M40 155mm GMCs in the British Army

[David Herbert]

Having been heavily involved with getting Duxford's M40 going when it arrived at Duxford, I have an interest in their use by the British Army. As far as I can tell we had 27 in total, received as mutual aid in 1954 and nombered:

 

70BA00 to 70BA04

70BA10

70BA11

93BA39 to 93BA58

 

This is from Geoff Fletcher's excellent article on p56 of Windscreen mag no.116. That article gives the unit that some of them served with but I would like to find where they all served and what became of them all. I have no details of the US nos. or the shop nos. of any of them. Does anyone have photos of them in British service?

 

Does anyone have photos of the M40 that was aquired by the East of England tank museum when it was at Bassingbourne near Cambridge or before it was filled with concrete at Stamford. Why did it go to Bassingbourne - an RAF station ?

 

I know of two destroyed on Salisbury plain - one in battlesbury bowl the other recently recovered by Bovy. Also the wreck that was on Sennybridge and now in a private collection. Does anyone have the nombers of these three or the one in Woolwich or know of any others in the UK ?

 

Lastly does anyone have TM9-747 or Ord9-G232 (or any other relevant publications) to spare?

 

David

[steveo578]

David Herbert

.............. Does anyone have photos of them in British service?

 

 

 

I take it you have the Tanks Illustrated 18 photo of 70BA10?

 

Steve

[David Herbert]

Thanks Steve,

 

Yes but only the book, not the real photo which presumably is rather better resolution.

[steveo578]

Hopefully some-one on the forum may have photos -although it doesn't seem to have been a widely used type.

 

FYI Raf Bassingbourne was handed over to the Army for UK training about 1969-70, there were others - RAF Kirton in Lindsay Lincs was also used in the 1960-70s.

 

Steve

[John Pearson]

Hi David,

Long time no see! i saw the M40 from Sennybridge in November 2009. It has just moved its map reference, no work has been done on it since it was 'Point Kilo'

Cheers

john Pearson

[steveo578]

David Herbert

..............I know of two destroyed on Salisbury plain - one in battlesbury bowl the other recently recovered by Bovy.

 

 

 

Is the wreck now at bovington the same as that shown in the Wheels and Tracks 15? article. The bovington one has nicely painted idler wheel detail which could mean it was possibly a Gateguard before its demise., possibly the Bassingbourne M40 was a gateguard too-

 

Couple of photos of the RA Museum M40.

 

Steve

[alan turner (RIP)]

the RA museum m40 carries no markings as do the vast majority of the equipment held unless its providence can be fully substantiated. It is not possible to get access to constructors plates if they are still attached to the vehicle, as the gallery where it is held is cocooned at present to reduce costs.

 

I attach some of my own views of some of the kit to show non marking

[David Herbert]

Steve,

 

Thanks for your input. The M40 shown on p18 of W&T15 and captioned as a sherman is the one in Battlesbury Bowl, a natural arena used as a demo stadium by the army. When I went there about six months after the mag was printed and it had recently been cut up and removed. The bovy one sat on top of a hill about 3miles east and was in much the same condition then as now.

 

Alan,

 

Thanks for your photos - they do indeed show no markings ! I am glad the Woolwich one is now indoors, when I saw it last it looked very sorry for itself and had had a hole cut in the side so people could look into the drivers position.

 

David