Your Average Joe

Q4. They said it was 1940's, but I'm not sure if early or late, and it had a radio body fitted. The whole thing was quite a rust bucket, I think it was part of the collection, just left to rot away in the open air. I did have a picture of it, but I've perhaps since deleted it.

I remember seeing a Commer in the yard at the Muckleburgh Collection last year. I couldn't say whether it's still for sale, but I don't think there was much interest in it.

Ooh, I think you might be right there. There's even some pictures online that have the same wooden bed on the back.

Having had a look at some pictures of the two, I think I might be more inclined to go for Dodge too

Ah ok, so they're not all necessarily American vehicles. I'll keep that in mind when I'm doing anymore research.

Ah ok, so while the tanks are all British, the transporter, the Willis Jeeps and the Dodge/Chevrolet (which I can't say I even noticed) are all US. They were assisting in Africa since May '42, but invaded Algeria and Morocco in November, which ties in pretty nicely with the dates these photos might have been taken.

Ooh, I completely forgot about the trailer that the Panzer is on. Looking at a picture of an Sd.Ah.116 though I'd say your spot on there, thank you for that one!

Ok so, I've been doing a little research and digging around to piece the background of some of these images together. Working down the above photos from the top, we have: 1 - Unknown German truck, but potentially an Opel Blitz judging by the cab shape, 2 - Carro Armato M13/40, Italian Light Tank, 3 - Lee/Grant, couldn't tell you which, I have no idea what the differences were, 4 - "Jerry Petrol Tankers". Looking at what is left of the cabs and engine housing, I think this is actually a Bedford OY tanker? 5 - Your typical Panzer III, 6 - Monty's Old Faithful as established above, 7 - I honestly don't think there's enough of these vehicles visible to identify them, but I'm more than happy for someone to prove me wrong, 8 - This is an interesting one, a vehicle I never even knew existed... It's apparently a 15 cm sFH 13/1 (Sf) auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper(f). Basically an SPG on the captured French chassis of a Lorraine 37L Carrier. I think they might have been used exclusively in Africa as sources say Rommel requested them and only around 55 were made. 9 - "Captured Tank". Another Lee/Grant, however from what I've found it is now extremely likely that it was captured by the Germans and they retaken by allied forces at a later date. 10 - Lots of Bedford trucks and a Crusdaer(? correct me if that's wrong), 11 - As mentioned above this is a "Rogers Trailer" with a Grant/Lee on, and last but by no means least, 12 - Another Bedford. The confusing thing about some of these pictures at first was that they claimed to be of captured vehicles that I'm now sure are actually allied vehicles. However, most of these were taken near the Port city of Mersa Matruh (Marsa Matruh nowadays I believe). So, I think... After the battle of Mersa Matruh in June 1942 (a disaster for the Allies, following an even worse disaster at Gazala earlier that month which lead to the appointment of Montgomery), the Axis forces acquired lots of Allied equipment and fuel that was left behind by a fleeing X and XIII Corps. So the convoy of German Tankers (Allied vehicles) and the "captured" (retaken) tanks back up the idea that my Grandad was in this location AFTER the Battle of Mersa Matruh in June 1942, and no earlier than November '42 when these areas were swiftly retaken by forces under the control of Montgomery. Apologies for the rather long post, but I think it's interesting info offering a bit of insight into how the material that gets left behind is put to use by the opposite side, as well as how chaotic and frantic the situations of both sides in North Africa really were.

Oh wow, very jealous you got to drive the Humber! I imagined of all the vehicles pictured Montgomery's car would be one of those that survived to this day. Certainly not a vehicle anybody would ignore, that's for sure.

There's a good chance they could be the same day, the other Monty photos we have show him visiting some wounded men in hospital, but no date or location is included in the captions.

That would be great to see it from another person's perspective too. There are a lot of photos in and around Jerusalem and Tobruk, a lot of the ones that aren't are more "on the road" sort of pictures. I think he was involved in the supply of petrol, which would explain those ones.

Right, I've sifted through and here are the rest. While some images are easily identified I thought I'd include them anyway for people to have a look at. I'll include any captions above their respective image. Caption Reads: "Wrecked Jerry Truck with dead still there, Note 'X'" (I've removed any upsetting detail from the image) Caption: "One of the many" Caption: "British tank going into action, June 1940. Taken as we left" Caption: "Jerry petrol tankers after the RAF had been. This was the scene for miles" Caption: "Captured Jerry tanks" No Caption Caption: "Abandoned Jerry trucks Nr Mersa Matruh" Caption: "German gun on carrier" Caption: "Captured tank" (can only assume it was captured by the Germans and then recaptured/found later on???) Caption: "Petrol tankers at Mersa Matruh" Caption: "Tank transporters at dawn" Caption: "Barce(?) Nr Benghazi" I know some of the photos aren't great angles, but we can call those ones a challenge

It is one of our favoured photos. The other is below, not particularly vehicle related but a good photo nonetheless. If there's anyone interested, once I get hold of his service record and can piece together locations, I intend to collate everything in chronological order of My Grandad's journey through Africa, I can post all of the ordered pictures in "Other Chatter" for people to have a look through. The caption on this photo reads: "One bottle per man"

Oh that's brilliant thank you! One truck down, now I'll have to get onto the other photos ASAP.

Ahhh, that must be the shape of the stencil. So the number is "L 1 8 2 5 1 1" that makes sense now. Thank you