Vintage Wargaming

Also, to the lower right of the turret there appears to be a large plate with 6 big rivets in it which looks like it would interfere with turret rotation.

Of course being a Stug it had no turret, so rotation would not be an issue.

I've checked with the person I know who is most likely to know. He says the two holes are too close together to be a rangefinder so not an AOP. Another suggestion in the past was that it might be a flamethrower with two tubes, but why have two when one with the same size fuel tank would be just as good. Best guess seems to be an ammunition carrier.

This photo is from a Vickers Elswick works photo album

No it is 22.00 if you are in the Netherlands so you are right - we are just an hour behind you

Of course that's 21.00 in the U.K. and 22.00 on Quest + 1

I'm wondering now if the Army called in We Bury Any Tank.com at the end of the war

Well done. Looking forward to hearing more

What is the third aircraft?

http://Tankdevelopment.blogspot.co.uk

If anyone hasn't seen them there are plenty of previously unseen interwar Vickers Works photos on my interwar tank development blog, along with these Chronicle photos and various Pathe News items of similar interest. I must get back to this blog to add caption information to the posts.

I am very sorry to hear that but thank you for posting the news. I never met him but corresponded by email with him over an item on a collection of toy soldiers and journal of Wargames from the 1870s which had appeared on Antiques Roadshow. He was very courteous and interested, and put me in touch with the family which resulted in my transcribing the Journal on the web. A true gentleman, very knowledgeable and he will be missed. Worth noting out of respect his surname was spelt Lay.

Saw this on the BBC web site where a man traces owners of lost medals, all the best to him

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-5c1940d8-5f8f-4fd4-ac12-e216184a9a72

Last month there was a story in the news of someone finding an original VC from Inkerman in the Thames. It has been narrowed down to two possible recipients

Gents

put tit in a vice pulled slightly

sounds painful

Ohhhh very good photos ,

many thanks, but I think that our Vickers is diferent from the others on photos ,

look the exhaust is in right lateral side on back (yes, you dont see it , but was there)

here are some photos ,

This isn't a problem for the high sided 1931 artillery tractor, which is the closest suggested match so far. Thank you for the additional photos, they are really helpful.

Is that of the actual vehicle which is now in the museum, do you know? And did the army have just the one or a number of them?

Thanks

Yes I understand the utility tractor is the smaller one you posted a picture of. Vickers/Carden Loyd had several tractors, commercial and military and truck tractors built on the same early platform as the example from Portugal. I also appreciate that the light dragon was developed from this vehicle. My point (apologies for not being clearer) is that it is one of these earlier tractors and not a light Dragon as you suggested. A light Dragon II has a different type of suspension than the Portuguese example. As far as I'm aware there are no surviving light Dragons.

 

I have some Vickers pictures and period adverts showing these early tractors, based on the early, pre Dragon design. I'll dig them out when I get home.

This is D42, the Artillery Tractor Demonstration Model at Chertsey in 1929

This is the prototype Vickers 2 ton tractor, taking part in the February 930 trials at Wool, here towing a field gun and limber

A single 3 ton tractor prototype was delivered in early June 1930 but discarded as having no benefit over the 2 ton in 1932

The Tractor Truck mated a 30 cwt lorry body with a fully tracked chassis based on the 2 ton tractor and which came in a number of variants. Three vehicles were purchased by the British Army for trials but were rejected for service

Here are a number of versions:

Tractor Truck 1936 China

Tractor Truck Standard 1935

Tractor Truck tipping body 1935, also Metropolitan Water Board 1936

Tractor Truck Turntable and Trailer 1935, Turning Circle 26ft wit Load. Overall length with Corner extended 26'6"

Tractor Truck Aero Starter 1935

Tractor Truck Pipe Carrier 1935

The suspension (drive wheel and four road wheels) isn't the same as the 2 ton tractor, and therefore not Dragon Mk 1, 1a, II, or Tractor Truck, or Utility Tractor, all of which in any case wouldn't fit the given date of 1931. It's also different to D42, the artillery tractor prototype.

Which really leaves the vehicle in the last photo on my previous post (artillery tractor 1931 high sides) the only viable suggestion so far, to fit with the date, body style and suspension.

The later version of the 2 ton tractor used on the tractor truck does look similar to the Portuguese vehicle but dates from 1935/6 which postdates a 1931 vehicle.

It would be helpful to have a side on photograph of the vehicle in the Portuguese Army Museum to help further with identification. Obviously it would be simplest if the Museum told us what it is.

Ben, perhaps you can point out to me where the thread suggests it is a Vickers Utility Tractor?

It certainly isn't, the Utility being much smaller with only two road wheels per side - see Vickers Works photos below

This is the 1932 personnel Carrier version - again quite different

Another picture with drivers, for scale showing the size of the vehicles

Here is a Vickers photo of the high sided artillery tractor of 1931, from which the Light Dragon II was developed.

The right date, the right shape, the right size, and the right suspension. There were many variants and prototypes built for different countries. It would be very interesting to hear any information the museum has about its vehicle and how it go there.

The photos I have used are digital images from two Vickers Works photo albums held by Beamish Museum, who have provided the images to me and given me permission to use them electronically.

i think most people seeing Carden Loyd would think tankette, while actually this vehicle looks to be a Light Dragon Mk II

Not knowing anything about this at all, I had thought this must be an incredible find. And a 98 year old vehicle too

The T35 owed much to the Vickers Independent. Norman Baillie Stewart was court martialled in 1933 for passing on plans and photos to the Germans, who had a joint tank development programme with the Russians at that time. If I remember right, he was actually arrested inside the Independent in Bovington. Much of the Russian tank development was informed y Vickers types, as with the T26 and the Vickers 6 tonner

Following a second visit to Beamish today to copy all the captions from the second album, all the interwar photos from it (around a hundred or so) have now been added to the blog. If you are interested in bridging techniques, or gaining an in depth knowledge of military trailers between 1925 and 1935, this could be the place for you.

Update on Vintage Wargaming

http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/back-to-beamish.html

and posts on the new blog at

http://tankdevelopment.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for posting, and here is a film of the above mentioned 1926 Tank Demonstration to the Dominion Premiers on Old Dean common, Camberley, Surrey

 

Yes thanks I put that link on my Vintage Wargaming blog earlier this week and it is on the Media page of the new blog along with other newsreel clips and a really interesting audio interview with an officer of the Tank Testing Service from the IWM archive.

I recently came across two works albums of photographs from Vickers Armstrong Ltd covering the period c 1915 to c 1945, held by Beamish Museum. The Museum have provided me with digital images and given me permission to use them on line. The albums and their photos seem to be largely unknown.

I have now posted all the photos from the first album along with their original captions on a new blog called InterWar Tank Development, which can be found here.

Don't let the title put you off as it also has information on other tracked, half tracked, wheeled and wheel cum track vehicles. The photos are a mix of high quality works photos and shots from trials and exercises including those at Wool in 1925 and 1927 and the demonstration to the Dominion Premiers at Camberley in 1926.

There is a page on the blog called Media which has clips from British Pathe and Movietone News, and an interesting audio interview from the IWM archive.

I'm hoping to do some work on the second album next week.

I hope there might be material of interest to some of the people on this forum on the blog.

All the photos and their original captions from the first album are up on the new blog now

http://tankdevelopment.blogspot.co.uk/

Well the Vickers Armstrong photois have arrived and they are fantastic.

There is an update on my Vintage Wargaming blog

http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/exciting-times.html

and here are some taster photos

Welcome in, and bearing gifts! Must have been a real satisfying shiver to track that down.

Will be more of a shiver when the digital images arrive...