goanna

Interesting topic . I was around in the 70's as a MV enthusiast and nearly all of the larger yards I knew then are long gone . Many of them ended up as sold for scrap , in some cases the family involved ( owners ) just couldnt be bothered and they called in the crushers. Each is a different case and you cannot generalize. In some cases the land was worth more than the vehicles, and as towns grew and expanded , the yard owners sold out because the offer from land developers was just too tempting. And many of the owners were getting on in years , without a family member willing to keep the yard going - the scrap dealers were called in. I know of one yard which held , among its treasures , a Morris 2 pounder portee , a Marmon Herrington gun tractor and a WOT6 Fordson ..all were scrapped because the eldery alcoholic owner was senile and unapproachable ...he would be likely to curse you or pull out a gun . Mike

not forgetting the PU's . Mike downunder

I don't agree with that statement at all. The archive photo evidence doesn't support that theory in any shape of form. Mike

In 1940 as far as i can work out, they were using the two green disruptive pattern on B range vehicles . http://www.geocities.com/vk3cz/Paint.html http://www.geocities.com/vk3cz/GSbody3.html this is a page i put together some years ago... might be of use to you Mike

your best bet maybe remove it , scan it into a photo or graphics program and enhance and restore the damaged sections ..then print it out onto a new high quality media ..and re-attach it to the truck. Mike

jules Normally , the numbers stamped into the rear near side spring mount are broken down into three :they are usually stamped as 3 seperate 1.sanction number ..this is sort of a MCC internal method of tracking batches . 2.CS8 self explains itself 3. the last number is the actual chassis number , beginning with 1 .. around 1935 ..up to around 21, 000 in 1941 . Your number doesn't make sense , the last digits eg, 15163 mean it is the 15163th vehicle to be built . Sanction number 1802 is for : CS8/mk3 .. this taken from the 1940 MCC repair aids for service vehicles . Your 058 ..is actually a badly stamped CS8 . So you actually have: sanction 1802 model CS8 chassis number 15163 Got it ? BTW I've a few chassis numbers listed here: http://www.geocities.com/vk3cz/CS8numbers.html Mike

That Humber has personality ..it's got a smiley face on the spare wheel.

A ex WW2 US army air corps Fairchild spotter / recon aircraft . Single radial motor , high wing configuration . It had local history: used in SWPA in WW2 and then civil registered post WW2 . I saw P51 with civil reg. VH IVI at a airshow in 1970.. sadly it crashed a short time later . At the same show they had a civilian owned ANSON flying ..it had been re-engined and modernised with a metal main wing spa. They organised a pylon race around the field and the poor ANSON was miles behind the other modern types .. it was on a regular freight run to the Bass Strait Islands ...Brain and Brown the Company .

I hope to visit the museum one day and take many pics, and draw many drawings and measure everything on it .Its a late production CS8 with full cab and doors etc... these would be rare in the UK I would imagine ? It is over 200 miles Nth ...up on the Murray River border with NSW . We have had hot days for a while ... many over 100F . Mike

hi Rick Well thats probably a understandable mis-read of the situation here . As far as I know I'm the only person in the whole country into military MCC's ... in a serious way . I know of a chap in Wagga with a very rough incomplete CS8 ..he intends to restore it , but he hasn't done anything with it . A guy in Brisbane has a CS8 ..in a million bits without a motor . In 32 years of MV collecting ..I've only ever seen one MCC military vehicle at a rally here , back in 1985, a club member brought along his amazing SHED FIND CS8...to a airshow , it was later sold to a museum here and still sits there to this day . Its complete and unrestored as is ... this car is an exception as they are normally found as wrecks beyond help . I'm on my own, as far as research, collecting bits and so on goes. The more 'exotic' makes such as MCC dont attract much attention here in the MV scene ... Mike

Aussies steal British truck ... from a Polish unit . An extract from the war diary M.E. HQ ..one of the many snippets of info relating to M.T. .. found on the AWM site . Mike

Well yes , I've done a little research and the diverted vehicles are normally refered to as ' refugee ' cargo. Some of the Dutch NEI vehicles were diverted also eg the little Dutch Marmon Herrington tanks . This topic surrounds a whole story on its own covering US Dutch and British vehicles . It's complicated and not easy to fathom. Some vehicles did arrive direct from the UK .. the AWM records show for example that Matilda tanks were shipped directly to Australia . I've got a feeling that some soft skins were shipped directly also . Towards the wars end .. there was a big build up of equipment ..getting ready for the invasion of Japan ...and I think that some vehicles arrived then. Most of the CS8's here are late production with the later cab and full windscreen , 1941 production maybe ? ... just before the Japsanese war . My thoughts are these maybe are cargo diverted from Malaya ... Some of them have Z numbers on the bonnets this site has much info..but takes hours to find relevant info http://www.awm.gov.au/diaries/ww2/

Just a brief rundown of the types I've seen down here over 32 years ... The tillies Standard : the most numerous variant with about 70-80 being sold to civilians around 1946 .. these were apparently late WW2 imports that were never issued to the army here .. disposed off very quickly. At least one ( in restored cond.) has been repatriated back to the UK The other tillie variants are very rare . A Melbourne company had a fleet of Morris' , but only two or three have ever turned up .. beyond help . One is under restoration in West. Aust. I've heard of only one Austin ... a wreck beyond help. Never seen or heard of a Hillman . 8 cwts : 3 - 4 Morris Commerical PU's . Only one is relatively complete .. never seen or heard of a Humber or other makes . 15 cwts: Not common today , but probably 400-500 arrived here . MW - CS8 and WOT2's . The Bedford seems to be less common than the other two makes . A few restored WOT's around ..but nil Morris or Bedford . 3 tonners . a mixture of Ql's, Fordson and the odd Crossley etc. I know of 2 restored Ql's . Again, not common . A batch of MCC C8 2 pounder portees .. these were the unmodified ones ..not converted to tractors ... 5-6 have been found . Its the land of CMP's here.. ubiquitous things that seem to multiply . Mike

I've seen two others here . The restored one in the link was a one owner .. spent its life on a remote property and was looked after ... not abused . They usually had the body chop treatment and a crane fitted . Being cable brakes and very underpowered .. The good thing was the winch = they would have ended up in the timber industry or as a yard crane . They were only ever used in training roles here, I think the army considered them to be obsolete . Mike

One of a batch of these that ended up in the antipodeas ... http://www.oldcmp.net/Guy_Aug_06.html#Anchor-49575

I've seen one of these ..in good restorable condition. http://www.oldcmp.net/crossley.html

Some here use the 8.25 X 16's .. these were a common commecrial size on light trucks here ...I've seen em on the smaller 1960's J series Bedfords . They normally have a road tread pattern . Mike

I'm not sure ,but maybe 50 worldwide ... For some reason .. very few of the 8 cwt's have survived compared to the 15 cwt range .. I believe only a single Ford WOC1 exists .. and that has a repro body on it . Sadly, I know of a good MCC PU8 chassis that was scrapped here recently ..by a MV collector no less. Mike

1970's sounds too late ..but I'm no authority on this topic.. What is memmingways anyway ?

When did the very last MW's end service in the British army ? Early 1960's maybe ... Years ago I met a guy who claimed that his unit still had a MW on the books in about 1963 ... from memory he was stationed in Malaysia/Singapore or similar ...

AWM pics In Palestine and ME with Aussies

Sarge caught having a snooze in the CS8 wireless ... good detail of the canvas roll up door. 2 weeks of potatoe peeling for you sarge . Note the panel type air filter ...

An article from the SOLDIER magazine of the 1950's.. still in service on the Mohne dam where the dam busters did their thing ..

speedometer face for all of the PU/CS8 restorers out there ..print it out onto adhesive paper and stick it onto your speedo head .. Mike

Here's a nice one.. the CS8 ..not the girl !