Hello and Welcome
Welcome to the new home of UK Tank Markings.
The purpose of this site is to describe and explain the markings worn by British and Commonwealth tanks and other military vehicles during the Second World War.
While there are many books on the subject, many of them are long out of print and very hard to find, and so by presenting information in a digital format online, I hope to make it accessible to everyone. I have striven to make my diagrams as readable and as user-friendly as possible, in the hope that they’ll prove useful to the wargamer, the model-maker, and the amateur historian alike.
In the course of the extensive research I’ve undertaken to produce this site I have attempted to use reputable published reference material as much as possible, and I’m eternally grateful for the help and advice I’ve received from the wargaming, modelling and wider military history community.
I have occasionally had to use my own judgement reconcile conflicting information from different sources, so some inaccuracies may remain. References and sources are given on individual pages as well as on the Bibliography page.
Please use the menus to navigate around the site, and feel free to leave comments, corrections, and feedback using the comments sections on individual pages, or via email at: [email protected]k
There will be regular updates, so please bookmark this page and consider subscribing below for email updates.
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Material from this site may be copied for free distribution providing acknowledgement of this source is given.
SquireBev – 2021
UK Tank Markings 
Hi i will see if I can send this,
did not work oh well i’ll put iton the forum.
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I strongly believe that your work here is worth a big thumbs up and appreciation.
I for one love what you did, it helps me in regards to modeling of British tanks and soft skins in WW2.
As my late father had taken part in that conflict, serving with the 8th Army in Italy that theatre is of particular interest for me.
Would love seeing that this theatre also been covered the same as NW European theatre.
Some notable divisions and brigades were in Italy, part of the 8th Army.
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So very happy to see the site go from strength to strength, I even bought a few stickers from the shop.
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Hello,
Thank you for the work you do on this interesting subject. I am currently researching on the dummy tank divisions, and all divisions, invented during the North African Campaign. Do you have any information regarding their emblems or badge signs?
Thank you
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With the main work on NWE done, will you also look into the XIVth army and look into the CBI theatre, There have been armoured formations there as well, mostly of the Indian army, but at that time was still a part of your Empire. That would be a wonderful addition to this lovely site.
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What a great asset you have created. Could I please get a little more information on the numbering? Do the numbers in the boxes mean anything specific? Are they random or are they genuine? Are they a code? How does the code work? Would the number be represented on the front of a vehicle in the coloured square as you’ve demonstrated; and finally, do you have any info on the placement of these designations on particular vehicles? For example, front drivers side bumper and rear drivers bumper?
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This website is extremely helpful. I’m trying to find information on and markings for the LVT-1s which were sent to Burma. I don’t even know where one would find such information.
Also, the AOS badges in the Burma Campaign were often different from the European ones. I’m not sure if it was consistently that way. But, would love to get a section covering the Burma/China/India units if possible.
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This site has helped me tremendously while making my wargaming british army for the Western Desert and Normandy. Constantly returning for updates. If I could suggest one thing to make it even better would be to add a graphic of what Army/Core/Divisions were used together.
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Many thanks for this excellent resource.
Does anyone know what markings would’uve been carried by Churchill AVRE’s as they underwent testing at the Fighting Vehicles Proving Establishment (FVPE),Chertsey?
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Sorry. Forgot to say please!
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Actually, make that any AFV
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ive been struggling to work out the markings for my modelling for years and could never find a site that explained it all until now, what markings i need is a lot clearer now
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Great site. I found a lot of very interesting info. I have a question: in the map of AoS for the Arm Div in Europe 1944 shouldn’t the flash for the Royal Art HQ be 40 instead of 80? many thanks. Franco
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