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Help identifying WW2 RAF trucks


Cheshire Steve

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Hello. You would have made a good detective. I only know Dad was involved with making the extension exhausts. One of the boats on another ocasion went up the beach at full speed and pulled out the three propeller shafts removing the P brackets and rudders as well. That boat was recovered by road I think and returned to service.I think that was 159.

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Although this has digressed from RSU to ASR - we remain with the RAF in the Middle East in 1943, and I have a little bit more info so will tack it on rather than start a new thread. Apart from comments that my father made about ASR 2699 being used as transport for a raid in Nov/Dec 1943 (which he said he thought was somewhere near Yugoslavia), he also said he thought the boat's unusual use for ferrying VIPs at high speed was under orders from Aden. I have found a note in the book that 2699's assignments were :

 

DIS 4/43

Calshot, Algiers, Italy, 254ME, 207ASRME, Algiers, Piraves

Struck Off 3/48

 

Decoding this using other entries suggests "254ME" is 254 ASR unit operating out of Algiers and in Western Med - other ASR vessels there included 188, 2546, 2547, 2580, 2581, 2582, 2593, 2595, 2596, 2597, 2600, 2601, 2605.

 

207 ASRME is 207 ASR Middle East which was headquartered in Aden, although boat 2699 was based in Haifa. Others in 207 include 159 and 2701, but probably several other boats listed as being at Alexandria. There is a file in the National Archives for which the on-line index says it became 207 Air Sea Rescue Marine Craft Unit (ASRMCU), Alexandria, in January 1944.

 

So my father's recollections suggest 2699 was in 207 ASR unit by Nov 1943, and he was right in that it was operating under orders from Aden. The National Archive is a bit far for me to trek (200 miles), but I wonder if the records of 207 ASR unit include information on the up-arming from Brownings to Oerlikons or the night raid, which he told me included the capture of a German officer.

 

Steve

 

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2699b.jpg

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  • 3 years later...
On 7/15/2017 at 9:25 AM, Cheshire Steve said:

Whats this one - looks like it has a greenhouse on its back?

 

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The Aircraft is a Douglas DB-7 Boston (export A-20 Havoc built for the French and delivered to the British when France fell) 

The TRUCK looks very much like a Albion AM463 but cannot identify the gear behind the cab. The 463 normally is 2 axle and this is 3. I've seen this but rarely. 

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.. I have just read the whole of this thread, very very interesting! I am pretty sure the RAF lorry next to the Douglas DB.7 is a Crossley IG.L3 breakdown recovery normal control 6x4. Production for the RAF of the IGL3 model is estimated at about one thousand six hundred and continued in production throughout the nineteen thirties.

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On 12/07/2017 at 10:57 PM, Cheshire Steve said:

Flushed with success after my question about CMPs, I wonder if I can ask for IDs on some more trucks that feature in my father's phutos from the war in the desert between 1942 to 1944 (assuming I manage to attach them correctly...they started as thumbnails and have expanded in the preview and I don't seem to be able to resize them, and in my Firefox browser it has become quite a mess - apols if it is hard to read)

 

I remember my father said they had a Cole's Crane - is it on a Scammell?

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The trailer is a Queen Mary but I don't know about the tractor

attachment.php?attachmentid=127398&stc=1attachment.php?attachmentid=127402&stc=1attachment.php?attachmentid=127395&stc=1

 

Similar tractor units - Bedfords?

 

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No idea about the 2 below

 

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I assume they were all painted desert sand. I have nearly finished making a CMP model for my father, and need to know what colour to paint it. I am slightly curious about the headlights, they seem to only have one convoy light, and the other blacked out.

 

Thanks, Steve

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This old thread is superb, I have so many Commer photos but this one I have not seen before.

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On 7/15/2017 at 2:07 PM, Cheshire Steve said:

I've got lots of photos, I don't know what half the aircraft are and its difficult to see any detailed numbers. In fact the captured enemy aircraft seem to be more clearly marked.

 

How are you on battleships? I might launch another thread on the various battleship photos I have, which I think he told me were the remains of the Italian Navy.

 

I love these bombers - hard to imagine they were still in use in 1942/43.

 

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Think this is a Vickers Valentia Troop Transport into service 1933/4 serving into 1943-ish  - bet the pilots were pleased to be flying such a machine 

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15 hours ago, Crossley6 said:

.. I have just read the whole of this thread, very very interesting! I am pretty sure the RAF lorry next to the Douglas DB.7 is a Crossley IG.L3 breakdown recovery normal control 6x4. Production for the RAF of the IGL3 model is estimated at about one thousand six hundred and continued in production throughout the nineteen thirties.

 

Edited by Marauderman26us
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Just now, Marauderman26us said:

I believe you are correct Sir, I stand corrected. I think I wanted it to be a Albion (my fav) so that's what I saw. Checking the photo against others of your Crossley IG.L3 its definitely your truck, I should have noticed right off the door opening the wrong way! (Albion's open aft)

 

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