Identification of captured WW2 Italian tank pennants (1 Viewer)

[The Military Workshop]

Just had one of the staff of the Light Horse Museum near me mention two captured Italian tank pennants they have in their collection.

They are triangular black pennants with gold/yellow tassles. Size would be slightly larger than A4 paper.

Each has gold/yellow text as follows :

AMOS FG
MARAMOTTI C

and

UGO FG
BOTTI C

Anybody know what they represent ? Crew names and unit ?

Regards
Brett

 

[Phantom Warrior]

Just had one of the staff of the Light Horse Museum near me mention two captured Italian tank pennants they have in their collection.

They are triangular black pennants with gold/yellow tassles. Size would be slightly larger than A4 paper.

Each has gold/yellow text as follows :

AMOS FG
MARAMOTTI C

and

UGO FG
BOTTI C

Anybody know what they represent ? Crew names and unit ?

Regards
Brett

Italian tanks were often named after cities, battles, heroes etc by Platoon. These were painted on the side of the tank in the colour of the regiment. Amos Maramotti was a student 'martyr' to the Fascist cause killed in a clash with communists in 1924. Ugo Botti was the captain of an Italian corvette in pre-war fascist Italy. So it looks like that particular Platoon named their tanks after fascist heroes.

The 12th (Saluzzo) Light Cavalry Regiment used black underlined with yellow to paint these names on the tanks i.e. the regimental colours. The black pennant with yellow printing is likely the pennant of a platoon in the Saluzzo Regiment.

I don't know what the FG and C mean.

Terry

 

[The Military Workshop]

Thanks Terry.

I did do a Google search but for Maramotti the results were Italian.

Regards
Brett

 

[Phantom Warrior]

Thanks Terry.

I did do a Google search but for Maramotti the results were Italian.

Regards
Brett

I'm glad you described the pennant so well or it would not have been possible to identify it. This was an old system of identification which went out of use in early 1941 so it was used in the pre-WWII colonial wars and initially in the North Afrika campaign.

The records list 19 armoured regiments using the old system, which is odd to me because there was only one armoured regiment in an armoured division and Italy had only 3 armoured divisions. Some of the so called regiments are sometimes referred to as battalions and some regiments may have been light tank battalions or Semovente Battalions. Some of the units were refered to at different times as both regiments and battalions.

In any case, I would guess those pennants are probably rare.

Terry