michael OLeary (11 Jun 2013)

Brian, thank you very much.

Jammer, thanks for the links. I've been through the ruhrmemories site with no results, now trawling the network54 site (sadly many dead image links in their threads).


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## Jammer (11 Jun 2013)

Mike:

I'll dig into the archives later today and PM some of what's in my collection.

Cheers,

J.


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## Old Sweat (11 Jun 2013)

Michael

PM your email address. I have come across an email with a series of colour snaps of 1 RCHA on parade in the summer of 1968. There are some good shots of M577s, M113A1s and the regiment's M578 ARV that show the cam pattern and the very basic vehicle marking used at the time.


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## Fishbone Jones (11 Jun 2013)

Are we talking Garvins here ;D


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## Nfld Sapper (11 Jun 2013)

recceguy said:
			
		

> Are we talking Garvins here ;D



 :facepalm:

 ;D


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## Michael OLeary (11 Jun 2013)

For anyone who may be interested, here are shots of the evolving projects from the the contractor's facebook page. (More images at link.)


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## Jammer (11 Jun 2013)

Here are some pics that might be helpful


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## armybuck041 (11 Jun 2013)

I'm always looking for snaps of M151A2s or the other Jeeps. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2


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## Colin Parkinson (12 Jun 2013)

That Centurion is gorgeous!


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## Jammer (12 Jun 2013)

It is eh? I found that one in my fathers old slides.


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## Old Sweat (12 Jun 2013)

Jammer

I suspect the shots were all take in Canada because:

a. the Centurion has a 20-pdr, while the ones in Germany had 105s edit to add and the camouflage pattern and colours are not the "Germany" pattern;

b. some of the vehicles have the Ontario "brown" plate that was used before the DND plate came into use; and

c. the terrain and foliage does not look like Germany.

Having said that, the photos brought back a lot of memories.


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## Jammer (12 Jun 2013)

You are in fact correct.
All in Petawawa late 60's early 70's.

The tac signs were varied a lot. It's hard to really nail down a uniform pattem.


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## Old Sweat (12 Jun 2013)

At the time the army was transitioning from the Second World War system with squares to denote the unit and other signs to denote the vehicle's subunit and role. For example the armoured regiment used a red and yellow square bisected diagonally with the number 2 painted on it. For individual vehicles they used the same system as today. The artillery, on the other hand, used a red over blue square with 13 painted on it. For individual gunner vehicles there was a system of red squares taking up one quarter of the blue square, starting for the senior battery in the upper right corner and working clockwise to lower right, lower left and upper left. Instead of the casll sign a combination of letters were used. For example Z was the CO, X for each of the battery commanders and guns were based on the troop letter and A to D, thus C Troop guns and gun tractors were CA, CB, CC and CD.

We were moving to a system that used the NATO tactical symbols such as you would find on a map along with the call sign, much like what was in use when I retired.


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