LarryH57

Ted, what country was your photo above taken in? It looks a bit like Tunisia.

Thanks Ted; I hope you find the photo.

Ted I think you mistook my post - my description of the vehicle in my post above was the one I posted, that despite looking like a horsebox has similar looks to the front end of an RAF Albion Refueller

Ted, I think it was just down to the RAF clerk who typed up the orders, so I guess it was a Hillman Tilley . Incidentally I have noted that the SDF had an impressed Albion so I wonder if that is the one I'm trying to identify. The engine compartment looks similar to those on the Albion Refueller & Ambulance which had a hood shape that was horizontal from the side rather than sloping down towards he front. Albions like this also had fairly simple and small mudguards at the front, compared say to a Fordson Sussex, which seem to be the case with this 'horsebox'.

Bryan, as mentioned above I wonder if the exact RAF vehicle types can be established from the registrations I have in my archives: Albion Ambulance; PMP 654 Albion 30 cwt; EXB 197 Ford Van; PMT 659 (used by Clerks & carried Stationery) Hillman Tender; JMV 936 Vauxhall Staff Car; PMT 805 Amazingly they also had the ex-RAF Northolt Fordson Fire Tender; RMX 969, a picture of which is attached on another thread on here!

This is the original photo

Same with me so I re-attached mine!

Looking at the photo I posted it seems there is a row of small windows along the side of the body, very much like the photo in this link, so I am inclined to think it is an impressed civi horsebox similar to this!

I'm not convinced that the front end is a DB Tractor as it appears to have a mudguard. Also if that is a caravan isn't the wheel supposed to be centrally placed to give a better centre of gravity. Incidentally I have somewhere the civilian registrations of the RAF vehicles from this unit, listed in a movement order. I wonder if Bryan (RAFMT) knows whether the RAFM can say what the vehicles are from their registrations. Perhaps there is another archive that lists them?

What a shame; I wonder why RAF Abingdon was chosen if there was a threat of cancellation. How about Kemble; there were some good shows there once!

I think Wheels & Tracks covered these Armoured Cars but the one shown was the only one of the batch that had a 6pdr gun.

It is a Hudson!

I don't think there is enough room for a lorry and a caravan parked between the wing and the tail; I think the smaller rear wheel is just an illusion. As for the windscreen you can sort of look through the side and out the front, thats why I thought it looked a bit like a window on a modern airliner!

Having requested the ID of a RAF vehicle on a separate thread it reminded me that just over the hedge from Christchurch airfield in WW2 was the Sommerford Home Guard that used a Dodge based Armoured Car that was equipped with a 6pdr from a WW1 British Tank. It was called Tubby The Tank Buster by its users in the HG formed from civilian workers at the Air Defence Research and Development Establishment as part of Hampshire Home Guard. I have a letter at home from a member of this HG unit who says it was once taken to Hengistbury Head Dorset and fired at a target in the sea, but other than that it wasn't used in anger. I have an idea that it was designed by Malcolm Campbell (of record breaking fame) and converted either locally or Salisbury Plain area I wonder though if it was the most heavily armed HG vehicle in the UK

Ok some additional info - the photo comes from Christchurch airfield which at the time was occupied by the SDF that was involved in radar trials for TRE at Worth Matravers; as such aircraft were crewed with a minimum of crew members and because of the small size of the strip during 1940-41, aircraft were parked within walking distance so a crew bus would have been a luxury. However as civilian boffins were always on site adding aerials or chopping holes in the aircraft before adding a new experimental radar, I guess its a vehicle used by them. It wasn't uncommon for RAF fitters to work with civilians so any vehicle that was on hand to take fragile experimental radar sets to aircraft got used, even civi cars. In my opinion its too near to the Whitley to be a NAAFI van and more likely reversed in between the wing and the tail to access the door on the port side. As for the vehicle it looks to have the side of the engine cover removed in winter? Perhaps it was a clapped out old lorry that was always overheating! What is also unusual is that it has a kind of wrap around windscreen at the same level all the way round. As for the body if you cover up the engine and front wheel it has the same curves as a caravan, not that it is one with a lorry behind. The search goes on for the vehicle type!

Did the RAF Chevrolet carry similar markings on the cab to the Bedford?

I agree we are all friends; I'm able to set it up on my laptop and projector in my tent at WPR and show it - only if you bring the chairs and the beer and generator, but I'm banned from posting it on any part of the web.

I got the film I wanted by email as a download at a cost of £30 as long as I agreed to personal 'friends & family' use only! Sorry I can't share it with you. However if you have any connection with the Midlands then search to see what else they have.

I'm trying to identify this truck in the background near a AW Whitley and know whether it is an RAF vehicle or some kind of impressed civi vehicle like removal van. It seems to have a swing out door at the rear, or is that a box? Also it seems to me that it is camouflaged with white painted round the mudguards, which is quite rare for an RAF camouflaged truck. Your thoughts?

I wonder how the guys who restored the Stug IIIG in the UK got on a some years ago? Its the one thats running and last seen by me at Duxford. This Stug IIIG came from the ship sunk off Crimea What process did they employ?

Didn't the guy on Combat Dealers drop something in acid and get a clean item out afterwards?

If you come in May you will swap cold for wet! In recent years April which is supposed to be the rainy month in the UK has been dry and warm, wheras May when the vehicle show season starts is often wet - at the first sight of a green military vehicle it seems the heavens want to open! Obviously I'm speaking as a vehicle owner in South East England - wheras people up north have seasons that differ from where I am, and sometimes they have all four seasons in one day. We had snow for a day in London which is shocking!

Perhaps the most common RAF transport!. Some of these bikes look to have no front mudguards (or much reduced), so are they ones made for the RAF? Anyone got an idea of the make and whether they were RAF Blue Grey or perhaps just black? I always thought that bicycles used on RAF stations were ones that were purchased or 'borrowed' locally.

Judging by the noses of those Wellingtons on the right still in need of a FN turret this is a very early war photo. As you suggest I think a bright orange might well be the colour but I'm wondering if the roller is from a civi contractor to match the driver, in which case they would turn up in whatever they liked. Its interesting to know when bright colours first appeared on such vehicles; we are so used to yellow JCBs it hard to imagine anything in pre-war days being the same.

Baz, Thanks for your post. I never have any luck in finding WW2 photos in the Canadian Archives at all, as it seems my requests in their search function gives everything bar a list of photos! Any clues