Desert rats have long tails to help dissipate heat and provide balance. They also have large ears which allow more heat to escape their bodies.
Chat with our AI personalities
the Desert Ratsthe Desert Rats
They adopted it after the Jerboa, or "desert rat", a resident rodent.
The Desert Rats were specifially the 7th Armoured Brigade within the 8th Army in North Africa in WW2 fighting against Rommels' Afrika Korps. Their symbol is the jerboa, a desert rat. They went on to Italy, and fought in the D Day offensive in Normandy & the Rhine crossing in 1945.
The term desert rats was coined from the Seventh Armoured Division, a group of British soldiers who helped defeat the Germans in North Africa during World War II. The Desert Rats, led by General Allen Francis Harding, were especially noted for a hard-fought, three-month campaign against the more experienced German Africa Korps, led by General Erwin Rommel.
The 7th Armoured Division, aka "Desert Rats", wore a patch that was a BLACK square with a RED rat with a long tail. There was also a Brigade that wore a similar patch with a GREEN desert rat image. The square RED patch with a silouette of a BLACK cat is the patch for the 56th 'North London' Infantry Division. I think this is the patch that you refer to. For an example of this patch, see this link. http://www.custermen.com/ItalyWW2/ArmyOrg/BritishOrg.htm