Pete Ashby

Fair question Paul however I'd expect the temperature gauge to be off the end stop before the gasket blew, the Go Devil engine measures head temperature on the block side of the stat so if it's not opening the gauge will let you know pretty quick. :shocked: Pete

Your choice, I was taught to torque down in two stages cold, run up to operating temperature turn off and torque again to specified value while still hot then run for 20 miles or so and do it again cold and then hot to specified max torque and then recheck at 100 miles. Pete

Torque while it's still hot Steve Pete

Yes that's correct Howard there are no longitudinal braces on your type of body just the hoops. Pete

Resting Old Boy .......... never silent. Yes I'll pass judgment on 'Agent O's ' latest acquisition hopefully at the end of the month. Sorry Howard for hi jacking your thread :blush: Pete

Well done Hanno:-) I thought it was something to do with time lapse in the land of the Clog . That's a very nice picture of a F30 not seen that before regards Pete

I guess at the end of the day it's what ever your client wants..... but for an anorak purist like me I would go for the one piece sheet every time. My son David has a one piece on his C30 11 cab winch truck and it looks the business I think. Pete

Some factory photos that show the canvas for the 30cwt and 3 ton range of early CMP's. Note its a one piece canvas that wraps around the front and back like a big parcel. The photos show a 4A1 body but the canvas will be the same although the hood bows are slightly different in so much as they have longitudinal braces fitted which your version does not have. The overall height to the top of the bars is 120" for all models of GS 30cwt and 3 ton at this period. Pete

This is not meant to be alarmist but it would be worth checking both the head and the block for any sign of a fine crack it may only leak when hot and may be almost invisible so go over them both with a magnifying glass. I guess as you know you have a problem on No 4 did you do a compression test and leak down test before you took the head off?. Loss of coolant can but not always be an indication of pressuring the cooling system with combustion gasses did you see any sign of fine bubbles in the header tank after a run for example. Your comment about the new rad cap is interesting in so much as if the old one was leaking pressure then it may have acted like a relief valve the new cap may well have shown up a problem that you have had long term. Pete

This should be of use Howard from the Illustrated Body Parts List for D.N.B special Pattern Bodies October 1941 Pete

Don't remove the plate on the top Paul this is the top cover for the king pins. What you are looking for is the small recessed slotted plug on the back of the ball housing remove this and screw in a grease fitting and fill carefully with liquid grease be careful not to overfill. Pete

Perhaps they were Humbers then Adrian 30 years is a long time :undecided:, I remember being impressed with the height of them. They sat side by side more or less in the center of the yard not too far away from the goods shed and seemed to be in fairly complete condition. Pete

Good question Bob, not much use to you now but about 30 years ago the late Chris Wilkinson had three AEC's in his yard at St Albans, not sure which Mk's they were or if anyone ever took any of them into preservation it would be nice to know. Pete

I agree John it's a bit like reading the News of the World while waiting in the Barbers I suppose :-). There are two ways of looking at this thread either it is a mild wind up..... a bit wierd but Iv'e seen it happen on other forums.. or Andy Brown is a real person with real memories who needs help from us to sort out what actually happened ( I still find it very hard to reconcile 326 whole tanks) but am prepared to accept that some form of scrap was buried. So Andy which is it ? if it's a wind up you have badly misjudged your audience as there are people on this forum who are recognized world authorities in their respective fields and have spent a life time collecting, researching and restoring MV's so they know their stuff. We have all heard these reports and some have actually gone looking for the buried treasure around the world only very rarely is anything found and if it is it invariably is not what was reported to be in the hole. So Andy lets try to unravel this mystery for you by going back to the beginning and putting aside the unhelpful politics and other asides and adopt a professional approach to the research so that we can either supply answers or put you in touch with organisations or Government departments who may be able to supply you with information. So to start the process first off you need to supply answers where possible on the following: what REME unit was your Father in during 1944/45 Are you in possesion of the war diary for the unit What was his substantive rank What was his acting rank What was his Army number When was he demobbed In what capacity did he work post war for the REME with dates What year was the burying of items undertaken In what capacity did he carry out the work What Government departments have you contacted already How you think the plates that you found in the scrap yard relate to your Fathers activities. The answers to the questions above will give you and us if you choose to share them a good start along the road to unraveling the story. This is meant to be helpful and not challenging............ I trust you accept it as such. Pete

Hi Nick that was an excellent photo of the MWR at the Tram museum, I hope you don't mind but I thought it was so good it warranted a bit of photo shop ' Somewhere in England' :-) regards Pete

That's about it I recon Trevor, but realistically I would think 2 acres and at least 4m to 5m deep either way that is a very big hole to dig and more importantly an awful lot of spoil to get rid off. Again a more realistic proposition would be to use an existing hole in the form of a quarry or sand pit. However I still can't reconcile the need to bury tanks that as the figures have illustrated did not represent anything in terms of outstanding cost and represented a much better investment being stored in case of need. Pete

I thought it might also be a useful exercise to calculate the size of hole needed to bury 326 tanks for this purpose I have taken Adrian's lead and used the dimensions for the M4A4 Iv'e converted the imperial measurements to metric and the results are as follows: The size of hole to turret top for one tank would be 2.5m x 6.1m x 3m assuming the tank fits the hole exactly. If 326 tanks were buried nose to tail in a single line this would require a trench 1.98Km long 2.5m wide and 3m deep to turret top. A more likely situation would be some form of square array for the sake of the argument lets assume 10 tanks wide the hole now becomes 199m long 25m wide and 3m deep All of the above assumes there is no space left between vehicles in any direction. Pete

Using Adrian's more accurate figure for later Mk's of Sherman the total discounted cost increases from £268,950 to £383,050 Pete

Since the start of this thread there as been no positive information or answers to direct questions forthcoming. As a result I spent five minutes putting together some information based on facts and figures. I present them here with no bias whatsoever and will leave those who may be interested to draw their own conclusions or challenge them as they see fit. It would appear from Andy's narrative that the tanks were of US manufacture so it is safe to assume that they would be Shermans of later Mk's the cost of a Sherman in 1942 was $33,000 Again form Andy's narrative his Father was involved in burying 326 tanks So 326 x $33,000 = $10,758,000 total cost for the tanks involved at time of manufacture The exchange rate on the $ to the £ in 1945 (and up to 1949) was $4 to £1 Cost of 326 tanks in £ = 2.69M Under the terms of the Anglo American loan negotiated in 1945 the cost of war material still held by the British of US origin was written down to 10 cents on the dollar Therefore the 326 tanks would now be worth $10,758,00/10 = $1,075,800 At $4 to the £ this equates to a total discounted cost of £268,950 Pete

I repeat....... it is now clear what the situation is here. Pete

Thank you Andy everything is now perfectly clear Pete

I would think Trevor the problem in this case with Geo phys would be the re-bar in the concrete, it would produce an awful lot of interference to the point where you would not see anything else Pete

Andy this makes interesting reading but I'm not sure how it all fits together. It is no secrete that there was a strong feeling among some senior members of the British armed forces and some members of the war cabinet that from the end of 1944 the Russians represented a considerable threat to Allied plans for post war Germany and potentially the rest of Europe. From the American perspective Patton reputably was of a mind that there was a wasted resource in the form of German elite units locked up in PoW cages. However if I have understood your narrative correctly I don't understand the rational of bringing captured armoured vehicles back across the channel. To make this worth while in terms of numbers it would require a major logistical operation which would not have been possible to keep from the Americans. As others have already said there were a few type examples brought back for evaluation possibly the the most well known being the Tiger at the tank museum and and another example at Shrivenham military collage along with at least one Panther and several half tracks that were passed onto Vauxhall for evaluation. Is it possible your Father was involved in the recovery and transport of vehicles for evaluation perhaps ? One point I must correct you on regarding the atom bomb project, Britain was involved in the Tube Alloys project at both Los Alimos and Chalk River. My first Division Head was recruited from Cambridge in 1944 and shipped out to join the US team along with a number of other leading British chemists and physicists. As I said at the start this is an interesting story and perhaps a little more detail would make things clearer, I look forward to hearing more about this regards Pete

The latest addition of Windscreen arrived on this mornings post and very good it is too, so you should get that in a day or so I would think. Pete