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Armor/AFV: Allied - WWII
Armor and ground forces of the Allied forces during World War II.
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Air ID Panels - Experts Needed!
sniper
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Posted: Thursday, October 10, 2002 - 08:52 AM UTC

Question.

Trying to find out about the ID panels that U.S. vehicles used for protection from Allied fighters.

My questions are; were there standard colors or did they vary by unit, area, etc? what was the size of the panels? were they made in the field from materials available or pre-supplied to the units? what were they made from (canvas, etc)? were they placed on certain parts of certain vehicles (for example, did they always get placed over the engine hatches on an M4)?

I am mostly interested in the Western Europe theater. I have very few refernces that mention these, so any help would be appreciated!

Steve
sniper
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Posted: Friday, October 11, 2002 - 02:38 AM UTC

Come on! Someone must know something about this one!

Steve
DesertRat
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Posted: Friday, October 11, 2002 - 04:27 AM UTC
Hello,

I believe you are referring to the Air Reconigtion Panel, AL -140- B. Size was 12 feet X 30 1/2", (3,66 X 0,82 meters), and came in bright red, yellow or orange plastified fabric, with the reverse in white. These were the panels used by infantry and similar units.
I am not sure if the ones used on vehicles were the same or not.
Definitely, they responded to some kind of code for their utilisation, they were changed according to date, or to special orders.
I would recommend you put this question here:

http://www.missing-lynx.com/

In the appropriate Allied WW2 vehicles Forum thread. Very probably, a more complete answer will come out.
HTH,

Dani :-)
sniper
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Posted: Friday, October 11, 2002 - 05:01 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hello,

I believe you are referring to the Air Reconigtion Panel, AL -140- B. Size was 12 feet X 30 1/2", (3,66 X 0,82 meters), and came in bright red, yellow or orange plastified fabric, with the reverse in white. These were the panels used by infantry and similar units.
I am not sure if the ones used on vehicles were the same or not.
Definitely, they responded to some kind of code for their utilisation, they were changed according to date, or to special orders.
I would recommend you put this question here:

http://www.missing-lynx.com/

In the appropriate Allied WW2 vehicles Forum thread. Very probably, a more complete answer will come out.
HTH,

Dani :-)


Thanks Dani.

Posted this about a week ago on ML and got ignored there. Thought I would try here. Appreciate your info though. Good stuff.

Will try ML again I think.

Steve
fitzgibbon505
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Posted: Friday, October 11, 2002 - 06:34 AM UTC
Steve,
http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:LvL4fCCC5s8C:www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/47208%3Fit%3D92++%22air+recognition+panels%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
should give you the thread you want on M-L, there was quite a discussion about them.
http://www.archertransfers.com/WEB%20pictures/ArmorPg15.pdf
is the listing for the panels available from Archer Fine Transfers, and
http://www.militarymodelling.com/features/feature5/page4.html
is a link to a Steve Zaloga article in Military Modelling in which he talks about these panels.
Hope the gives you the info you need,
Jim
clovis899
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Posted: Friday, October 11, 2002 - 11:35 AM UTC
Jim (Fitzgibbon505) has the best answer for you. I can photo-copy the Zaloga article and mail it to you if you are unable to obtain it any other way.

Coop
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Posted: Saturday, October 12, 2002 - 04:53 AM UTC

Thanks guys! Great references!

Steve
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