Posted 12 years ago
Rogueroman
(96 items)
I am trying to get some information on this photo - WWI or WWII? are they British Soldiers? They are all wearing berets and the only other obvious identification is the C COMPANY on the wall to the left of the soldiers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I scanned and enlarged sections with the hopes that someone may be able to identify the stripes on the uniforms or maybe the insignia on one of the Berets. Thank you in advance.
I see two different badges.
Is one the Grenadier Guards?
Those three in the centre front row?
Look at those two guys hanging out of the window!
It must have been an event!
Ok, I'll take a stab at this, and will be happy to be corrected by the British WWII experts.
I'm sure the uniforms are after WWI, and I believe its WWII. I think the majority of these soldiers are wearing British Army General Service Corps (GSC) badges on their berets. The GSC acted holding unit for soldiers not assigned to other units or corps, usually reservists. However; the GSC was only active in wartime – which is why I think this is WWII. You’ll notice these men seem to have no other distinguishing insignia and seem to be all privates.
The soldiers in the center appear to be wearing the badge of the Royal Fusiliers on their berets. (The Grenadier guards have a more rounded cluster of flames over the round bomb; the Royal Fusiliers have a more Christmas tree shaped cluster of flames). These men all wear stripes on their sleeves, at least one ribbon above the pocket, and one sergeant may be wearing wound stripes above his cuff. These more seasoned soldiers may be the training cadre for the unit
Thank you so much for your input, and though I am absolutely not knowledgeable about anything military, I believe that you are right on the money. I too, spent some time trying to identify the insignia badges by shape only and came up with the same two you described - The Royal Fusiliers and the GSC. Again, thank you very, very much.