Reply To: Help Identifying Infantry

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

No worries, @warzan .  Any excuse to dive into OOB charts.  😀

Indeed @damon – two Vandeleurs.  I’m just not sure which is which.  J.O.E. (Evelyn) Vandeleur, according to these charts, commands 3rd Irish Guards, part of 32nd Guards Brigade (Mechanized).  That’s infantry in trucks, halftracks, and/or universal carriers.  The cousin commands the tanks of 2nd Irish Guards, part of 5th Guards Armored Brigade.

So did the movie conflate or combine these two?  Michael Caine’s “Joe” character seems to command a mixed force of infantry and tanks.  Maybe they combined the two Vandeleurs for the movie?  The movie is deliberately vague in just calling his unit “the Irish Guards” rather than specifying between 2nd (armored) IG and 3rd (mechanized) IG.

I was bringing this up because Irish tanks and infantry in a combined (if only temporary) “battlegroup” would seem to be what @warzan was looking for, at least as pertains to Market-Garden.