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United Kingdom: Desert Rats

by Edward Mooney, 10 January 2001

A neighbor of mine when I was a kid used to tell me stories about fighting with the British 7th in North Africa in WWII. He had the flag (pennant?) attached hanging in his garage. I found this image in the Eyewitness Series Book by Knopf entitled "FLAG" [cra89g], and it matched my memory of the flag I saw years ago.
Edward Mooney, 10 January 2001

First design
Later design
Origin of the Desert Rats

See also:

Desert Rats: first design

The "Desert Rats" were the 7th Armoured Division of the British Army, not to be confused with the 8th Army or any regiments. The 7th Armoured were the first to enter the desert war against the Italians in 1941, where they soon earned the nickname "desert rats". The "formation sign" of the 7th Armoured was originally a white circle inside a red square (see note below). This was identical, except in proportions, to the 7th Infantry Division of the First World War. The formation sign was painted on vehicles and worn as a cloth patch at the top of the sleeve of all personnel. The 7th Armoured participated in the invasion of Italy, but were then withdrawn and sent to NW Europe instead a month after D-Day. It was there that the red jerboa (desert rat) first started to appear in the white circle of the formation sign. Shortly afterwards, the sign was changed to a red jerboa outlined in white on a black rectangle.

The standard identifying symbol of a British division in WW2 was a red swallow-tail flag. Individual divisions mounted their formation sign on this flag. Brigades which had fought with the 7th Armoured Division in the North African desert and subsequently became independent took with them the jerboa symbol. The 4th Armoured Brigade had a black jerboa on a white square. The 7th Armoured Brigade, which went to Burma and called themselves the "jungle rats", had a green jerboa in a red circlet on a white background.

Attached is an approximation of the 7th Armoured Division flag at the end of WW2, based on photographs of other divisional flags and photographs of the 7th's formation sign.

T.F. Mills, 10 January 2001

Note 1.

It was on a red oblong not square and originally worn on the Topee ( I still have mine) not on the top of the sleeve, that came much later.
Ernie Huntley, 6 December 2002

Later design

by Todd Mills, 10 January 2001

The 7th Armoured Division Formation Sign was a red jerboa in a white circle on red square. Later it was a brown jerboa fimbriated white on black.
David Prothero, 10 January 2001

In William Crampton: "The World of Flags", Studio Editions, 2nd edition, London 1992, there is a picture on page 142 of General Mongomery in front of a Jeep with the flag and shield of the Eighth Army. The flag is on a small staf