M5Clive

Hi Joris

The below youtube link should tell you more (and anyone else) who may be interested in Dick Winter's only Post War return to Aldbourne, Wiltshire - The wartime home of the 506th PIR including Easy Company.

Clive

Dick Winters only ever returned to Aldbourne once after the end of WWII and that was when my brother Neil invited Dick, Carwood Lipton, Don Malarky and Dr. Stephen Ambrose back to the village on Saturday June 29th 1991, before Ambrose had written the book Band of Brothers and long long before Spielburg and Hanks had made them household names.

Dick took the time to find the graves of the Barnes family whom he lived with above the village store, for the duration of his time in England during WWII in Aldbourne C of E parish church. The men also visited the village fete on the Green and toured the (then) sole remaining stable block at Hightown House, where the 506th had been billeted in 1943/44. The three men were loaded aboard local Wiltshire Area MVT member Colin Spencer's Willys MB for a tour of the village and a journey up to the rolling downlands, so that they could see the village nestled in the valley, which brought back many memories for the three Easy Company Veterans. Their visit was brief but without the intervention of Neil, they would never have made it back at all, although Don Malarky did make another subsequent return visit in more recent years.

On a subsequent visit to the US, Neil also visited Dick at his Hershey, Pennsylvania, Farm House (that he promised to himself if he ever survived the horrors of combat) and kept in touch for many years until old age and the reality of his unexpected fame late in life caught up with him.

He was a very unassuming individual and without question one of 'The Greatest Generation'

A bloody sad day. Thanks for taking the trouble to post the pics.

Those poor guys stood on deck must have been flipping freezing.

Your pictures remind me of the day I stood in a similiar spot in 1982 (aged 7) and watched HMS Hermes come home from the Falklands Conflict. That was an emotional day too.

Pity the pictures are on slides otherwise I would have posted a couple to compliment yours.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00bz8cq/Lesley_Dolphin_11_11_2010/

Scroll forward to 2.21 minutes into the programme to hear the interview in all its glory!

You'll have to skip through the news bit!

Oh gawd - not a GMC mobile library? :shocked:

 

Mind you if it houses your massive collection of 8th AAF literature that might be most welcome :cool2:

Do I look like Ronnie Corbett?

Perhaps with a high quality stainless steel silencer fitted for those trying to read in silence, the idea may have some mileage!

Nice bit of archive there with British armour in training. The odd thing there was a road sign still up, when I understood they were removed at the start of the war. It looks very much like A345, which is the Salisbury to Marlborough road. Perhaps our Allies were getting lost, without signs :-)

Well spotted Richard!

The shot showing the British cruiser type tank (don't get bowled over by my British Armored Vehicle Knowledge now) pulling away from a junction and turning to head up the hill towards the cameraman is definitely Marlborough in Wiltshire. It is where George Lane (that runs parallel with the main High Street but due south) joins the Pewsey Road at the Marlborough College end of town. If you look closely you can see not only the white ornate structure of the river bridge over the River Kennet, but more importantly the Pill Box, which is still there today!

I lived 1/4 mile from this location for the first 27 years of my life and used to play in that pill box as kids and go swimming from the river bridge and the weir below. If Richard hadn't mentioned the Marlborough - Salisbury Road in his reply, I doubt I would have been eagle-eyed enough to recognise the exact location.

But what a selection of MV's in that film - Could almost be an MVT Tour where anything goes!!

A year on, the conclusion of this thread is that I acquired the vehicle off of Howard back in the Spring (2010) and it is still in the same clean condition, running as a chassie-cab - but I do have a rather novel plan for the old girl!

Old GMC's never die (Unless Rex Ward gets hold of them!) - They just change ownership and body styles and the success of the ownership is always judged by the ability of the new owner to be able to fill the fuel tank!

.... and here is a shot of M5Clive taking some snaps of 3 B-17's and a B-24 in formation.

 

PS, Clive, what happened to my hat.......?

 

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A mere 3 B-17's? - Hell, there were at least eight up there for most of the weekend - and as you can see from the picture below, every one of them was in Eighth Air Force (East Anglian UK based) colour schemes.

Yes, sorry about the hat old boy - The prop-wash from 20 radial engines starting-up did take me a little unexpected!

And some people say I never get up in the mornings..............

What a fantastic show it was, this weekend just gone.

4000 miles each way

4 days off work

2 Grand spent!

But I wouldn't have missed it for the world - After all, where else can you go and get shots like these...

100% Improvement.

Just get that horrible number plate taken off the front and its ready to park beside a Short Stirling for a photo - Shame their ain't none left!

That just made me laugh out loud Clive!

 

Set off from Dorset early to beat the M25 traffic. Got onto the M25 near Terminal 5 and BANG the gear box went - just about managed to cross all the lanes of the M25 and got to the hard shoulder.

 

 

Begs the question - What were you doing in the outside lane of the M25 in a 1.4 Honda Civic? Didn't it recommend in the user manual to exercise caution when overtaking?

I bet those tappets were going up and down like a fiddlers elbow...........

Here's a picture of it taken in natural light and before you took it to pieces!!!

This was at Rougham Airshow last August along with 'Allistair Kaye' heading home on a low level sortie back to Duxford. You can certainly get an idea of just how blue it was before Howard started on the repaint.

Out of interest, why is it that every ex-RAF military vehicle that seems to have survived WWII was either the personal run-around of Douglas Bader or Jonnie Johnson or served its time in 617 Squadron !

I guess that the Air Ministry must have scrapped all the other vehicles from the many thousands of other Squadron's that they had in operation throughout the world at the end of hostilities............and while i'm on my soapbox, have you ever thought it strange that out of all the derelict WWII airfields in the country, the sole hangar that remains on the airfield is always the one that Glenn Miller played his concert in - Never the one the farmer tore down in 1957 !

Rant over.....

Looking good Howard.

Love those sunset shots - the white puffy clouds were just right!

Jack

You missed the most important part of the story out - Driving half way to Suffolk last weekend to attend our wedding only for your car to let you down on the M25 and have to be recovered home.

I mean, to close your business is one thing, but to miss out on the rare occasion of a free evening's entertainment at my expense? - Now that's unforgivable...........!!

"Your name vill go on ze list"

Excellent Pictures with brilliant blue skies and thanks for taking the time to post.

Was that Melvin Cordwell under all that dust driving the Cent or an extra from 'Ain't alf Hot mum!'

Cos' you couldn't resist a bargain! But think of the profit margin when you move it on.........

I'll tell Mike Davis you'll be taking it to Beltring for his inspection!

By the way, I saw your old hard cab CCKW the other day. It looks the works.

The bolt I cut off will be replaced with a shorter one.

Blimey, I hope this won't effect the warranty!

Here's a couple of good ones of all the girls (including your fiance) at Wantisden Wartime weekend in September in Suffolk. It took me flipping ages to set all these shots up, but I think they were worth it.

PM me for the contact details of Nelle's Belle's if you still need them.

I thought Roger said the truck was reliable enough to drive home!

Go on - Take a gamble!

Hi Tim

The Saturday convoy to the WWII Airborne Memorial near Inkpen leaves Camp Ramsbury at 9am.

We will be stopping for lunch at Simon Froom's pub at Facombe - He owns a very tidy GMC that has attended several of our Kennet Valley bash's over the years.

The weather does not look particularly kind for the Sunday Convoy, but hopefully will have passed over by the public day on Holiday Monday.

Lets face it, the weather cant be worse that 2008!

Look forward to seeing you at the weekend.

Was this one of the White Half Tracks that Rudi Pommec was selling in Europe? If so, we went over to look at these vehicles at his unit in Holland. The project looks to be making fantastic progress - Love the White/Grey wall tyres!!

The firewall data plate stated date of delivery 27/10 /41 ~ pre Pearl Harbour! I thought the Yanks always put the month before the date? Maybe our friends across the big pond can confirm whether this is the case.

Would this date be about right for the chassie number Robert?

interesting that you think its original, but i would always bow to your greater knowledge in the CCKW dept!

I will try and get a few pics of the unusual braking mechanism on the outer chassie rail, beneath the drivers running board. I wont have time before Route to Victory this weekend.

Well done , looking foreward to how you rate ,compare an American MV to the experiances you have had with British MV's

Fortunately I haven't had any experiences with British MV's, other than having the misfortune to get stuck behind them in wartime vehicle convoys!

This will in fact be the eighth GMC CCKW/DUKW I will have owned since I was 17 ~ They are so good, I keep coming back for more!!

Some close up shots I took today showing the more unusual features of this early CCKW.

Early Chassie Number?

Firewall data plate with corresponding chassie numbers - Original or repro?

Early brush guard and blackout light location

Quirky Horn!

Well as you can see from Howard's photographs, it appears the Volcanic ash has finally arrived in Suffolk as the pictures all have a rather misty appearance!

But yes Jack you are right - It was just down the road in Felixstowe and the truck was in good enough order to drive home - Something i did not anticipate when I successfully bid for it on e-bay last week. I imagined that I would have to transport it back, but it runs really well and the chap said he would have no doubts driving it the 20 odd miles back to Howard's workshops near Stowmarket, so we did!

It is a quite an early CCKW 352 example and has probably had a cab replacement at some point in time as it doesn't have the civillian dash and ash try in the cab, which (according to East Anglia's GMC expert ShopNut) it should have such an early chassie number.

Although it has been parked outside for 18 months and indeed by the sea, it is mechanically in excellent shape although the tin work needs some attention. The engine is sound and pulls like a train. The gearbox selects beautifully and their is very little steering play and no nasty knocks or bangs - It is indeed a lovely truck with bags of potential and strangely enough, it has got me quite excited about seeing the work progress on it.

Watch this space..........