Formation patch

Formation patches or Formation badges are types of military insignia developed during the 20th Century. Originally intended as battlefield identification of military formations, they have persisted into the 21st Century as an element of military heraldry.

Previous to the 20th Century, tactical control of military units in the field - particularly in the "post-Cromwell era" - was aided by the use of distinctively coloured uniforms and colours, standards and guidons.

During World War I (also known as the First World War or the Great War), as armies adopted drab coloured uniforms, the need to identify friendly troops in assaulting formations was made acute by the problems of intensive defensive firepower and the attendant problem of dispersion. The British Army, among others, developed a solution whereby individual divisions, brigades, battalions and even companies were identified by distinctive coloured cloth insignia, either sewn to the uniform jacket (on the sleeves, or the back of the tunic), or painted on the helmet. These marks became common after the Battle of the Somme in 1916. These distinguishing marks were also alternately known as "Battle Patches". Other armies continued to identify regiments through the use of numerals, but did not identify military divisions through the use of patches. The United States Army, however, did develop a system of shoulder sleeve insignia with distinctive badges identifying individual divisions.

By the time of the Second World War, the various armies did not feel a perceived need to identify individual battalions on battledress uniforms. The German Army had a system of coloured bayonet knots that identified the wearer's company, number shoulder strap buttons that identified the wearer's company/battalion, and shoulder straps that identified the wearer's regiment, but had no distinguishing divisional insignia other than the cuff titles of the 'elite' formations. The British Army prohibited all identifying marks on its Battle Dress uniforms in 1939 save for drab regimental slip-on titles, but in 1941 introduced formation patches to identify the wearer's division. They were initially referred to by the British as "Divisional Signs", but this was soon changed to "Formation Badges".

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