LAND > ARMOR

Euro Signage in WWII

(1/1)

Rokket:
Maybe we should have a separate dio category as this relates to dioramas... Anyway, here's some news that may prove both interesting (history) and useful (modeling).

I was just watching a WWII doco in colour ("George Stevens presents: D-Day to Berlin"). Anyway, there's a great shot from a jeep as it approaches an intersection and swings around a corner, following a sign direction. There's a pretty good shot of the sign. It says "Berlin". I was facinated by the sign itself.

It's a large blue sign with a white border, a rectangle that has one side pointed (so it points right).  Pretty much like this sample, but mounted on two legs and about the size of a door:



Anyway, as the camera got closer, you could see some great detail: the sign was made of THICK wood strips, about 5, and the letters were possibly painted on, MAYBE cut out of wood and mounted. BUT, here's the cool bit: the letters had large coin-sized, bolt-head-looking things in the center - not to hold them on, but as reflectors! They were white-silvery, don't know if clear of just painted or what, but there were too many for just bolting the letters on, clearly there to show the letters as if drawn in bullet-holes, when hit by headlights. Very interesting that they had reflectors on signs 60 years ago (yet the signs were wood).

wildspear:
I couldn't find any signage with the reflective bolts but some do show they were made of slats/planks. Here are some that I found;










Looks to me that there was a problem keeping signs in place.....LOL!!

Rokket:
Wild - LOL. thanks for those. (Oh, I wasn't making up the bolts/reflectors...I'm gonna have to try a DVD frame capture...)

Navigation

[0] Message Index