Colour question: WW2 maple leaf

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Rob is right, the red over blue is the colour of the RCA (or RA for that matter) unit flash. The number painted on indicates what position a particular regiment holds in the division. In this case, it's the second position for a field artillery regiment within an infantry division. Also as Rob says, if in the 1st Division (red), it was the 2nd Field Regt., if in the 2nd Division (blue), the 5th Field Regt. and likewise the 13th for the 3rd Division (grey).

Unit signs for the 4th and 4th Armoured Divisions and the Corps & Army artillery followed similar patterns but with different numbers on the red/blue flash.

But what of home divisions? I have seen (twice now, with Mr. Popes kind help) divisional signs painted on CMP's. Collin McGreggor has a drawing of 6th, 7th and 8th Division flashes on his web site (diagonal red over blue for the 6th, grey over green for the 7th and maroon over green (or green over maroon?) for the 8th. Oddly, the 8th Division appears 'upside down' in what appears to be a WW2 drawing....or conventioan thinking about what colour goes up is wrong...or the vehicle sign differed from the battledress insginia...or some other explanation...).

I doubt Mr. Popes CMP was overseas and returned, so it is unlikely it belonged to the 2nd, 5th or 13th Field Regiments. But as it has a unit sign, it proves vehicles in Canada were marked with these signs similar to overseas. There is also evidence of 'district' formation flashes worn domestically. Oddly, I've never heard tell of Atlantic or Pacific Command signs.

What I have never seen (as I wind up towards my long winded conclusion) is information on home division unit signs and some indication of when/how/why they were used. Photographs would indicate that vehicles in Canada usually followed a distinctly different marking scheme than overseas, yet this evidence supports that, for a time at least, similar markings were used.

Thoughts?