You may notice a slight change to the cover page of the Newsletter starting with the December 2011 edition. There is now an additional logo on the cover, a red and blue box with the number 47 embedded. I asked Paul Dickson the Editor of the Newsletter what that represented.

As is often the case with our Aussie mates, the answer was quickly supplied by Paul and Ernie Newbold (both honorary members of the 1/83rd). Ernie is a tremendous resource and has answered other questions that I have posed and has enlightened me and the group on several issues.

Here is Ernie's explanation...

"Australian army vehicles all carried a tactical vehicle sign, generally referred to  as "tac signs" which indicated the unit to which the vehicle belonged. The coloured background indicated the "corps", in this case red over blue, indicated an artillery unit and the number indicated the particular battery within the corps.

In our case, all vehicles belonging to 131 Div Loc Bty carried the tac sign of 47 over a red and blue background. Any towed vehicle such as trailers and guns would also be fitted with the units tac sign. Tac signs were also used at Nui Dat as "signposts" to indicate the various units location within the task force area.

See 2 pictures below.

Regards,
Ernie."

ED. Also click here to see a discussion which followed regarding these pictures.