British colours and schemes 1945 onwards

[APA]

Try as I might I cannot find a definitive reference for the various colours and schemes used by British AFV's etc post 1945. There is plenty (Relatively speaking) for WW2, I have the venerable Mr Starmers books so I'm pretty covered on that score, and some for modern day but other than 'Deep Bronze Green happened in 1948, apparently gloss and then it was Olive Drab Matt' I can't find anything.

Could someone point me in the direction of what colours and when? Hopefully including camo schemes. I'm most interested in Home and European theatres 1945 to 1970s ish but more the merrier 😁

 

Cheers all and thanks in advance.

 

Andrew

[Graham Boak]

There is a set of four volumes called Warpaint.  This covers British Army camouflage and markings from the beginning of the 20th Century to now.  The first, which is possibly the one most suited to you, has just been reprinted.

[Steben]

Deep Bronze green was issued officially very early on after the war.
BUT ..... Painting all equipment was not a daily activity everyone was waiting for.
And DBG was not a tactically beneficial colour. No picture I've seen shows Centurions in Korea with glossy finish. They all look flat. SCC15 is the word here. i've heard stories about glossy tanks being repainted in SCC15 for Korea. But I am not sure about that.
DBG got swapped even in peacetime for Olive Drab (BS by then 298) late sixties. And at the end of the 70ties NATO Green IRR made its entry.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Steben

[APA]

Thanks chaps

I'm investing in the warpaint series of books which should cover most bases 👍

 

Andrew 

[Wavertree]

Centurions 1957 - 1960 (that I saw) were all DBG.

[Wavertree]

Is it possible for someone to list the topics in each volume?  Rather expensive to find you've gone and bought the wrong one!

 

[Julien]

Regarding DBG in about 1979/80 my dad recalls a Land rover ambulance being rolled (quite common im told) and they took the body off to fit to a chassis from storage and the chassis was still in its original DBG.

[Kingsman]

Deep Bronze Green BSC24 only came into use in 1955 after Korea.  SCC15 was still the standard colour during Korea.  IRR green and black came into use in 1971.  But the changeovers were obviously not instant and front-line combat equipment took priority for repainting.

 

Looks like you want Volume 3 of Warpaint.  Try the Tank Museum shop.  The reprint was done for them.

 

Here are the volume contents.

 

Vol 1

Colours and Sources

Paint and Camouflage up to 1939

Registrations, WD Numbers and Census Marks

 

Vol 2

Paint and Camouflage WW2

Sub-unit markings and callsign systems

 

Vol 3

Paint and Camouflage post-WW2

Arm of Service markings

Formation signs

 

Vol 4

Ground and Air recognition systems

Vehicle names

Miscellaneous marking systems

[John Tapsell]

On 12/2/2022 at 2:03 AM, Julien said:

Regarding DBG in about 1979/80 my dad recalls a Land rover ambulance being rolled (quite common im told) ...

Allegedlly, the Dutch referred to theirs as 'magic ambulances' because during a cross-country trip, you could virtually guarantee that the medic in back would become a casualty as well...

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by John Tapsell

[Julien]

5 hours ago, John Tapsell said:

Allegedlly, the Dutch referred to theirs as 'magic ambulances' because during a cross-country trip, you could virtually guarantee that the medic in back would become a casualty as well...

 

About right, My Dad admits to rolling a couple