Dear friends,
All parts of my 1940 16H are being painted including the petrol tank after matching the KG3 that was still under one layer of color.
Matching Frame and Engine numbers: W19518
That makes it an August 1940 model.
Census number: C4317795
The bike was found in Greece and was wondering whether anyone can help me out providing details of the formation signs that she could have had...
Kostas

email (option): ferrarakias@hotmail.com

Glad to hear that the project is coming along Kostas.

I'm not an expert on the units involved in Greece in 1941 but there are a few websites which can help.

http://www.rothwell.force9.co.uk/Greece1941.htm

Most of the Commonwealth troops in Greece were Australian / New Zealand units and they both had Nortons in use

In all honesty, the majority of motorcycles in the Middle East (which is where the equipment for the Greece campaign came from) don't seem to have displayed any markings at all but there are references for the armour.

The British 3rd Royal Tank Regiment as part of 2nd Armoured Division is quite a nice colourful one.

http://www.armouredacorn.com/Refs-%20Thumbprints%20&%20Images/NCVM/NCVM%20Part%2051%20%28BEFs%20Greece%29%20-1.pdf

You could, if you chose this, have the white knight's helmet on red on one side of the fuel tank (indicating 2nd Armoured Division) and the white '52' on red ground on the other side, this being the 'Arm of Service' number for 3rd RTR.

If you added the embarkation code 0042 to the front mudguard, with the green/ blue/ green stripes, that would be a nice touch. These were usually removed after landing but I can imagine that there wasn't time in Greece.

There are of course plenty of other choices. If you prefer artillery, engineers, ordnance etc or one of the Australian units such as 6th Australian Division with their kangeroo over a boomerang.

If you have any preferences or thoughts from the units listed in the link above, let me know and I'll try to research them for you.

I put the 2nd Armde. markings on my Triumph 5S. They went from England to North Africa shortly before Mr. Rommel arrived and were comprehensively defeated in the initial rush of the Africa Corps.(I believe their headquarters was captured) The Division was broken up and not reformed according to the information I read, the various remaining units being distributed amongst other divisions.
I am no expert on the subject but I guess the Div Patch would not have appeared beyond that time....
Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

The Divisional HQ was indeed captured in Libya during April 1941 and they were disbanded in May.

However, 1st Armoured Brigade, of which 3 RTR formed a part was detached from the Division during February 1941 for the Greek adventure and went there in April.

According to Barry Beldam's site which I linked to, photographic evidence shows their tanks continuing to display 2nd Armoured Division markings. The brigade was under the command of the Australian 1st Corps but don't seem to have adopted the bulldog and boomerang sign.

They were the lucky ones as they were evacuted to Egypt.

By coincidence I'm currently reading "I Deserted Rommel" by Gunther Bahnemann, the story of a German despatch rider who decided to leave the German Army when he heard his father had been arrested and executed in Germany.

In one of the early chapters he steals a captured Bedford truck from a Luftwaffa depot in Derna, and describes the vehicle markings, although his memory of the colours is probably wrong.



Rob.

email (option): robmiller11@yahoo.co.uk

I wonder if the colours were the embarkation / movement code colours ? It was too early for him to have seen REME AoS markings.