Cheshire Yeomanry insignia help

[NickG]

Seeking some help on Cheshire Yeomanry title insignia.
(last active ww2 British Cavalry unit, Syria and Lebanon 1942)

On the web I read this:
After The British decided to do away with Mounted Cavalry units, in March 1942 (post Syrian campaign), the Cheshire Yeomanry was "dis-mounted" and transferred to the Royal Corps of Signals, becoming the 5th (from February 1945 the 11th) Line of Communications Signals Regiment (Cheshire Yeomanry)
As signallers they still wore their own cap badge.
Apparently there was also a white on blue (the colours of the Signals) shoulder title designed for these former-horsemen. (2nd image)

They were transferred to the RAC on 1 April 1947,
Would the Red on Yellow shoulder title (next post) be from that period??????
or prior (WW2 service) as well?

I'm first showing the brass version as worn during WW1 through early WW2
after that the White on Blue (signals colors) title, shown = A COPY, BAD FAKE, for reference purposes only!!!) example as worn later in the war when they were deployed as a signals unit. (still even maintaining some horses)

[NickG]

According to Brian Jewell and Mike Chappell's Battle Dress book P. 24 (Osprey)
the Cheshire Yeomanry adopted the Red on Yellow cloth titles DURING the war... (explained as "non-standard patterns" title colors)

Link here...
http://books.google.com/books?id=swd...m=4&sqi=2&ved=

So were these red on yellow titles also war time used or more likely only post war when Cheshire Yeomanry transferred over from Signals to RAC?

I did read that during the war when they lost their horses and became a signals unit (deploying in France after D-Day) they continued wearing their Cheshire Yeomanry beret insignia and even Signals replacement men were eager to obtain Yeomanry insignia, ditching their originally issued Corps of Signals branch beret insignia.
So they really were displeased with their Signals duties and tried to maintain their Yeomanry identity!!

So based on that, my question is;
Were Cavalry (Armor) colored titles (Red-Yellow) as shown below also used in WW2 by the Cheshire Yeomanry??
These titles are made like any other WW2 cloth title, so period pieces?

Anybody?

[peter monahan]

Not strictly an answer to your question about the badges, but John Masters, a Gurkha officer who eventually commanded a Chindit column in Burma and went on to write novels and screenplays, served with his Gurkhas and the Cheshires early in the war. He suggests that the regiment - still horsed - was in effect the local fox hunt militarized, with the Colonel functioning as Master and the officers and men as the field.

In fact, Masters describes watching the Colonel introduce his officers to a visiting general and, after fluffing the name of one young subaltern mutter 'Damn, be forgetting the names of me hounds next!".

Later when pressed to send a troop into the hinterland for a look see at the enemy the Colonel instructed the Adj. to "Send Johnny." to which the the Adj. responded "Johnny? Do you think he'll go?". Johnny did, since the Brigadier seemed set on it, but not with any good grace. Not the brisk professional approach of legend!

So, a unit made up of "gentlemen in uniform". Just the sort of group who would keep their personal insignia and to Hades with what the regulations and HQ said!

[NickG]

Thanks for the information Peter. Considering their Corps d'esprit it must have been a terrible blow for these equestrians to loose their horses
and get reassigned in the Signals Corps after finishing their deployment in the Middle east (patrolling Lebanon and Syria).

Here some neat images of these yeomanry troops in the Middle East.
Taken from the militaryhorse.org site (which allows reproducing as long as they're credited)

[NickG]

Any info available on the red on yellow unit shoulder titles?

[ObltKG4]

On an unrelated note, I have a video posted of an interview with a Chesire Yeomanry veteran on the boat to Normandy last year.
You can view at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlV6kJo-pgk