Cloth Canadian film and photo unit

[byterock]

There is also a curious photo of a Cdn Film and Photo Officer who returned from Korea wearing an embroidered title. It is hard to tell in the photo, but it appears to be slightly different. I attempted to contact this veteran with no luck.


Ken

That would be odd indeed as there where no 'Officers' in the CFPU at least that is what I have read over the years of course I could be 100% wrong on than.

Might of been a war correspondent?

They did have conducting officers of course in the unit but they where RCASC types if I am not mistaken.

[Grizzly]

That would be odd indeed as there where no 'Officers' in the CFPU at least that is what I have read over the years of course I could be 100% wrong on than.

Might of been a war correspondent?

They did have conducting officers of course in the unit but they where RCASC types if I am not mistaken.

The Canadian Film and Photo Unit certainly had officers. See these links.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/d...61e418fc72bc1e

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/d...61e418fc72bc1e

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/d...61e418fc72bc1e

[byterock]

The Canadian Film and Photo Unit certainly had officers. See these links.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/d...61e418fc72bc1e

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/d...61e418fc72bc1e

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/d...61e418fc72bc1e

Like I said these officers where 'Conducting Officers' attached to the Unit and as such not 'Members' of the unit so they did not wear the unit insignia.

Will have to look it up next time I am over at the CWM

Opps as usual I spoke a little too soon

seems they had

1) Conducting officers
2) Infantry Officer in Charge
3) Directing/Production Officers
4) Officer Still Photographer

Not sure if any of them would wear the unit badge though

[force136]

I am sure photos do not lie

I have this photocopied somewhere if someone wants to post it for me. It will mean another dive into the endless pit of documents. I am not sure what you are on about regarding officers? Obviously they had officers. They had a Commanding Officer for one. The CO of the photo sections within the Public Relations Groups. Photo sections had officers in command. Lt. Charles Richer was the officer in charge of No. 9 Photo Section which jumped and landed with 1CPB across the Rhine. Charlie wore CF&PU titles as shown in my book. The embroidered title belonged to Richer. Besides, in my book, I quote a Film and Photo Officer requesting what is happening with their order to Hobson's regarding the embroidered titles they ordered.

So you have been misinformed.

Ken

Like I said these officers where 'Conducting Officers' attached to the Unit and as such not 'Members' of the unit so they did not wear the unit insignia.

Will have to look it up next time I am over at the CWM

Opps as usual I spoke a little too soon

seems they had

1) Conducting officers
2) Infantry Officer in Charge
3) Directing/Production Officers
4) Officer Still Photographer

Not sure if any of them would wear the unit badge though

[Grizzly]

Huh? Most of these officers were members of the CFPU, and were on the establishment of that unit. Perhaps the confusion comes with the cap insignia. This was officially sanctioned. The officers and men who became members of the CFPU wore their former regimental or corps cap badge, as the CFPU never had a unique cap badge. Those personnel who did not have a regimental or corps badge wore the general list cap badge.
As Ken indicates, acquiring shoulder titles took time and the first printed batch didn't arrive in unit hands until sometime over the summer of 1944. The nature of the unit made it very difficult to disperse insignia, as so much of the work was done by parties of the CFPU attached to different formations. They did not have the typical regimental stores of other operational units. The lack of insignia is likely due to the fact the individuals had not been able to draw their titles from stores, or the images were taken of the CFPU party before the insignia was available.
Here is an image of three different correspondent titles from my collection.

[byterock]

I guess what I was trying to way was that the officers did not wear the 'CFPU' shoulder flash and kept their corps/regimental flashes in most of the pics I have seen.

As for being members of the unit I think we are running into the old problem of interpretation of the 'admin orders' of being a member of a unit vs being attached/assigned. In the end the same thing.



War Corespondents where a different kettle of fish.

Nice to see some more badges come to the surface.

Cheers

[force136]

What the?

PLease read the statements above by me and Grizzly. It explains it all. The unit was created ( WE ) in February 1943 and consisted AT THAT TIME of 13 OFFICERS and 75 OR's. They had their HQ / Processing facility in the UK as part of CMHQ and it eventually constituted 4 separate Photo Sections working within the 4 Public Relations Groups. They were in different theaters or war and one was raised for the CAOF. They did not have shoulder titles before May of 1944 so they either did not wear any insignia other than General List OR some may have worn old unit insignia. As of May/June 1944 ALL, both Officers and OR's had CF&PU titles. As soon as a design for their title was revealed, embroidered titles could have been purchased privately as noted in my book. Earliest documented ref to this being August 1944 but I suspect from one photograph that examples could have been available even earlier. As GRizzly stated, the guys in the UK got the titles, but those in the Med and elsewhere may not have got them for some time.

Ken

I guess what I was trying to way was that the officers did not wear the 'CFPU' shoulder flash and kept their corps/regimental flashes in most of the pics I have seen.

As for being members of the unit I think we are running into the old problem of interpretation of the 'admin orders' of being a member of a unit vs being attached/assigned. In the end the same thing.



War Corespondents where a different kettle of fish.

Nice to see some more badges come to the surface.

Cheers