Great War truck

If we are into forgiveness, i think that our Government should certainly consider each case on its own merits. Pardons have been given to soldiers who endured years of hardship and then cracked after being pushed that little bit too far and others have been given the same pardon who refused to soldier the first time that they heard enemy gun fire. It seems a cop out to pardon everyone who was shot without considering their individual cases. But that was no doubt the cheaper and easier option for Blair. Does anybody know if his popularity has shot up as a result, or does it mean that he can just clear some paperwork off of his desk?

Tim (too)

From the start of WW1 up until 1920, 3080 men were condemned to death of which 346 were executed (including 3 officers). The breakdown is:

Desertion 266 (including 2 officers)

Murder 37 (including 1 officer)

Cowardice 18

Quitting post 7

Striking or violence 6

Disobedience 5

Mutiny 3

sleeping on post 2

Casting away arms 2

That is 11.23% of those condemned to death.

My personal feeling is that the executions were terrible, but it is inappropriate for us to set our modern standards to something that was at the time perceived to be right.

I see that Bristol has apologised to Africa for their involvement in the slave trade in the 17th and 18th century.

Should we also apologise and make reparations to the untold thousands of citizens of Badajoz who were raped, massacred and murdered by the British Army during the Peninsular War?

Tim (too)

Inaccurate is being polite. I bought two of his "factual" books and gave them away i thought they were so awful. I got the impression that with a couple of facts or a chance meeting with some one famous he put together his account of how he thought things happened. Did he not say that the Bulge in the Ardennes was actually a US plan to feign retreat so that they could destroy all the German tank divisions that were remaining.

The Leo Kessler books i bought and read when i was about 10. They were one step up from the Commando comics, which i have just sold on E bay for a tidy sum. Never got round to reading his book "SS Stuka Squadron" but i am sure i didn't miss out.

Tim (too)

We went out with the North Oxon and Cotswolds MVT for a 50 mile green lane road run in the Cotswolds and despite all the rain had a brilliant time. 15 vehicles in all, of which 11 were Jeeps. Some of the other drivers commented on that my 44 MB was smoking quite a bit and suggested that it might partly be down to the oil. I use a 20 50 from Tescos at about £3.00 a gallon. It was suggested that i use a straight 40 which costs about £10 a litre. So the question is what oil do you put in yours?

During the road run there were four fords to negate. The water i think was about 18 to 24 inches deep and quite exciting to drive through. What did suprise me was the length of time it took for the brakes to recover. For about 5 miles i had no brakes whatsoever and then for the next 10 the Jeep would randomly and severely pull to the left or the right as i gently touched the brakes. Has had anybody had this sort of problem.

By the time i got home about 3 hours later it was all working fine again, but are there any particular actions that i should take to help offset the imersion in water and potential damage to the brake cylinders. If anybody suggests cuddle the Jeep with a warm towel, well i do that every night anyway.

Tim (too)

Ok, i got that bit wrong. Import duty on a vehicle post 1951 is 22%, 1950 or before it is 10%. VAT of course gets added on top of the cost price + import duty.

My mate who moves antique cars around for a living has a contact in the USA for shipping to the UK. He says on average you would need to look at £1,500 to transport a Jeep sized vehicle from anywhere in the USA to the UK. Obviously cheaper if it starts of near a port.

If you want more info send me a PM and i will give you a phone number.

Regards

Tim (too)

Vehicle ownership is constantly evolving. There are far less restorations going on now as most vehicle owners want to buy a vehicle already restored and there are of course less vehicles around to restore than there were years ago.

But most importantly, the number of people who are skilled enough to restore an old vehicle from a wreck is dwindling. Saying that the hobby has to evolve or die. If you turn away from the hobby someone who wants to wear a uniform, then that is one person less who might want to buy your old Jeep or GMC when you are too old to run it (not for a long time i hope). If we make ourselves exclusive, then we will become a very small hobby altogether.

Saying that the people who wear uniforms at shows go from the very impressive to the appallingly bad. I wont bother listing the heinous crimes committed by some people but surely these people can not look into a mirror and say “well that looks just right”.

Others though make a very good display and put in a lot of work too and due praise should be made of their efforts.

The reenactor/living History side is crucial to a healthy hobby. At a show, at least half of the vendors are supplying re-enactor stuff. The amount of people selling vehicle parts is really minimal. If I want a vehicle part I go to Beaulie not Beltring. There were only a handful of Living History displays at Kemble this year (two I think, but both very good). The stalls had a very bad time of it. Less stalls means less public interest, less attendees to the show, less income, eventual show collapse.

Do I wear uniform. Generally no. I am very conscious of my age. However I have done several times with my WW1 stuff (the oldest British soldier killed in WW1 was over 60 so I have 30 years of life left in me yet) and I think that I was involved in a very good display with some of our WW1 trucks and it made the display look right. I have also done WW2 US Engineers Special Brigade and think that we did a very good display there as well.

I am always conscious of what the veterans think of us, but can confirm that I have had 100% positive feedback from them, especially from the US ones. One of our members got very positive comments from a WW1 veteran, who was in fact wearing his original uniform at the time. However, my Father (an Ex National Serviceman) thinks I am a complete prat to wear a uniform. That is indeed his opinion, to which he is entitled. As I tell him, I don’t need a uniform to make myself look a prat, just a few drinks will suffice.

Just to stir up the topic a little more, some years ago at a MVPA convention in Chicago was a Kublewagen and SS reenactor. When the reenactor was advised that it was inappropriate for him to wear that uniform in Chicago (very high Jewish population there) he revealed that he was a well known WW2 Airborne Veteran and was highly decorated as well (he was really, he didn’t say that he was). Should we criticise him, or is ok for him to wear the uniform because of what he had done in the war? Answers on a postcard, or flaming E Mail will do.

Tim (too)

No, i was lucky it was all done by the vendor. I very much put my trust and wallet in his hands and he did a good job for me. He was also shipping 3 other vehciles to the UK and combined them all in the same crate. Sorry, icant offer much more help than that for now, but i will just make a phonecall and come back to you later.

Tim

I imported my Jeep from the USA and it was the best move. Cross Atlantic chipping cost me £250, but delivery from Felixstowe to Devon cost me a further £300. Import duty and VAT was calculated on the value declared by the vendor on his invoice. All in all i got a great deal. 1944 Jeep purchase cost me £2,000. Delivery and taxes cost me about another £1,000.

I would think it very unlikely that you would get a discount on VAT for importing a historic vehicle, in fact a recent case like this failed at the VAT Tribunal, but that ws for an old Jag. If you need more help, phone the Customs helpline on 0845 0109000. They will probably be quite helpful.

Tim (too)

The link doesnt work for me. What is it?

Tim (too)

So how much does a pair of tracks cost these days?

Tim (too)

Glad you like it. Take a look at my gallery for lots more photos of WW1 stuff.

Tim (too)

If anyone is interested, i have set up my gallery (Great War Truck) with just pictures of surviving WW1 period trucks. Do take a look and let me know what you think. If there is an interest i will add some more photos.

Enjoy

Tim (too)

Ah ha! Thanks. Right, i will just start adding photos to it now.

Tim (too)

Well i am logged on and thought it would be a good idea if i started up an album of just surviving WW1 truck pictures. I put three on and then went to have a look at my album (Great War Truck) and the album is now with the empty albums. Am i doing something wrong?

Thanks

tim (too)

I cant log in to the gallery using my same username and password. What am i doing wrong?

Thanks

Tim (too)

I have a different opinion, but then i probably have a different kind of oil leak problem. Go to a garden centre and buy one/several of those long plastic plant pot trays. About 2 feet wide and 4 feet long, with a 2 inch lip. Put newspaper in the bottom to soak up the oil. Works well for me.

Tim (too)

Here is a couple of photos of two WW1 Nash Quads sitting in a scrap yard near Paris. I saw a similar photo of the same two trucks taken about 20 years ago, and they have deterioated somewhat. A friend is going out to look at them and hopefully buy them. I will let you know if he is succesfull.

Tim (too)

Yes, i would think that there is still an incredibly large number of surviving WW1 trucks still in France. Hundreds i would think, but almost entirely of French or US construction. At the end of the war the US military disposed of all of their trucks in France and i guess a lot of them sre still there. The British brought all of theirs home for disposal.

If you are familiar with the curious French magazine Charge Utile, in just about every issue there is a picture of another surviving WW1 truck. One i remember was of a mobile X Ray lorry sitting in a scrapyard. Now i dont know a great deal about X Ray machines, but i am fairly certain that they have a large quantity of radioactive material in them and this is before they realised how dangerous it all is. So i wonder how radioactive the truck (a Renault) still is. They also had a picture of a complete and totally original unrestored Liberty sitting in a garage. Also this Months addition of the magazine Vehicules Militaire has a picture of two WW1 Nash Quads sitting in a field, where they have no doubt been for many years. I will try and get the picture scanned later on.

We had a contact who sent us photos of a French farm where there were hundreds of old cars and trucks parked around, including 10 WW1 ones. From a casual observance there was also a DUKW, a Rogers trailer and the bottom half of a tank (unidentified). We have lost contact with this person now, but would love to reestablish it. The farmer was obviously a collector as he also had a Chinese Junk, a railway engine and carriages as well as all of the machinery out of an WW1 armaments factory in other barns. I have photos of some of these things but will be using them to hopefully illustrate a future magazine article.

Tim (too)

I don't know what you are making all the fuss about. The war ended in 1918, so all of these vehicles are post war anyway!

Tim (too)

Well i was wrong. Top bid $12,100 and it failed to meet the reserve. Interesting to see that one of the top bidders was based in Belgium. I thought that he would not have to travel very far to get one in as good condition (there are quite a few of these surviving in France it seems). I wonder where it will be advertised next?

Tim (too)

How many bits did you get in the kit and what shape are they?

Tim (too)

Ok, the problem is now resolved. I went back in to modify my posts, deleted the original photos and recopied them from photo bucket. For some strange reason, when i fixed the first photo on each post, the other photos on the same post corrected themselves. Don't understand it, but it is fixed now.

Tim (too)

So since the change, all the photos i posted about my WW1 Dennis truck have dissapeared. Any idea why?

Thanks

Tim (too)

Thats a good idea. I will do it for Kemble. Cant offer you a cup of tea, but can give you a blessing!

Tim (too)

This Liberty truck has come up on E Bay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=4649882944&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT

I think that it has been on the market for a while now and will command a lot of money.

For a chance of winning "NO PRIZE WHATSOEVER", have a guess at the reserve price and the max bidding price.

My estimates are a reserve of $30,000 and max bid price of $8,500. It will of course not sell and will reappear for sale in the classifieds at a later date.

Tim (too)