question British Cold War cabtop MG mounting

The cabs of many Cold War era British trucks (even post 39-45 but pre-Cold war) had a hatch above the passenger seat around which were to be seen four round headed knobe fixed to the cab roof. I have always understood that these were for a machine gun (bren, I assume) mounting, but I have never seen a picture until now. I have a pic of a Humber 1 ton (FV1600) at Suez with something fairly substantial mounted on the cab, but the pic is too fuzzy to be able to see the details. Does anyone have any pics of such a mount?

Chris

This subject cropped up a few months ago on page 10 of Zero-Five-Two's thread on the Militant Mk1 Tanker. Richard Farrant provided a link to an Australian site which provided full details of the mount and pictures. I can't open that link any more but you may be able to.

Basically, it was a large mounting which carried a .5" Browning to provide low-level air defence for British soft-skinned vehicles in the 1950s. It never came to anything and the guns remained in store until they appeared on ground mounts during the Falklands campaign. The mounts themselves were tested by the Australians and some are still available over there apparently.

10 68

this is from a F.V.R.D.E FILE the picture is identified as cab roof MG mount for AEC A.A DATED the first of December 1952

whether this is the one that went in to service

Richard Farrant provided a link to an Australian site which provided full details of the mount and pictures. I can't open that link any more but you may be able to.

 

 

Unless I have been looking at the wrong thread, I cannot see where I have put a link up. In my post the word 'International' is highlighted, but that is only one of those Ebay/Amazon links and nothing to do with it. Let me know what post it was and I will no doubt remember.

cheers Richard

Hi Richard,

The link is on Page 10 of Zero-Five-Two's blog on the Restoration of a Militant Mk 1 Tanker - in the Restoration Blogs heading.

Chris

Unless I have been looking at the wrong thread, I cannot see where I have put a link up. In my post the word 'International' is highlighted, but that is only one of those Ebay/Amazon links and nothing to do with it. Let me know what post it was and I will no doubt remember.

cheers Richard

You wrote:

By coincidence, I have just been reading an article on these gun mounts in an Australian MV club newsletter. There have been a number of NOS mounts for sale at the Corowa event in last few years, in fact a couple of weeks ago I helped load one on to a trailer while at the event.

Here is a link to the newsletter with article:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...NzM0MmE1ZWIzNQ

This is the link you offered, Richard. It was an excellent article.

10 68

Thanks all. I am in contact with Richard via PM. It's not really vital as I cannot read the number plate of the truck, so will go for a likely Humber one, nor the markings, but since Dad was a Para (actually 3 Para but was posted home shortly before Suez and spent much time in the War Office trying to source the various bits we needed but had scrapped) I will guess 2 Para for the markings as the pic looks like well down the canal! I guess that not many of the trucks actually mounted the MG mount.

Chris

You wrote:

 

By coincidence, I have just been reading an article on these gun mounts in an Australian MV club newsletter. There have been a number of NOS mounts for sale at the Corowa event in last few years, in fact a couple of weeks ago I helped load one on to a trailer while at the event.

 

Here is a link to the newsletter with article:

 

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...NzM0MmE1ZWIzNQ

 

This is the link you offered, Richard. It was an excellent article.

 

10 68

Ah, thanks, it has come back to me now, it was the club magazine of the Veteran Car Club of Western Australia - Military Section. Now by coincidence I tried to look at that site yesterday and now you have to sign in to Google to see it. Only chance is to contact the club secretary and see if they can email it to you. I think it was an issue from earlier this year.

Richard

Ah, thanks, it has come back to me now, it was the club magazine of the Veteran Car Club of Western Australia - Military Section. Now by coincidence I tried to look at that site yesterday and now you have to sign in to Google to see it. Only chance is to contact the club secretary and see if they can email it to you. I think it was an issue from earlier this year.

 

Richard

10FM68,

I am sending you a PM

Richard

That link just gets a message up saying "No preview available" Richard. Any chance you could copy it to your own account and post it? If so - I have some friends in diverse parts of Australia I can ask to keep an eye open for ones that turn up. I'd like to get hold of one myself - be quite unique here.

That link just gets a message up saying "No preview available" Richard. Any chance you could copy it to your own account and post it? If so - I have some friends in diverse parts of Australia I can ask to keep an eye open for ones that turn up. I'd like to get hold of one myself - be quite unique here.

The site that the newsletters are on seems to have changed to a Google one and its asking me to sign into Google, which I have no wish to do. It was an article in a club newsletter, I did not copy it at the time just sent the link. I have given the two members here a contact in the WA club and hopefully he might email it to them.

Regards the actual piece of kit that turns up in Aus, it is large and heavy and no doubt cost a bit to ship over. I cannot guarantee it is identical to the British one, as they were made locally. There are quite a few about over there and do not sell that fast.

Neil,

Try this;

https://sites.google.com/site/militarysection/

you will have to sign into Google, unless you are already. I think the issue could have been March or thereabouts.

The site that the newsletters are on seems to have changed to a Google one and its asking me to sign into Google, which I have no wish to do. It was an article in a club newsletter, I did not copy it at the time just sent the link. I have given the two members here a contact in the WA club and hopefully he might email it to them.

 

Regards the actual piece of kit that turns up in Aus, it is large and heavy and no doubt cost a bit to ship over. I cannot guarantee it is identical to the British one, as they were made locally. There are quite a few about over there and do not sell that fast.

Thanks Richard. I have a Google account (quite useful actually) but still will not open that link. A lot of my former brothers from the Artists headed down under and are serving police officers down there so I am asking them if they can keep their eyes open for me. Would have been nice to let them see the diagram in that article but never mind. The description should be enough

Thanks Richard. I have a Google account (quite useful actually) but still will not open that link. A lot of my former brothers from the Artists headed down under and are serving police officers down there so I am asking them if they can keep their eyes open for me. Would have been nice to let them see the diagram in that article but never mind. The description should be enough

Neil,

The guy who found some of these mounts still in crates, is about 2-3 hours West of Sydney. He is on this forum, send a PM to little ray

Richard

Neil,

The guy who found some of these mounts still in crates, is about 2-3 hours West of Sydney. He is on this forum, send a PM to little ray

 

Richard

Thanks Richard - PM sent

I saw quite a few of these around the cupolas of Bedford RL gun tractors in the 1960 but never saw them in use or saw anything that would fit them although I did hear that they were for a anti aircraft MG.

Neil,

The guy who found some of these mounts still in crates, is about 2-3 hours West of Sydney. He is on this forum, send a PM to little ray

 

Richard

Looks like I'm out of luck Richard - no reply to the PM from here and my friend down in Oz is getting no responses either.

Looks like I'm out of luck Richard - no reply to the PM from here and my friend down in Oz is getting no responses either.

Hi Neil,

Little Ray has not been on the forum since the 4th August. I will see if I can get an email address for you.

regards, Richard

Neil, PM for you.

Thanks Richard - much appreciated

Hi Neil,

Little Ray has not been on the forum since the 4th August. I will see if I can get an email address for you.

 

regards, Richard

 

Neil, PM for you.

I downloaded the original article if that's any help. If anyone wants a copy PM me with an email address and I can email it to you.

PT

Just heard back from the forum member in Oz who has these for sale. He has 4 left it seems - I am interested in one - is any one else still wanting one? If so I can arrange for them to be shipped as one and we can share the shipping costs. Waiting to hear back now what the asking prices is and the cost to ship.

Just heard back from the forum member in Oz who has these for sale. He has 4 left it seems - I am interested in one - is any one else still wanting one? If so I can arrange for them to be shipped as one and we can share the shipping costs. Waiting to hear back now what the asking prices is and the cost to ship.

Please let me Know Neil, may be interested depending on costs (blown my budget a bit this year apparently according to SWMBO :-D)

PT

Many thanks to all those who have contributed to this thread. I didn't expect so much interest. However, the mount is clearly not what I see on my pic. On closer perusal, I reckon it is just one of the cabtop hatches open (think the temperatures in Egypt).

Chris

Please let me Know Neil, may be interested depending on costs (blown my budget a bit this year apparently according to SWMBO :-D)

 

PT

Will do I know the feeling on blown budgets - and being reminded by SWMBO!!

When you have a price please let me know Neil I could be interested if in budget :-D