early british ww2

Hi , The pu/8 on Milweb is the one that Rex Cadman sold for the family of the deceased owner at the 2007 War and Peace Show - I tried to buy it at the time but didn't get hold of Rex in time before it sold for approx £5k i believe - A friend of mine has told me today that it is up for sale now for £10k! I haven't had chance to ring the chap yet to see if the price is correct but it doesn't appear to have altered too much in the last 3 years , not that the picture is too clever - At least it doesn't appear to have got any worse and still wears those lovely balloon tyres ! :coffee:

Hi Simon , Yes that's the ticket - The chap who crewed the Guy Ant was the Man in charge and he was a Corporal in the signals , The driver was , as you say in charge of all things petrol powered and then there was the main wireless op and his right hand man who were both interchangeable - There are two seats in the cab accupied by the driver and Officer who had there rifles with them in the cab and communicated with the rear compartment by a speaker tube which had whistles on either end which you replaced after talking down the tube - to get the attention of your oppo's you would remover the whistle and blow down the pipe alerting the chap at the other end . In the rear you had the main operators seat in the middle of the table - You had another seat on the wheelarch next to the genny cupboard and a fold down one in front of the door attached to the genny cupboard - There were also rifle brackets for 2 more No. 4's in the back - Your main armament being a Bren Gun or better still a captured burp gun ehich if you had to use it behind enemy lines when setting up forward communications would not alert the germans . This chap was extremely knowledgeable and we had an excellent weekend with him .:coffee: p.s. Simon , I Like the cs8 by the way!

Does anybody know whether any of the Civilian Guy Vix- Ants as used as the Queens Messengers ever made it into preservation or does anyone know of any other wartime Vix - Ants which have survived ?? Any pics - I have one of a Guy water tanker in the Queens Messenger livery - Any Others?? :coffee:

From what I have heard from a friend who knows the guys there are only supposed to be one or two bits that are having reserves on them as all the vehicles etc are there to sell , but there are some very nice pieces of kit here , if it is what you are into of course and I personally can't see them going cheap especially after paying out all the commission fee's etc as has already been said but I will still be watching with interest but keeping my hands firmly in my pockets !!:coffee:

Hi Alan , Many thanks for the info - That Guy Truck must be from the same contract number as mine from 1942 - The interesting piece to note is that there are only 3 crew names as I have been led to believe that they were crewed up by four - Driver/Commander(officer in charge)/wireless op/wireless op-signaller from a visit I had from a corporal in the signals many years ago who had searched me out after seeing my Guy Wireless truck at a show :coffee:

Hi Maurice / Richard - I have certainly seen a Morris Commercial Fire Engine with what appears to be a Black cab cover ( I have some photo's somewhere) and there used to be a Morris Commercial C4 around these parts that had brown canvas tilts on it with a funny sort of brown camo pattern to the paintwork and R.A.F. markings - Both trucks were certainly post '42 Interestingly enough the old chap who was restoring what is now my 1940 Guy Ant had a rear canvas made for the truck in Brown before he passed away - The cab cover that is on it is an original one which was the Beechwood colour although now somewhat faded but the same colour as my Guy Wireless truck:coffee:

Hi Chris , Hope you are both well - Yes you are right the ones that I have in my 1940 Morris Commercial CS8 are still the ones you had re-made in the green canvas by the chap in preston and they match the original wartime ones which came with my 1939 CS8 and the radio ones in the Guy , although turned round the other way for the seats in the wireless body - you can only just see the drivers seat in the attached pic :coffee:

Hi Alex thanks for the compliments ... I think !! Both my cs8's are identical in the seating arrangements The seat bases both clip onto the push dot eyes on both sides which helps on the passenger side as that seat does indeed tilt up to get to the fuel tank underneath and the back cushion is fixed onto the backboard of the cab / body with the turn dots which allows the passenger a bit more room in the cab . I do think however that someone has tried to standardise the seat cushions as the bases are the same in the Morris C8's in the fastening sense and the operators seats in the Gin Palace on my Guy Ant Wireless Truck also fasten the same way , which may mean that it was more of a Morris thing as they made the 15cwt Wireless Gin Palaces for Guy as well as for their own C8 Wireless trucks and possibly the Fordson wot's etc - The seat bases in the cabs of both of my Guy Trucks do not appear to have any fastenings much the same as my Bedford and most of what you would think are original seat pads appear to be in a Beechwood sort of colour , some being internally sprung and some not - Interesting differences !?:coffee:

Cheers Guys , I will look into the two leads you have given me thanks - It has definitely got to look right but I may have a play around with an old rubber case at some stage and see Cheers:coffee:

Does anyone know of a decent supplier of Hi-Capacity 6volt Jeep batteries?? I would prefer ones to look like the rubber cased originals to fit in the standard ww2 jeep carrier - I have been told you can get the new type gel batteries but does anyone do this type in a rubber type casing cheers:coffee:

Hi Simon - Yes that's the one it had a bent arabic plate on the front and the canvases were just starting to let go but it was still a good find - I would be interested to see where it ended up going to if you could ask and get back to me cheers:coffee:

I know of two but then one appeared at Beltring in 2007 while we were there with the Aero screen Bedford that obviously hadn't seen the light of day for a while but unfortunately its' owner had passed away and Rex Cadman was selling it on behalf of the family - We tried to buy it but missed out - It looked fairly complete and was finished in sand paintwork and if I remember rightly the reg number was KBB121 I will try and dig some photo's out - Does anyone know where this ended up?? cheers:coffee:

Very appropriate Clive , I was shocked when I saw the Obituary in Windscreen as I missed Dale at Stoneleigh this year as we didn't get down - What a great guy he will be sadly missed - Please pass on my condolences to Alison and the family Rgds Glynn - Yorkshire Dales Area MVT

Hi Chris , Have seen the Blue Crossley a few times before and it is a beauty - It has been a regular attender at the Cumbria Steam Fair at Flookburgh - It usually lands on the back of a low loader complete with a very nice Crossley car as I have been led to believe the owner is a relative of Crossley but may be wrong as you know how these things go Cheers mate:coffee:

There used to be one of these commers which turned up regularly to the Cumbria Steam Fair at Cark Airfield , Flookburgh but haven't seen it lately - will try and dig out some pics cheers:coffee:

I will have a look through my pics etc...watch this space

Hi I have a wartime version of this gun which was made by Hispano-Suiza and supplied to both allied and axis forces in 1944 - Mine is a 1944 Hispano- Suiza HS-404 20MM Anti Aircraft gun . Yours has the basic chassis as it were that mine does but has a lot more added to it and is on bigger wheels etc so suspect that it must be a postwar version of my HS-404 . Very nice piece anyway and probably still fairly rare , Cheers:coffee:

Hi Jaap , May get chance this weekend and if so I will post some pics up for you cheers Glynn

I have been led to believe that this chap may have sold off at least some if not all of his stock of these filters and parts early this year but do not have any contact details for him i'm afraid cheers:coffee:

The filter in Tims' very nice pu is one version of the early war air filters and as far as I was aware they were not just restricted to use for the dusty climates - Most perople call them the "early Morris" filters but this again appears not to be strictly true as these large box type units were also fitted to other early war vehicles such as Guy Ants and they were also the standard filters used on the air intakes on the compressors on Compressor equipped 15cwt trucks by this I mean the large units with road breaking tools etc in the back of such as Morris cs8 and c4 compressor trucks and not the underfloor tyre inflators . The concertina type cloth air cleaners fitted to such as early aeroscreened Bedford MW'S were another type which were fitted to other early trucks and I again have seen these in Guy Ant pictures and AEC Matadors etc . Alex you are right that my 1940 Morris CS8 has the later type Oil bath air cleaner in it - for the minute anyway until I take delivery of one like that in tims picture . These box filters I have seen in Morris Commercial CS8 , M.C.C PU8'S , M.C.C. CDSW'S ETC , GUY ANT 15CWT . Cheers:coffee:

Hi Alan , Any pics of any of the material you mention especially the Guy Ant and the Morris Commercial ?? cheers:coffee:

Forgot to put this on last week - Spotted a nice Bedford Ql - No canvases on the back but looked straight enough on the back of an autotec recovery truck heading from the M65 through Colne , Lancs towards Keighley in West yorks - Perhaps it may belong to a member of the forum?? Very nice anyway thanks:coffee:

Welcome to the forum Alan - Give us a shout when you get a chance mate I'd like to know more about your Guy Ant cheers:coffee:

Welcome to the forum Ray - Nice collection you have there Cheers:coffee:

Welcome to the forum mate