Ordnance Insignia of the British Army

The meaning of 'Sua Tela Tonanti'

One aspect of the Ordnance Corps badge that has puzzled wearers over the years is the meaning of ‘Sua Tela Tonanti’
The official recorded meaning for at least the last twenty years of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps is:

‘To the Warrior his Arms’

In the 1956 edition of ‘The Ordnance Badge’ published by the RAOC School the following is written:

It is not uncommon to find a motto, which has no literal translation, being in the form of an incomplete phrase. Examples of this are

‘NIL SINE LABORE’ ‘INTUS SI RECTE NE LABORS and the Corps motto ‘SUA TELA TONANTI’

In the latter case, the translation of ‘SUA TELA’ – his weapons – is clear enough, but ‘TONANTI’, a dative without any governing verb leaves much to the imagination.

According to the investigations made by the late Major Asser RAOC, assisted by the late Mr A.E. Housman, a professor of Latin Poetry. It is possible that the motto is a free adoption of a line in Manilius.

‘ERIPVITQUE JOVI FULMEN TONATI’

(Reason or Science has wrested from thundering Jove his lightning and strength)

‘SUA TELA’ (his, i.e. JOVE’S weapons) are the exact equivalent in sense of ‘FULMEN VIRESQUE’ (lightning or strength and power)

From this the translation becomes:

‘Science has wrested from thundering Jove his weapons’

This is a very probable explanation and when one considers that the motto was often given in allusion to the achievements (The Ordnance Arms) surely no further translation is necessary, for in the achievement, the crest denotes an arm (strength) out of the mural crown (defence) grasping a Thunderbolt (Jove’s weapon), the arms modern weapons (16^th century) in the form of cannons and shot and the supporters Cyclops, mythological artificers supporting (or making possible) the manufacture of these modern weapons.

The RAOC adopted the Board of Ordnance motto in 1918 and a translation has been sought to express the work now done by the Corps.

‘To the Army its Needs’ is a suggested very free translation which fills this requirement for want of something better,

‘To the Thunderer his Arms’
will be better known to older RAOC soldiers.

However:

To the Warrior his Arms

Is how I feel the RAOC motto will be best remembered

Sua Tela Tonanti

~

"The Crimean Mark of Disgrace"

Other than the obvious  ~ If they were the same size of the Cannons, You would not see them!

Why are the Ordnance Cannon Balls larger than the Cannons?

Over the years a legend had grown up around the badge of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, usually told by the 'old & bold' of the Royal Army Service Corps (later on the Royal Corps of Transport) and Gunners of the Royal Artillery. Which I am told is still doing the rounds within the Royal Logistic Corps today!

It is said that to mark the failure of the Board of Ordnance in the Crimean War (1853 - 1856) to supply the correct ammunition to the Artillery, the cannon balls in the Ordnance Arms will in future be drawn out of proportion in size to the guns and that the RAOC inherited this "Mark of Disgrace" for ever.

Of course there are no grounds or historical basis for this legend, and indeed very little research soon puts paid to the rumour.

In the first place the Board of Ordnance, adopted the Arms (From which the Ordnance Shield derives) as early as the mid 17th Century, a good hundred years before the Crimean War started. At which time the shield was used by the Artillery as well! The Arms were approved by the King in 1806, and the grant of Arms by the College Arms particularly states that they be the same as those previously in use.

Secondly, in good heraldic design, not only to show the charges, which in this case are the guns and shot, symbolically and sometimes exaggerated, but that these charges should fill the shield in which they are placed without losing the balance of the design as a whole (Try saying that in the NAAFI at closeing time!)
The placing of the cannon balls in the chief and the guns in the lower two-thirds of the shield illustrate this aspect of recognized heraldic design.

A good example of this practice may also be seen in the fourth quarter of the Royal Arms, where the lower leopard is drawn so that its legs fill the bottom part of the shield.

When Queen Victoria on the 17th July 1896 gave her Royal Approval to the use of the Ordnance Arms to the Army Ordnance Department & Corps as their 'Regimental Badge' it was as an honour to the Corps to accept them.

The earlist use of the 'Board of Ordnance' Arms on an Artillery Field Train Button c1792

M Comerford - November 2004