Lauren Child

If it's what we think it is, hold onto the shorter tent poles as they're the difficult to find bit! I'm reliably informed that a lot of Cent crews used to simply sleep on the rear engine plates by throwing a canvas over the gun. Probably quite warm if the engine had been running a lot The practice stopped with Chieftain as it had "uncomfortable knobbly bits". (technical term)

If you've got a post-war rebuild plate showing the new style registration number it's possible to find the original number by cross reference. It would be on the chassis under the passenger side door. You can also find the contract card, although mine sadly showed the warranty on the truck was only 6 months.

Hope to be getting back to the Charioteer shortly. Rick is doing the hard work

Cool thanks for the advice!

I'm not a welder (though I hope to learn), but there is some probably useful advice on welding different types of armour in a pamphlet called "Notes on welding technique part II; The repair of armour plate in the field" from October 1943. No subsitute for the experience that these folks have, but if you're starting out I can recommend picking a copy up. They show up on ebay/abebooks semi-regularly and there's a copy in the IWM library. If you get stuck I can run my copy through the photocopier.

It all comes down to who sees the auction, and what you pay overall for a project

I dont suppose they've got the blackout glass, mask and clip with them? The Tabby manual(s) that Clive has got show the IR lights as an extra set of lights complimenting the originals, hence thinking about the photograph that Ian and I have seen with the extra lamp of a different type on the QL.

As ever with ebay, if items go for super high prices it doesnt really mean that they're intrinisically worth that much, just that they're worth that much to two individuals who need that part to complete a project. £150 for a light sounds a lot, but chancing a bid at £150 to finish off a £10k truck is probably worth the risk of it going that high, even if it's overpriced for the component.

By way of completeness, this is the DT version. The glass is completely flat and can be swapped with IR blackout glass (painted film on the inside). The raised edge has a clip that can take a diffusion mask for use with the Tabby IR kit, giving a wider beam.

That would explain it not showing up in the armoured vehicle parts lists until the MoS caught up.

Is it the one with 3 or 4 QL's lined up? I'm wondering if we've seen the same photo or different ones, indicating potential wider use.

The DP version is shown in both Comet and Cromwell workshop manuals, 1947 /48.

and the UV type. If anyone has one of these, I'm looking for one.

Here's the normal blackout type.

The WD light itself is relatively common, but the front is unusual. I have seen an old photo of this style fitted as an extra lamp on the front of QL's which made me think of the tabby fit that Clive mentionned, but it's not a style that matches the ones in the books I've seen so far. It may just be an extra lamp of a civvy style to make driving at night safer.

They tend to go missing pretty quickly. They have to be removed for most transport and there's not much point in putting them back on on-range or in the scrap heap.

When I was looking at doing a Churchill I was reliably advised to go repro, as that way they are easier to remove for transport. The real thing is bloomin' heavy. Adrian should be able to help.

Very. Although you actually have to wonder how many people survived the war because of it. Many people surrendered when it lumbered into view against them, or later when they were covered in flammable liquid and facing a nasty end. The ignition trigger was separate for a very good reason, fed from a separate fuel source. A horrific weapon when used to its conclusion, but combined with the AVRE it was a much safer way of taking out bunkers and fortified positions than an infantry assault alone. The AVRE would blow a hole in the fortification, then the Crocodile would squirt the jelly through the hole and wait. Net result a lot of people alive on both sides who wouldn't otherwise be. Coming back to the thread topic, it would actually be interesting to see where that put the Crocodile in the eyes of the law. The main Crocodile equipment is only used to squirt jelly over large distance. The part that shoots flame is a separate tank next to the driver.

I agree, but Ive not seen any context that says that. Who knows what item 14 was, and given that this is the Internet, whether it was actually him posting it. It just sounds a bit off to me, so I'd rather wait to hear from a concrete source. I'd imagine we'll either see something responding from the organisations after talking to him, or something from him on the actual W&P website.

Sorry Clive, I edited my response to avoid stoking fires inadvertently. That's interesting though.

I'm saying the folks taking this show on are a) only human like the rest of us, and b) doing the show for the first time (albeit with sone experience of other shows). If I saw a thread like this I'd run a mile. Why don't we assume good faith until we get some concrete information.

There's certainly a lot of knowledge - Duxford has T55, T62, and T72, but I'm not sure whether there's a manual. What's the immediate problem?

We're not exactly making it easy for them to engage on here. Maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt as it's their first time running it.

Drivers side shows 3" howitzer ammo (65 on the diagram).

Here's the left side picture internally, it's the Besa version and doesn't show the gun, but you can see the distance between the compartment front and the chair. Not much room for a howitzer breach. Ammunition was stored on its side where the Besa boxes (73 on the diagram) are shown.