B series

I have don't know the purchase price circa 1964. But I would say it appears of cheaper construction than the FV designs of the 1950's that came out of the WD design office. e.g Leyland Martian 6x6 Recovery. Looking at the general design layout, (6x6 chassis, large diesel powertrain, winches, recovery equipment) I think the Bill of Material total cost would be similar to a 1950's US M62 Wrecker. I think both vehicles shared a Austin Westin crane assy. But the M62 would be produced at a lower piece price due to the quantity of the 5 Ton base chassis variants manufactured.

Ruddington 103rd sale was 14 to 16th October 1969. I can add nothing further about the trials or use of the vehicles when is service. As attleej mentioned in his post, these vehicle types do have a large and impressive engine.

43ER38 & 43ER39 were two Berliet TBU recovery vehicles supplied via Alvis for trials with REME. You can see the applied Alvis red triangle logo attached to 43ER39. They were part of a commercial agreement where Alvis would market Berliet trucks in some markets, and Berliet would market Alvis Stalwarts in markets which Berliet had a strong presence at the time, eg N Africa. 43ER38 was sold at the Ruddington 103rd sale Lot 1380 43ER39 was trialed in Aden 1964, returned to the UK and sold at the Ruddington 103rd sale Lot 1379 As far as I know there were only two Berliet TBU supplied.

I have been involved with military vehicles as a hobby for 40+ years, and have collected around 150 Ruddington sales catalogues and many workshop manuals. Back in the 1970's and 80s there was not so much interest in military vehicles and publications were easy to find and inexpensive. I started attending the Ruddington sale around mid 70's until the end.

I cannot help you with wartime history, however AEC Matador tractor 93 YY 58 was listed in the 89th Ruddington sale 4th April 1967 Lot 1149, but for some reason it was relisted in the 90th Ruddington sale, 6th June 1967 Lot 1633. So it had a long post WWII service before disposal.

Surprised you have had no replies to your question. There were very few Leyland Hippo Mk II type 19H 6x4, Tractors, Semi trailer, Special, modified for the Thor transporters. I understand that a company called Davies completed the modifications but I have no details. Of the modified tractors that I am aware the earliest is ERM 06AN99 and the last one was 07AN79, so could be 80. But maybe not all tractors in that range were modified, but I know of 14 modified tractors. Most were sold via the auctions at Ruddington during 1965/66. I don't know if any survive.

I have just been reading about this saw bench trailer, and have seen the owner is wondering about the type of engine originally fitted. Well I dont know the answer but he might be interested to know that: 14 x Trailer, 10 Cwt, 2 wheeled, with Liner Porta 26 inch saw bench with 6hp JAP air cooled engine were sold at the 12th Branston sale in September 1968. They all had census numbers in the range 51YM61 to 52YM70. Maybe a 6hp JAP would be correct spec.

64AE02 is a Leyland Hippo, 10 Ton, 6x4 cargo truck, dropside, Mk II, with RAF style cab. RAF vehicle type 19H. 12AC93 is a Truck, 6x4 with 6 Ton Coles crane, turntable mounted on a chassis supplied by Steels. 12AC93 is an RAF registration number. This vehicle entered service circa 1964.

What a great looking truck, so nice to see a 1950's vehicle in DBG without being over restored with tow ropes, buckets and red two hooks etc. Original Q4 tippers must be so rare because most were worked to death after demob. This vehicle is a credit to its owner.

RE: Adverts This evening I have tried the "click on Theme and then default" as suggested by Ron. But it does not work for me. I am using Chrome browser on a 2 year old Dell laptop. I have an advert for "Path to Success" along the bottom of the page, advert for ebay on the header and amongst the posts adverts for a women called Maria Teresa for over 6o's, Avon eye make up in Polish I think and Hotels rooms from Novotel as below. Also as someone else mentioned, some of these advert move about on the page which is a pain.

I get adverts, it has messed the site up and is no long nice to use IMO.

On D Day the 45th LCT (AVRE) Flotilla landed at Queen Red Beach Sector near Ouistreham (LCT947 was one) all loaded with RE armoured vehicles. One LCT that beached next to LCT 947 was loaded with: Lobster Flailing Tank "Dunbar" (Should have been 1st down the ramp) Crab Flailing Tank "Stornoway" (should have been 2nd down ramp) Churchill mine plough, possibly named Plough A Boa-Carpet tank, fitted with two long forward facing arms fitted with Bangalore torpedoes and a large roll of logs and matting for ditch or beach repairs. This tank was also fitted with a Petard mortar. It was named "Barbarian" A Churchill tank fitted with a Chespale spool loaded with chestnut matting, and named or called Bobbin. together with many other vehicles. "Dunbar" was hit before rolling down the ramp causing a blockage, then Stornoway was hit causing an explosion whilst attempting to push Dunbar down the ramp.

Hi Bill, The RAF code 37 indicates Aircraft Engines-Magnetos and Spares. The C would give more detail but I dont have that information. Maybe SUO indicates in short form the manufacturer of the magneto or related equipment. eg the army used 7BD for Bedford and 7RU for Land Rover parts.

I would suggest that 37C/ 60754 are RAF stores.

That is a really nice truck. You are correct that there are not many of these still around. It looks very original and just needs a cab protector to set it of. These Commer Q4 drive nice as well.