Which British tanks in SCC5 camouflage ?

[Kingsman]

Standard Camouflage Colours were introduced under BS987C in 1942, amended and extended in 1944.  This standard replaced colours chosen from the 1930 BS381C palette used previously in the desert war era and the early war Camcolours which existed outside the BS system.

 

Contrary to where this post began, Light Mud and SCC5 are not the same colour.  Similar maybe, but not the same.  Light Mud was one of several Theatre Colours used in the Middle East alongside BS381 colours.  Just to confuse the issue.........

[Mike Starmer]

I noticed early in this post about Churchills in Egypt.  Two were sent to Egypt for trials in 1941.  Nothing has ever been discovered about them, they seem to have disappeared as scrap at some time.  The six sent in mid-1942 from UK for Kingforce were all reworked Mk.IIIs and already finished in Light Stone No.61.  This is in contradiction to the accepted policy of sending vehicles overseas in their UK colour then repainted in theatre as required.  Mentioning this to an ex-Sherwood Rangers tanker whom I knew, he told me that he and other crews were often used as armed train guards when vehicles were transported from the Suez Canal docks to the Zone depots.  He says that it had become commonplace that many were already a 'sand' colour on arrival, he mentioned Valentines and Crusaders.   Close examination of images of some Kingforce tanks clearly show a light colour on their small roadwheels and suspension springs.  This is not what you would see on a brush painted tank that had a light disruptive pattern applied over a darker colour.  This is a workshop spray job.  Where the tow hawser on the hull side has abraded the none too durable dark paint, the lighter and more resilient paint is clearly visible.   The pattern of each tank is nearly identical, apparently based on the 1942 issued Crusader drawing, basically a turret on a hull.   The dark colour has in the past artworks been green, grey or black and highly variable depending on which image the artist has worked from or what they may have been told.  Three different comments describe the dark colour as dull red-brown.   Given the wear visible, I strongly suspect that this colour was probably one of the locally produced Camcolour range which is waterbased and quickly applied by brush.  One colour is named 'chocolate' which may have been similar to SCC.1A in the BS.987 range. 

 

In action one Churchill was KO'd and a member of the crew killed by Australian A/T gunners unfamiliar with the shape as it reversed towards them.  Others were wounded, another tank had gun malfunction and withdrew.   They all sustained several non-penetrating hits from enemy fire.  Five were finally  backloaded to the Canal Zone, the KO'd one recovered later followed.  From then on there is no record of other movement or disposal.  Presumably they were dumped or cut up for metal components.  An article on these was published in IPMS magazine about 2 years ago.

[Steben]

Starmers paint chips.......
SCC5 = RAL 7002
SCC14 = RAL 7021