mcspool

Excellent pictures! These were taken before the outbreak of war, the Morris-Commercial CS8 15-cwt trucks still have their civilian registrations.

Here in Holland they would have you write an environmental effects report first, then they would turn the recovery proposal down because it would upturn the lake's soil and embankment etc. etc. :rolleyes:

Iain, You have a soft spot for ex-Dutch vehicles, it seems - good on you! If you post some pictures of the data plates I can confirm if those are Dutch ones. IIRC, a large number of ex-MDAP M4 High Speed Tractors used by the Dutch Army ended up at Sam Winer Motors in the US. At one time he was said to have as many as 46! Regards, Hanno

My pleasure, here are a couple more Loyd pictures: http://jtrowbridge5.smugmug.com/Alliedvehiclesinww2/Allied-ww2/15742127_KrQGM#1180183744_SWRTQ

This ties in with Ford Canada production, engine colour the same as the vehicle. Picture below shows engine cover off for service/repairs in the field, note the engine block has the same colour as the vehicle. Ancillaries were black.

Here's a picture of a Loyd Carrier towing a 10-cwt trailer: http://jtrowbridge5.smugmug.com/Alliedvehiclesinww2/Allied-ww2/15742127_KrQGM#1180184556_fd3jY

M14 in service - as a command vehicle?

Isn't it surprising how many of these seem to fail? I mean, what are the chances a rocket fails AND someone is video-ing it? :shocked:

And even those were upgraded by the use of coil springs instead of the original volute springs!

Hi Steve, My "Shermans into ploughshares" webpage features a picture of a VVSS-based drill too. As you say, the photos featured in the link only show HVSS-based vehicles, hence my remark about spare parts. If the logging vehicle used the gearbox and final drives off a Sherman (or M10, etc.) it was necessary to use the final drive housing in the new-build chassis. Most often they are fitted with extensions to compensate for the increased width. The armoured housing is needed for alignment of the gearbox, cletrac controlled differential steering and final drives. Possibly some manufacturers opted for electric / hydraulic drive, in that case the final drive housing could be deleted. Hanno

Maurice, indeed, thanks for the heads up.

Here is a guy dumping some more of your money in the desert http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/1348271/223e3a8d/javelin_missile_fail.html

No, I have not seen it. Did come across this pic of Sherman final drive housings. As these have VVSS sprockets they must be there for spares, as all the yarders using Sherman components have HVSS tracks. Oh no, should not have shown this, now Eddy has run off to Alaska

Today they would be fired if they did. . .

Great find, Tim! I wholehartedly agree! :goodidea:

Hi, great find, thanks for sharing. Many French people still talk "French Francs", but of course the current currency is the Euro. I noticed that many years after the introduction of the Euro many shops still priced their goods in both Francs and Euros. Anyway, 1 FRF = 0.152449 EUR and 1 EUR = 6.55957 FRF Eccentric? Of course, he collects rusty old army trucks! Plus he is French. . .

Hey! That's my truck!

Go Dutch Marines! See http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?21476

Bonjour Pierre-Olivier, Glad to see you made it over here too - welcome! Hanno

If you look up the serial number - see http://web.inter.nl.net/users/spoelstra/g104/serial.htm - we can have a go at putting a manuacturer and date to it.

Sharky, Great to see this M4(105) back! Many Sherman tanks were used as Molotov cocktail training aids on Dutch ranges. Because of environmental concerns they were all removed 25 - 30 years ago. This one was deemed not recoverable, which is why it initially survived the so-called "Tank Slag" (tank battle), the clean up of the ranges. At some point in time it was going to be recovered still and sent off for scrap, but together with a RNLA Major I secured its future in the early 1990s. At that time "USA 30104238" was still barely visible on its side. We found out it was one of 30 M4(105) Shermans supplied to the Netherlands by the USA through MDAP from 1951 onwards, out of a total of about 250. Later it was traded to a group of restorers in exchange for parts and restoration work on an M10 w/17-pdr. This group sold it to the museum in Belgium (run by a Dutchman) and the rest you know. Here is hoping it will be fully restored, as even though this Sherman was burned, it has otherwise little damage and should restore nicely. Keep up the good work! Regards, Hanno Ref. http://web.inter.nl.net/users/spoelstra/g104/nl.htm

The Germans are world-renowed for their "Gründlichkeit" (thoroughness), and it showed in the VW Beetle. The very early post-war Beetles were not very good, having been cobbled together from left-over stocks and whatever could be scrounged to get production up and running. They had a need to keep the people in Wolfsburg at work and occupied, so peace and order could be established. When things were properly organised and mass production came up to speed in the late 1940s/early 1950s, the VW Beetle was among the best-finished cars available anywhere in the world, which was a big part of it's commercial succes. Even today the 1950s Beetles are regarded to be of the highest quality of all the decades the Beetle was in production.

James, AFAIK only the Swiss and Netherlands Armies had their own workshop versions manufactured. Picture below shows the Dutch workshop; they had many more American ones in service. Regards, Hanno

Looks like Herr Schicklgruber was testing it himself

Nothing. Pounds Yard was not a marsh, the ground is hard enough to carry hundreds of tons of scrap steel. If you really want to locate buried tanks, do not speculate but investigate. In 1959 a Panther was raised from the river Maas. Some people had high hopes it survived somewhere but it has been confirmed it was sent to the blast furnaces and melted down. Case closed.