Service chevrons

[Anthony Kellett]

I have just acquired a service dress uniform of a Colonel in the 17th Hussars in WW2. I would like to identify him. There are several candidates, some who served overseas, some who served only in Canada. The uniform has four service chevrons (3 red over one silver) on the right forearm. Were these chevrons worn only/mainly by CASF personnel in Canada?
Thank you

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Anthony Kellett

I have just acquired a service dress uniform of a Colonel in the 17th Hussars in WW2. I would like to identify him. There are several candidates, some who served overseas, some who served only in Canada. The uniform has four service chevrons (3 red over one silver) on the right forearm. Were these chevrons worn only/mainly by CASF personnel in Canada?
Thank you

Red/white on the right cuff were overseas, and larger (WW1 style) black/white ones were worn in Canada on the left. About the conscription crisis in 1944 it was decided all troops would get the red ones because there was some animosity towards the home 'zombies' who didn't volunteer for overseas service (or if they did they weren't sent).

[Ed Storey]

There appears to be some confusion with NRMA - National Resources Mobilization Act conscripts and the insignia in which they were permitted to wear on their uniform. Unlike most countries, Canada has always had a difficult time dealing with the concept of national service or conscription and this was particularly evident during the SWW when they were given the derogatory name 'Zombies'. Since the NRMA men were in the Army there was a problem in distinguishing the conscripts from the volunteers especially as the home defence units in Canada contained a number of men who were volunteers but had not be stationed overseas. As part of their terms of service, NRMA men were not required to serve outside of Canada although they did service with distinction on Kiska Island in the Aleutians as this island chain was geographically part of Canada.

It was the General Service or GS badge which was issued for wear (bottom left sleeve) in Canada by volunteers and this badge was removed once the wearer proceeded overseas. Service Chevrons were a means of indicating the length of time a person had in the military. The system originally used white and black inverted chevrons (bottom left sleeve) and was changed mid-war to white and red chevrons (to bottom right sleeve) with white indicating the person had served in the first year of the war with red chevrons indicating each successive year of service. Service chevrons were worn both in Canada and overseas and had no bearing as to whether or not the person wearing them was a volunteer or not.

I hope this helps to alleviate some of the confusion regarding the insignia associated with NRMA men.

[Robin Craig]

I am better informed, thanks Ed.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Ed, are you suggesting black service stripes were worn overseas prior to the introduction of the red ones? I've seen no photographic evidence of that.

I'd have to dig it out but there was another point of friction between Canadian and overseas troops. If I recall the calculation was different for each group and once Canadian stationed troops (I won't call them zombies) went overseas this discrepancy potentially gave them one more stripe than someone who had been in Europe since 1940 for the same time in.

[Ed Storey]

The black and silver chevrons were introduced in December 1942, were only worn in Canada, and were authorized for wear by NRMA men.

The red and silver chevrons were introduced in March 1944, were authorized for wear in both Canada and Overseas, and were authorized for wear by NRMA men. Wear of these new chevrons was also extended to the RCN and RCAF.

[Anthony Kellett]

Thank you Robin, Bruce and Ed. I think that I have now identified the wearer of the uniform.

[Dan Martel]

Below is a quote from another thread on how the British Army decided the service chevron and wound stripe issue during the War. It's taken from the book Badges on Battle Dress (2019) by Jon Mills, who posted the thread.

It may also explain why the Canadian Army went to red service chevrons and moved them to the right sleeve mid-war.

War Service Chevrons and Wound Stripes

In February 1944 the Army was told that two First World War dress distinctions abolished in 1922 were to be reintroduced. Three years earlier the Army Council had turned down a suggestion from Australia’s Military Liaison Team in London that wound stripes and service chevrons ‘similar to those worn during the Great War’ should be introduced as the involvement of civilians ‘dealing with enemy action against Great Britain’ made it difficult to discriminate between military and civilian services. With labour and materials needed for more essential tasks, the Council concluded their revival was not desirable.

Discussions in April 1943 on the introduction of war service medals noted the Prime Minister’s suggestion that ‘the issue of chevrons for every year of service abroad…would be greatly appreciated by the soldier’ a proposition the Admiralty robustly opposed and neither War Office nor Air Ministry favoured, all stressing the administrative difficulties involved. Strongly advocated by Winston Churchill ‘War Service Chevrons’, accepted by the Army Council as preferable to a home service medal, were approved in June 1943. On 27th July COD Branston was told to issue a manufacturing contract as soon as a design for the chevrons, one for each calendar year of war service, was finalised. Dismissing as open to criticism the use of different coloured chevrons for service in each theatre of war as operations in very many theatres had ended in evacuation, the final design, a khaki background with scarlet inverted chevrons of a ‘hue similar to the gorget patches worn on the khaki uniform’ was approved in August. As woven chevrons could not be produced quickly it proved ‘necessary to rely entirely on printed chevrons’, to be issued as single or sets of two, three or four chevrons ready to sew on rather than cut from strips. The Army’s initial order for 9.9 million sets, approximately half of which were three bar chevrons, was to be delivered by November 1943. Following their February 1944 introduction a War Office telegram to all Commands instructed that priority for issue was to be given to units of 21st Army Group. Three months later Branston was instructed to arrange provision of five bar war service chevrons, service up to 2nd September 1945 qualifying for their issue. Privately purchased embroidered and woven chevrons were widely worn. Wound stripes, introduced at the same time consisted of a one and a half inch length of gold braid worn vertically on the left forearm to indicate each wound received were not liked, one regiment noting that ‘These advertisements were no more popular …than they had been in the First World War’. A single red braid stripe worn to the rear of the gold strip indicated wounds sustained in previous wars.