john_g_kearney Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Sadly, these prints have faded away almost entirely. (I have worked up the scans in Photoshop.) I think they were taken during the Salonika Campaign. Note the '1st AID' on the breakdown wagon. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosrec Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Sadly, these prints have faded away almost entirely. (I have worked up the scans in Photoshop.) I think they were taken during the Salonika Campaign. Note the '1st AID' on the breakdown wagon. John. With the tackle those guys had available to them that job looks like many hours of hard labour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted170 Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 And some vehicles of the opposite side: Supply trucks convoy crossing the Struma river: http://www.lostbulgaria.com/?p=3022 Some staff cars and ambulances of the Bulgarian 2nd army: http://www.lostbulgaria.com/?p=3818 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted170 Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 a little more photoshop, to try to get some details Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Great photos. It looks like a pair of Albion's. i can imagine lots of fun and games in getting that lorry back on its wheels. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosrec Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 (edited) Had another look believe it is actually two different wrecks. thats twice as much hard work Edited July 14, 2012 by cosrec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Interesting Bulgarian links, thank you. Thanks for the further tweaking of the scans too. Yes, it is two different wrecks. Driving those mountain roads with the lorries of the day must have been a nightmarish experience. I don't know how long the drivers lived under canvas during the campaign. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 (edited) Local transport : the print is titled on the rear 'Returning from Morbet'. Note that the woman on the left is barefoot. Lots of tents in the background. John. Edited July 15, 2012 by john_g_kearney Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 It looks as though there is a line of tents in the field in the left background. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 This lorry is carrying at least six petrol cans in the rack below the front of the body. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 This lorry has petrol cans in a rack on the right-hand side too; most likely all the lorries will be the same. Note the contrast between summer and winter uniforms... The latter includes the 'Coat sheepskin lined' as issued to MT and wagon drivers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 'Some of our lorries'. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Even the ASC sometimes got time off duty... John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSM Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Great images ... thanks for posting ... quite amazing what still comes out of the woodwork as they say particularly material from almost 100 years ago! Adding to your thread is the accompanying image of an Albion with a load of Australian Nurses on leave from their British Hospital. Lorry belonged to 683 Coy. ASC in Salonika. Rod Even the ASC sometimes got time off duty... John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 As part of my day job I've been working on a set of a dozen nitrate negs from the Bulgarian/Serb front which someone on the Daily Sketch or Daily Graphic acquired in 1919. Unfortunately due to copyright law I am not allowed to reproduce them here. They show Bulgarian artillery, an observation balloon named Sofia and some Serb infantry. I've had help with other negs from the wider collection I'm reviving in time for the centenary in 2014 on the Great War Forum and from friends in the WFA. Sadly, I have found nothing of vehicles so far, save for some British tanks in Limerick in 1919 during the period of the Soviet there. This project has a year to run. I am hoping my employers - the less than loved News International - will allow me to combine my own battlefield pix from my trips with their archive into a projected book or exhibition. I had been photographing the graves of employees of the Times, Daily Sketch, Daily Graphic (tbese two were part of what became the Kemsley empire which was bought by Thomsons which was bought by the Digger) and the News of the World. Sadly, the NoW is now so toxic, that the brave men who worked for it and who died in the two wars are tainted...something I refute. By the by, if any of your ancestors were employees of the above papers during the Great War in any capacity and you have any archive of them, I would love to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Good to see something of what is a now a largely forgotten campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I forgot to mention a friend of mine's uncle Claude was an RAMC doctor at Salonika and kept a sketch book which is really nice - he did water colour cartoons of his billets and the local vistas and brought back souvenirs which includes a very nice cased Iron Cross 1st class and a kukri of all things which was made locally. He was also at Galipolli and when it was done he went back to being a GP in west Wales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 Can't you post pictures of those ? PLEASE!! Sketches and drawings are often more evocative than photos as they are the direct result of a person's eyes and hands via the brain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Fine photograph, Rod, many thanks for posting. I wonder what the disc at the front centre of the cab roof was for? My own maternal grandfather was at Gallipoli too (with 6th Leinster), then to Salonika, then to Palestine and finally to France after the Germans' 1918 offensive. Apparently, he threw all his souvenirs out of the train window on his way back home... John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I wonder what the disc at the front centre of the cab roof was for? John. They are either the lorry number or the ASC Company emblem. I have seen both on albions. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 Thanks for that, Tim. I think I can see something painted in the same position on the photos I posted. Or I could just be kidding myself... John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSM Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 John it looks like you have kicked off an interesting thread given the response thus far. Pity Grand Dad disposed of his "spoils". Re the plate on the front of the hood ... as Tim says there are content variations in surviving images. Having said that there were obviously some rules which may or may not have been complied with. An example is a Second Army memo dated November 1916 and an extract follows .... "The approved Army Mark will also be borne in front of M.T. Vehicles on a tin plate secured to the front of the hood, when this is rigid, otherwise in the centre of the dashboard; and also on the left of the tailboard." Whilst rules were rules there were variations from Army to Army and Corps to Corps in some cases. Note, an 'Army' mark is a unit marking as used on both MT & HT as opposed to a GHQ mark which was basically a Branch of Service marking. In my recent book there are 25 pages describing vehicle markings other than registration or census numbering and that is just scratching the surface. Another Salonika example is attached. Whilst also a poor quality image there is a 245 Coy ASC Army Mark and an L^548 census number on the tail gate. Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Nice idea, Tony. I will make subtle enquiries. The owner is a little protective of it all. I was only allowed to see it all once. Can't you post pictures of those ? PLEASE!! Sketches and drawings are often more evocative than photos as they are the direct result of a person's eyes and hands via the brain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Interesting photograph, Rod, many thanks. The photographer who took the photos I have reproduced here also photographed Salonika after the fire that destroyed most of the town. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_g_kearney Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 This one is so faded that you can make out nothing looking at the original print. Tweaked hard in Photoshop, it appears to show a tracked vehicle (a Holt tractor?) in the ditch. A column of ambulances passed the scene of the accident. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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