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RN trucks WWII


Ian M

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Is there some one on here that can tell me which colour(s) a WWII Bedford would have been painted.

I've heard every thing from Army Camouflage, to Dark Blue, Light Grey, Grey Green, and Blue Grey.

The only solid comment I have is from Ian L in his restoration thread of a Bedford.

I figure that as the people on this section have an eye for all things Navy, they might have some info that could put some colour on the page!

Any one?

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Is there some one on here that can tell me which colour(s) a WWII Bedford would have been painted.

I've heard every thing from Army Camouflage, to Dark Blue, Light Grey, Grey Green, and Blue Grey.

The only solid comment I have is from Ian L in his restoration thread of a Bedford.

I figure that as the people on this section have an eye for all things Navy, they might have some info that could put some colour on the page!

Any one?

 

Hi Ian,

I believe if the vehicle was a standard army type, it would come out of the factory in the same colour. My recollections of a 1943 Morris Commercial C4 which served with the RN, and never went through a restorers hands until my friend found it 36 years ago was that it was painted in SCC No.2 Brown, as were RAF vehicles at the time as well. Whether it was subsequently painted grey, I doubt as there was no evidence of it. There is a thread on here about RN vehicles, with some good photos but not colour.

regards,

Richard

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Is there some one on here that can tell me which colour(s) a WWII Bedford would have been painted.

I've heard every thing from Army Camouflage, to Dark Blue, Light Grey, Grey Green, and Blue Grey.

The only solid comment I have is from Ian L in his restoration thread of a Bedford.

I figure that as the people on this section have an eye for all things Navy, they might have some info that could put some colour on the page!

Any one?

 

Hi Ian I went over to my workshop today with 'Great war truck' and another fellow restorer to have a shift around and funnily enough we had a look at my RN QL body and are all in agreement that its the same colour green as any other wartime vehicle, Not grey or Grey/green. hope this helps ? regards Ian

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Hi Ian I went over to my workshop today with 'Great war truck' and another fellow restorer to have a shift around and funnily enough we had a look at my RN QL body and are all in agreement that its the same colour green as any other wartime vehicle, Not grey or Grey/green. hope this helps ? regards Ian

 

That helps a great deal many thanks. I can grab some paint and get going.

 

Ian M

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Is there some one on here that can tell me which colour(s) a WWII Bedford would have been painted.

I've heard every thing from Army Camouflage, to Dark Blue, Light Grey, Grey Green, and Blue Grey.

The only solid comment I have is from Ian L in his restoration thread of a Bedford.

I figure that as the people on this section have an eye for all things Navy, they might have some info that could put some colour on the page!

Any one?

 

Not sure this will help during the war my late father was a driver in the Royal Marines serving in North Africa, Sicily and Iceland originally driving Matadors towing 3.7 AA-Guns but thay had Bedfords and CMP's. When they left the UK for North Africa all their vehicles were painted the same colour as Army vehicles. They collected them from an Army Depot a few weeks before going overseas and were painted sand in a warehouse in Cairo. From his photos their vehicles look the same colour as those used by the Army including census numbers painted on them.

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Again, this is only from memory, but I understood that those service branches that had different colour vehicles - such as navy blue or RAF blue / grey - lost that distinction early in the war and only regained it post-war; though I suspect as with all these things there were local variations and some pre-existing kit didn't get painted.

 

I can't find the reference for this now though!

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The RAF began camouflaging vehicles on a local basis in 1940 when it became obvious to station commanders that those lovely blue-grey vehicles gave away the airfields they spent so long disguising. They officially fell in line with army practice (although a month or so behind) in 1941.

I would hazard a guess it was a similar situation for the navy

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In terms of RAF practice, the Ministry of Supply ledgers in the National Archives state the following in respect of contract C9891 (for twenty Norton motorcycles dated February 1941)....

 

"19/3/1941 - Accept 20 motor cycles finished in RAF blue-grey, delivery already effected. All future machines to be Khaki Green No.3 as WD Spec MC205"

 

The implication is that vehicles in non-WD colours were still possible up until early 1941.

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  • 2 years later...

Thanks to mcspool, the thread on Polish GMCs in American Vehicles section of HMVF has just provided an interesting photo of a GMC in RN service.

 

In reading the website for this it says the vehicle was photographed circa May 1944 in which case the camo scheme is a bit out of date for a vehicle to be used in NW Europe; can anyone suggest the camo colours?

 

Perhaps Les will have an idea. From what I see it looks like the RN have adopted a dark roof (either grey black or dark brown ) and instead of doing micky mouse camo top and bottom, they have gone for stripes. As for the cab it doesn't conform to standard micky mouse, which might suggest the body was built elsewhere in a basic SCC.2 brown and had the dark roof provided and then this has been mated to a GMC cab that got painted in a SCC.2 brown; the stripes were then added by a rating to the cab and the body without reference to anything RN Orders.

 

I thought it useful to show the front and rear views;

 

http://cloudobservers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/0724_0011low.jpg

 

http://cloudobservers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/0724_0032low.jpg

 

http://cloudobservers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/RN-Met-Van6low.jpg

 

 

More info on this site; http://cloudobservers.co.uk/memories/ashore/rn-mmu/

Edited by LarryH57
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In reading the website for this it says the vehicle was photographed circa May 1944 in which case the camo scheme is a bit out of date for a vehicle to be used in NW Europe; can anyone suggest the camo colours?

 

Perhaps Les will have an idea. From what I see it looks like the RN have adopted a dark roof (either grey black or dark brown ) and instead of doing micky mouse camo top and bottom, they have gone for stripes. As for the cab it doesn't conform to standard micky mouse, which might suggest the body was built elsewhere in a basic SCC.2 brown and had the dark roof provided and then this has been mated to a GMC cab that got painted in a SCC.2 brown; the stripes were then added by a rating to the cab and the body without reference to anything RN Orders.

 

 

Larry,

That is a US body and vehicle is likely to be in standard US Olive drab with a darker camouflage pattern painted over, as was done to jeeps, etc.

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Well Richard if you are right and its just US Olive drab with dark camo that's even more way out. But I'm still not convinced seeing as it has a grey black or dark brown roof which looks to me as if it was to be standard mikey mouse till someone thought otherwise. And were Jeeps in NW Europe painted with dark stripes like this vehicle? I have seen them with such in Italy but not inNW Europe.

Edited by LarryH57
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Well Richard if you are right and its just US Olive drab with dark camo that's even more way out. But I'm still not convinced seeing as it has a grey black or dark brown roof which looks to me as if it was to be standard mikey mouse till someone thought otherwise. And were Jeeps in NW Europe painted with dark stripes like this vehicle? I have seen them with such in Italy but not inNW Europe.

 

Larry,

If the GMC was painted to the full regulations of so called Mickey Mouse pattern, then all upper facing surfaces would be the darker colour. Obviously army camouflage regulations did not filter down to the Admiralty and they did what they thought best. My remark on jeeps was not specific on NWE, but do know that in Italy the over paint of camo pattern was done straight on to the US colour. Vehicles were not painted ofr the sake of it and you will see those going into Normandy had various patterns of base colours.

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