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    Vehicle Art of World War Two
    Vehicle Art of World War Two
    Vehicle Art of World War Two
    Ebook265 pages1 hour

    Vehicle Art of World War Two

    By John Norris

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    About this ebook

    The nose art that decorated WW2 aircraft has received considerable attention but the images and slogans that decorated land vehicles has been less widely appreciated. This visually stunning book displays many fine examples (original or faithfully recreated) of the art that adorned the military vehicles of both Allied and Axis forces. Both official unit markings, such as divisional badges and unit emblems, as well as decidedly less official renderings of pin-up girls and cartoon characters are included. John Norriss concise but well researched text and extended captions set the artwork in context and explain the development of vehicle art through the course of the war and in the various armies. The result is a visual treat for the casual reader and a valuable reference for reenactors, vehicle restorers, wargamers and modellers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateFeb 19, 2017
    ISBN9781473884823
    Vehicle Art of World War Two
    Author

    John Norris

    John Norris is a freelance military historian who writes regular monthly columns for several specialist titles, ranging from vehicle profiles to reenactment events. He has written fifteen books on various military historical subjects, most recently Fix Bayonets! (due to be published by Pen & Sword).

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      Book preview

      Vehicle Art of World War Two - John Norris

      motif.

      Introduction

      Since the beginning of recorded history, men in battle have been known to decorate their armour and, in some instances, even give names to their personal weapons which they carried into war, particularly swords. To reflect the high status of the carrier, such as the king or tribal leader, their weapons were of the finest quality and decorated with embellishments which proclaimed ownership. Named swords appear many times in myth and legend, such as that of King Arthur, whose sword ‘Excalibur’ was imbued with mystical properties. The Norse god Odin had his sword ‘Gram’ and similar tales exist in many societies around the world, from a time when warriors believed their weapons had ‘special powers’ which rendered up great strength in battle.

      The sea-faring Viking raiders who sailed to Britain from the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden and Norway also ventured down to Sicily. They had a tradition of naming their swords, for example ‘Hvati’ (Keen), ‘Langhrass’ (Long and Sharp), or the sword of the twelfth century king of Norway, Magnus III, which was called ‘Legbit’, referred to as ‘Legbiter’ in some chronicles. Such swords were expensive and had their names etched on the blades. Indeed, such was their value these swords were often buried with their owners, as evidenced during the 1939 excavations at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Later, as war became more sophisticated, gigantic stone-throwing machines were developed to lay siege to castles. The men operating these engines of war adopted the practice of naming them. The practice became popular and spread among armies of the Middle Ages. For example, in 1303 when the Bernese army was laying siege to the town of Wimmis, near the canton of Bern in modern-day Switzerland, they deployed two massive trebuchets (catapults) which were called ‘La fille de bois’ (meaning the girl or daughter of wood) and ‘L’ane’ (meaning the donkey). The application of names to these machines no doubt also served to inspire the troops who operated them.

      The tradition of naming military hardware and decorating equipment with highly elaborate, hand-painted motifs is something which can also be traced back many centuries if not millennia to the very dawn of recorded warfare. During the Classical period of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, armies are known to have adorned chariots and shields with religious images, royal emblems and good luck symbols. These armies were among the very first organized military societies and the soldiers stepped onto the battlefield in organized formations wearing helmets, body armour and shields. Helmet styles such as the Greek ‘Corinthian-style’ enclosed the whole head and covered the face, leaving openings only to breathe and for the eyes, meaning that the identity of the wearer was often obscured. As means of identification in battle, commanders would attach brightly-coloured plumes or crests to their helmets. The Greeks carried large, brightly-coloured round shields called ‘aspis’ to protect their left side leaving their right arm free to wield a sword. In battle formation these shields could be interlocked by the soldiers, overlapping them to form a solid wall behind which the infantry could advance and by using their sheer weight force their way through an enemy’s formation. The legionaries of the Roman army employed a more advanced tactic using their shields, called ‘scutums’, which were painted with symbols of their Legion. This was known as the ‘testudo’, named after the tortoise whose shell protected it from attack, and allowed them to manoeuvre en masse under cover of the shields.

      Recreated image showing how Greek hoplites used colours and images to identify individuals on the battlefield.

      The Roman Legions also used colours and symbols to identify units on the battlefield, as shown here in this recreated image.

      In such close formation, with heads protected by the all-enclosing helmets, voices would have been muffled and identities lost, making it easy for troops to become disorientated in the melée of battle and lose contact with commanders of units. As means of identifying individuals and leaders on the battlefield the Greeks often decorated their shields with symbols so that men could look to see where their commander was in an instant or who was standing next to them. Some of the designs were heraldic symbols of a particular family and others were a statement of a man’s fighting prowess on the battlefield. As such these designs could be in the form of a spider, a scorpion, snakes or the head of a lion, which indicated speed and strength. Some designs were symmetrical patterns and others were mythical creatures such as a griffon or the snake-haired Gorgon ‘Medusa’, whose look, so legend would have it, could transform men into statues of stone.

      While such symbols served to identify the leaders to their own side they also alerted the enemy to the importance of their rank. In such instances he would often be targeted and attacked in force with the intention of either killing him or capturing him so as to render his troops without a leader. In Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, which tells the story of the Trojan War and the siege of the city of Troy, the mighty Achilles was invulnerable and could not be killed by mortal man unless struck in the one weak spot on his body, his heel. Yet he wore armour, a helmet, and carried a highly decorated shield. Why? The only logical answer is that he wished to be identified to his troops, the Myrmidons. Their allegiance was solely to Achilles and they would have needed to see him on the battlefield in the crush of the fighting. Other legendary figures from the siege of Troy, such as Ajax, Priam, Paris and Hector all wore distinctive armour and carried highly decorated shields for the same purpose; for identification and to announce their status.

      Over the centuries men going into war continued to decorate their armour with symbols and sometimes became associated with a particular colour. For example, the exceptional and fearless fourteenth-century military leader, Prince Edward of England, distinguished himself by wearing black armour in battle and carrying a black-faced shield bearing three white feathers with the motto ‘Ich Dien’ meaning ‘I Serve’. Because of this he was certainly conspicuous on the battlefield, but contrary to popular belief the epithet ‘Black Prince’ does not appear to have been bestowed on him until some 150 years after his death.

      One famous example of a named gun comes from the English Civil War. In a unit of artillery in the Parliamentarian Army the crew of a gun named their weapon ‘Sweet Lips’ after a lady of ill-repute.

      By the First World War drivers were naming their vehicles, like this Locomobile named The Ancre Flyer.

      This British-built Pierce Arrow truck used in the First World War is named Tigress.

      Heraldic emblems and symbols on shields and helmets with crests continued to be used in armies around the world until the nineteenth century, by which time wars were being fought on an industrial scale with large armies comprising of battalions. There began to emerge the devices which would become regimental cap badges and divisional signs.

      Horses have been used in war for thousands of years and the relationships between riders and animals can become close. The names of many military horses are known, one of the earliest being ‘Bucephalus’ the horse Alexander the Great famously tamed and then rode during his campaigns in the fourth century BC. In the nineteenth century Napoleon Bonaparte rode ‘Marengo’ on campaign and the Duke of Wellington rode ‘Copenhagen’. Horses used in armies around the world are still named, as well as having numbers, because the men can relate more to using a name than a number.

      Into the twentieth century, during the great battles which marked both world wars, there, amidst all the bombs exploding and soldiers in their uniforms of drab brown, grey and green, there could be spotted splashes of colour in the form of divisional patches on the vehicles and uniforms. These colours and the patterns they formed were distinctive and allowed soldiers to identify the positions held by their divisions.

      For the most part twentieth-century symbols were official, which is to say they were authorized for use by military high commands, and these were accepted as divisional emblems. The design of some of these divisional symbols harked back to earlier days and used lion heads, birds and could incorporate numbers and letters. But there was still room for unofficial symbols and nicknames to be applied to individual pieces of machinery just as individual soldiers were often given nicknames. Aircraft in the First World War were decorated with lucky mascots in bright hues such as playing cards, animals or others items including hats. The practice of naming machines also extended to vehicles, including trucks, which were called after girls, locations – for example The Ancre Flyer – or other nicknames, such as Tigress.

      The images used in this book appear in three categories. Firstly, there are some of the original types, examples of which we have very kindly been allowed to reproduce by the Tank Museum at Bovington

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