| dbo:abstract
|
- Unit colour patches (or simply known as colour patches) are a method of identification used by the Australian Army, used to indicate which unit a soldier belongs to. It is believed that the Australian system of colour patches is based upon the small patches of colours or tartan worn on the puggarees of the pith helmets of members of a number of British Army units during the Second Boer War, the South African War of 1899–1902. While some modern Australian colour patches are recent creations, many date back to World War I. The first approval for the use of distinctive unit colours for Australian army units came from Major General William Throsby Bridges for the 1st Division to fly flags to denote unit areas and lines in Egypt during World War I. C.E.W. Bean made the first reference to unit colour patches to be worn on the uniform, when he described Major General Bridges issuing 1st Australian Divisional Order No. 562 dated 8 March 1915, ordering that patches be worn, describing how they would look and ordering that they were to be worn on the uniform sleeve 1 inch (25 mm) below the shoulder. As this was an extension of the order for the posting of the colour flags to denote headquarters and unit lines, these flags were used as the basic design for 1st Division uniform colour patches. In total over 300 individual patches were eventually authorized for Australian units during World War 1. Since World War I, many units have used colour patches showing their relationships to units of earlier times. For example, railway operating units of both the First and Second World Wars displayed a diamond (or lozenge) shape in the purple of the engineers on a red square background. Wherever possible the features of modern colour patches also reflect relationships between current units and their antecedents from previous wars. For example, modern and historical artillery patches are red and blue, modern army aviation patches preserve the light blue background with red and blue vertical bands of their World War 1 antecedents, while modern engineer patches remain predominantly purple. Some modern units reflect that they are direct descendants of World War 1 and 2 units. For example, the 8th/7th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment of rural Victoria uses the white over red horizontal rectangular patch of the original 8th Battalion. The shapes, colours and embellishments of unit colour patches therefore not only identify individuals as members of units, but they can also reflect the story of the unit. Modern unit colour patches are approximately 40 millimetres (1.6 in) x 40 millimetres (1.6 in) in size and use a large variety of colours and shapes to distinguish the units they represent while preserving links to patterns used by related units from earlier times. Unit colour patches are currently worn on the right side of the puggaree on the slouch hat in the Australian Army. (en)
|
| dbo:thumbnail
| |
| dbo:wikiPageExternalLink
| |
| dbo:wikiPageID
| |
| dbo:wikiPageLength
|
- 123185 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger)
|
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID
| |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink
| |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate
| |
| dcterms:subject
| |
| rdfs:comment
|
- Unit colour patches (or simply known as colour patches) are a method of identification used by the Australian Army, used to indicate which unit a soldier belongs to. It is believed that the Australian system of colour patches is based upon the small patches of colours or tartan worn on the puggarees of the pith helmets of members of a number of British Army units during the Second Boer War, the South African War of 1899–1902. While some modern Australian colour patches are recent creations, many date back to World War I. (en)
|
| rdfs:label
|
- Australian Army unit colour patches (en)
|
| owl:sameAs
| |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom
| |
| foaf:depiction
| |
| foaf:homepage
| |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf
| |
| is dbo:wikiPageRedirects
of | |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink
of | |
| is foaf:primaryTopic
of | |
_5th_Aust._Divisional_Signal_Company_1916-1919.png){kind=link}
