ted angus

Low pressure pneumatic servicing trolley possibly Mk 1b, A few fitted with elec motor for use in hangars driving pneu tools spray guns etc Most were twin cyl petrol ; we got rid of our last one at RAF Leuchars in 1993- it was still in daily use and reliable better then the rubbish that replaced it !!

Ja for Sure !!

thanks Wally

Second that RN firefly, the 2 engined prop job wheels up is a De Hav Hornet , the final picture of the twin fin job is a Bristol Brigand, both types used in the ground attack role against the commie insurgets TED

Cheers Dusty Must start a new folder and pull all these together TED

The more the merrier Wally !! TED

Yes I have seen lots on Pathe & IWM of stuff in France with Middlesex reg ; but I think by the end of WW2 the RAF had far more in that situation than the Army- either way These Catologues are VERY interesting- this could be our soap- a new episode every day hint hint !!! take care TED

Hi Richard yes I thought a few of the Army's carried on on civvy plates, but the reg coupled with the vehicle type is a fairly safe indication; At the outbreak of WW2 they didn't have many tyupes common to both ??? TED

Dusty prewar Army carried both a CC reg and a army census number- the latter often in very small size with the CC reg normally on a standard number plate- if you have a look at the IWM photo collections masses of examples; The RAF don't seem to have started a formal census numbering system until ealy 1941 or possibly late 1940. In the UK the vast majority of vehicles were registered with Middlesex I have always assumed because the RAF administrative depot was at Uxbridge. There are oddd examples of other counties but mainly Middlesex. When I look at lists I tend to look at the vehicle types & manufacturers. Fordson 6x4 were the Sussex then the WOT1 - these were major RAF types not so common in the Army, another example is tillies, there is no record of either the Austin or Morris being a standard RAF type but the Hillman was as was the larger 14 hp Standard. The Commer prime mover was the tractor unit for the aircraft salvage trailers- both QMs and flatbeds, again a type not common to the Army. . Attached are 2 shots FRance 1940- many of these pre 1940 vehicles continued until post WW2 on just a Middlesex CC number and never displayed an RAF census number. - the 945 sqn picture wasa taken near Antwerp in late 44 /early 45 and 2 Fordson Sussex trucks still displaying their Middlesex CC numbers.

Rob fantastic shots !!! The truck in your posts is an International K-8. A number- thought to be 150- were shipped to the Middle East from the USA along with a number of Federals. Post war, one went to the Far East and this is it . post 1949 there were still 35 in RAF service and they received the xxAGxx style registrations, 34 of them were with middle East units and this sole example at Tengah. your posts have answered a long term question was their a hose reel behind the tank ? clearly there wasn't I will see if I have any other shots of this truck your Dad might be on them ; The bulled up shot is possibly nothing special, in those days firemen both civvy & military took great pride in both the function and appearance of their trucks regards TED

I can see the RNs but the RAF ones aren't e.g. the Commer Prime Movers on the second page are RAF . Interesting a couple of RAF items still on Middlesex CC reg plates; I have photos of RAF stock from circa 1938 still on Middlesex plates when stationed near Antwerp late 44 /early 45 . all interesting stuff look forward to any others ?? regards TED

John I have some notes from Bowhouse sales- somewhere mostly CD Austin rescue tenders I will dig for them; Did you get the ser 2 cd pics I sent ? Wally pity they didn't leave the letter prefix in front in those days, thanks for sharing TED

Wally I have sent you a PM many thanks TED

Hi Wally yes I have woken up !! 2 are described as recuperator repair so I reckon they were FV13206 Would this be associated with bofor guns ? The other was described as an electronic workshop so possibly FV 13209 radar repair I know its Armt reg had been 36 BH 83 . thanks TED

Hi Wally FV 13218 is the recovery if you have that one please regards TED

Wally, many thanks regards TED

Hi Bryan yes I think once big contracts flowed then batches , but I think its a bit of a muddle, lots of pre war stuff ran until the late 1940s on their original Middlesex numbers. I will look to see if I have any MW reg numbers in my boxes of rubbish as my family sometimes call it. I have seen pictures of MWs still in service in the early 1960s with the RAF VGS at various locations painted yellow. Did you get my e mail ref bowsers ?? TED

Hi Wally I take it there wasn't a 1958 exbo ?? thanks for trying Wally I am grateful regards TED

and it was made worse when we were mixing our own that we were buying the required ingredients from any source we could find. A gallon of DULUX trade gloss paint had greater "colour power" than a gallon of a domestic from say B & Q once done we had to matt it but that is another story . At least in UK we could get ingredients of the correct BS colours but for our counterparts in Germany they had to rely on best guessing the RAL equivalents - I have always thought it was our home brews that led to the exotic variations that went to the gulf, especially the stuff out of Germany which is mainlt where the yellow bananas came from. . TED

Could be an O group or a swapping kit meeting ??? my son has pictures from GW 1 which include vehicles amongst his from nations not even in the war ??? TED

Very interesting must get my RAL sheets out but I think the "LAND GREEN " being applied to the PFI R.E. vehicles & plant ans a lot of new RAF equipment is very akin to RAL 6031 great photos, photo 4 Your mystery vehicle could be a HUMVEE the Piz with trailer in front of it could well be 380 compare its overall finish to the board carrying the recognition symbol ?? . the furthest away Landie looks like Lt stone ??? Our experience was the temp stuff tended to come off as if it had been sand blasted not in large sheets, the wear in photos 2 & 3 are akin to poor preperation before the colour change.

Hi Clive, we didn't use 0220-A-221-013 as our bible, although we held a copy for tasks we did under parenting arrangements for 71 Eng Regt and occasionally prestige jobs for the Lowland Gunners or HQ Army Scotland. I do have a copy of the oct 97 edition and note 380 is absent. . Some of our painting stuff re theatre colour was in AP 4545 Vol 2, that was up to the late 1980s, but our bible roughly our equivalent of the Army document 0220 etc was contained in the AP119A-0601- 0 series . I have a sheet copied from AP 119A-0601-0B to Amendment no 7 dated oct 94 and 380 is in the BS 381c table in chap 8-0 page 9. As you possibly know when a new page is added to an AP lines that contain changes or additions are prefixed and suffixed with an arrow head mark, from the marks on my copy I can tell you 380 was not added as part of AL 7 so in that RAF publication it was added prior to AL 7 of oct 94. I guess your date of 1996 will be when there was an amendment issued to the BS381 and it therefore first appeared in the published BS document, but the colour is at least mid 94 in age. Whenever we had to undertake operational measures re surface finishing it always came by Signal, this applied to both GW1 & 2. FS 30279, BS 361 & 380 had never appeared in then current publications by the time I left in 2004. regards TED

Hi Clive, I mentioned 380 but if that picture is dated 2002 I would be very surprised, we had an urgent overnight task using 380 for gulf war 2 it was only avalible in those days to special order as it had BC resistant properties. 380 has a pink tinge in most light conditions it was a dream to apply we did an urgent overnight task at Leuchars for the mobile radar boys based at Boulmer, they set off north to Leuchars one morning and were driving south very happy bunnies the following morning. BS380 is almost identical to FS30279 which we used used in gulf war one. As an aside re FS 30279 we had it as an ARTF for aircraft finish and as an alkyd synthetic mixed to a formula in dustbins for some of our vehicles and ground equipment; whilst we also did a lot of stuff in 361 again mixed in dustbins after depot stocks ran out and we overtook the ability of industry to keep pace. regards TED

I bet like me people dived into pathe and got carried away thanks Graham some cracking stuff TED

To clarify-- my Coventry Climax comment was re the trailer in the picture at message 17 : I have a note of the trailer maker somewhere ?? I will try and find it. TED