[Gunner]

Hi Bruce:

Pure speculation here... is it possible the sigs markings are accurate in that the HQ sigs sqn would likely have had a recce veh or two for scouting step-up HQ locations.

My personal experience with armoured car markings was in the SSF with 2 RCHA in the early '80's:

We were assigned to provide FOO's for the RCR who had been mechanised with Grizzleys. We were issued a number of them and my driver was pretty quick in painting over the old infantry markings and putting on artillery tac and call signs. I was the FOO and TC of A tp, D Bty. Thus, my jeep was "11" and the Griz was "11A".

We didn't get the MGs with them (wouldn't want them anyway as they took up too much room in the turret. Instead we used the turret backwards (there was a nice deep shelf at the back for my maps and shooting kit... we had black painted broom sticks stuck on to make it look any other Griz in the pack. To make us not stand out, many of the other Griz were fitted with spare antennae not hooked to any radios... that way I wasn't the only one with four antennae! Can you spell sniper magnet? ;}

All this to say that the kit often gets moved around to meet the tactical needs of the Commander as opposed to pleasing some staff wallah and his org charts.

On the issue of censoring war art: Several years ago I had the priviledge of spending many days in the art vaults and some of the paintings actually had censor seals on them. It was explained to me that if the censors felt that the art was too accurate and might give away some bit of data, then the paintings were 'sealed' and not released until the data was stale. A lot better than blotting out a bit of a master piece! The best example I've seen was a painting of a RCAF briefing room; an artillery officer is briefing the pilots... likely on airspace coordination measures which is a bird gunner responsibility. In the background is a map of the Normandy beaches. Because the map in the painting contained a clue that the true intentions of the allied assault was not Pas de Calais, the painting itself was locked up. It still bears the Top Secret stamps on the back and has evidence of being folded and sealed.

Cheers! Mike