Osprey Men at Arms The Universal Carrier a disappointment

[Michael Dorosh]

Just flipping through this book and noticed a couple illustrations of Canadian carriers. One of the colour plates shows a Royal Winnipeg Rifles carrier but the artist left the maple leaf off of the divisional sign, showing only the grey square. Was this actually a variation? I don't seem to think so.

In a photo of North Novies mortar crew beside a carrier, the carrier is clearly marked with a tactical sign of M1 and yet the caption states "MT" and the author ventures the opinion it represents "Mortar Troop". No such animal in an infantry battalion, of course.

Pretty awful, if you ask me. Is the rest of the book better than that, say, at technical stuff, stowage, etc? His knowledge of markings is clearly pants. I wonder how he is at the other, meatier stuff.

[Gunner]

Hi Mike:

I too was disappointed in the book. The markings errors are mirrored in technical and historical errors as well.

Nonetheless it added to my store of carrier knowledge so I'm glad I bought it but wish the price reflected the 'effort'.

Mike

[Ryan]

Michael Dorosh wrote: " His knowlege of markings is clearly pants."
Never heard that one before but it cracked me up.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Gunner
Hi Mike:

I too was disappointed in the book. The markings errors are mirrored in technical and historical errors as well.

Nonetheless it added to my store of carrier knowledge so I'm glad I bought it but wish the price reflected the 'effort'.

Mike

I suspected as much but lacked the expertise to judge for myself. Thanks for this.

[Michael Dorosh]

http://www.armouredacorn.com/Refs-%2...0Carriers).pdf

Interesting- Beldam notes that the missing maple leaf was not uncommon in this set of drawings (hope the link works). So perhaps the first caption I mentioned was not incorrect after all.

[Steve Guthrie]

Hi there

While not common, I've seen several photos of vehicles displaying a Canadian formation sign, missing the central gold maple leaf.

Don't know why this would be so: maybe a lack of paint, a missing stencil or lack of artistic expression?

Steve

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Steve Guthrie
Hi there

While not common, I've seen several photos of vehicles displaying a Canadian formation sign, missing the central gold maple leaf.

Don't know why this would be so: maybe a lack of paint, a missing stencil or lack of artistic expression?

Steve

I thought the formation signs were actually applied in some cases by a decal? So perhaps it is a case of paint being on hand but decal not available?

[Phil Waterman]

In many photographs you see that the unit symbols have blocked out, which could have resulted in artist working from photos leaving symbols out or not understanding them correctly. Also, I have read of a number of occasions when the unit marking even uniform insignias being removed covered etc. to mislead the enemy or at least keep them uniformed.

[John McGillivray]

Keep it down – there’s an artist at work!