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[Jack]

Perfect John!

 

Many thanks for that and I will remove from here and format it into an article and put it up on the front page.

 

Great work and many thanks.

 

Jack.

[Jolly Jeeper]

No worries at all. Got heaps more pics but they're too big to post - can email them if you want.

 

I'll try and find my Normandy 2004 one too, it was in Windscreen but many people here probably haven't seen it.

 

JC

[Jack]

No worries at all. Got heaps more pics but they're too big to post - can email them if you want.

 

I'll try and find my Normandy 2004 one too, it was in Windscreen but many people here probably haven't seen it.

 

JC

 

 

Yes please John - lets have the lot!

 

send to jack @ hmvf .co.uk

 

Cheers

 

Jack.

[Jolly Jeeper]

Jeeps in Normandy again (2004)

 

Sitting with a pint watching the flames of a real fire in a West Yorkshire pub one winter afternoon, it all seemed straightforward: We'd take the Hotchkiss M201, a licence-built Willys MB, to Normandy for the 60th anniversary of D-Day. We'd not bother with any of the big military vehicle club campsites or tours but just do our own thing. We'd seen the cynical T-shirt slogans at the US Sturgis and Daytona bike events – "I rode mine to trailer week" – so knew what we had to do. We'd drive it to the ferry port and through Normandy. Another pint as some friends joined us. They said they'd be interested in coming as well and before I knew it we were taking the Mahindra CJ340 too. At least if we had a problem with one, we could tow it with the other! We went home and booked a ferry and campsite. The months passed by at an alarming rate and suddenly there was only a month to go although both vehicles, stored hundreds of miles apart, were insured, taxed and MoT'd so I just had to check the oil, water, tyres and batteries.

 

STARTERS ORDERS

Despite having a fully charged battery the Hotchkiss wouldn't start. The problem appeared to be the starter motor so I unbolted and tested it, putting it on the floor under my boot and putting two wires to it from the battery. The charge threw the starter dog out with enough force to start anything. Examination of the starter dog's teeth revealed they were badly worn as were those on the flywheel and there wasn't enough metal left for the two to engage sufficiently to turn the engine over. My Hotchkiss was one of two built for a stunt scene in Saving Private Ryan that never made it into the actual movie. It had been fitted with a V6 Ford engine and a T90 Jeep gearbox (stronger than the Willys and Hotchkiss T84). I had to face the truth about the engine conversion: it was poorly crafted rubbish. The problem arose in the bellhousing comprised of half the Hotchkiss one and half a Ford V6 one. Where they touched they’d been welded! While nowhere near as famous as Milner's "piss yella" coupé from American Graffiti, its movie past and hot rod engine had endeared the Jeep to me. Until this particular morning. I'd be able to get another starter but pictured myself spending the trip fiddling with the Jeep to keep it going, which wasn't what I wanted at all. Everything paid for and no (expletive) Jeep. What to do? I knew of another SWB Mahindra for sale cheap and figured I could brush it NATO green in an afternoon but thought the reliability of an unknown Mahindra could be a hiding to nothing. I called a couple of contacts who would be able to help. First, Tony Sinclair at Alldrive: "Er, Tony, if I can find a flathead-four Jeep engine, is there any chance you can fit it in the next three weeks?"

"Call me back when you've got the engine," he said, "And remember you'll need a bellhousing too."

Second was Steve Rivers at Dallas Autoparts: "Have you got a complete Willys Jeep engine in stock by any chance?"

"No but I've got some reconditioned Hotchkiss ones. When do you need it?"

"Tomorrow!"

 

JOHNNY DOES DALLAS

It was game on, time to smash the piggybank and get busy. Dallas Autoparts are wartime Jeep specialists based near Newbury in Berkshire so I went down to collect the engine. It had been reconditioned by the French army and came bolted to a special pallet with a bellhousing. I also bought all the genuine Jeep bits that I could think of that were missing from my Hotchkiss including the exhaust, engine mounts, radiator, clutch plate and cover, hoses, air filter and so on. This lot was delivered to Alldrive's premises in Woodville, Derbyshire just off the M42, by lunchtime. I borrowed their trailer and went to get the Jeep. To save unhitching my Land Rover, photographer Wayne Mitchelson towed the Jeep on to the trailer with his Land Rover 110. We strapped it down and returned to Alldrive. In the space of 48 hours everything was in the workshop. There were 19 days before it had to be ready.

 

PHONE HOME

To compound the problem, for 10 of those 19 days I wasn't available other than by mobile phone because of work commitments. I went on the BMW X3 press launch in Scotland and stopped more than once (where there was a signal), to get messages from the workshop and order extra bits from Dallas Autoparts. I managed to sneak into Alldrive on my way to press day at the motorshow and I have to admit that old Hotchkisses were more on my mind than new Hyundais that day. I wanted to see the Jeep in the workshop because Tony and Andrew Sinclair were pulling out all the stops to get it ready. At this stage there were only five days to go and I was already in the Mahindra as part of the move towards the ferry terminal. The Hotchkiss was up and running, it ticked over like a sewing machine and the cylinder head, with Willys cast into it, looked right at home. What had complicated the job was the replacement of the parts, gas-axed out by whoever fitted the V6. An engine mount and the battery trays needed refabricating and welding. Originally the Hotchkiss had been a 24-volt model fitted with two 12-volt batteries wired in series, but the Ford car engine had necessitated a conversion to 12 volts. the reconditioned Hotchkiss engine was fitted with 24-volt ancillaries so it made sense to convert the Jeep back to a 24-volt system. It now takes more than a glance under the bonnet to spot that so much chopping and changing has gone on.

On Saturday I was due to leave, I headed west in the Mahindra while my three friends rolled south in the unproven Hotchkiss towing a trailer. The two Jeeps and four people finally met up at Chieveley Services on the M4/A34 intersection. Seeing the two flatfenders together was a novelty. Things were going well and a couple of hours later we arrived at the Portsmouth Overlord military vehicle show before dark. This was a staging post for the ferry departures. We camped here and looked around the show, which would have provided a buffer of time had there been a problem with either of the 4x4s. As is the way of these shows, beers and barbecue followed, although I wouldn't relax until both Jeeps were in France.

At the show I noticed something that struck me as odd. Hotchkiss M201s are generally acceptable to military vehicle enthusiasts even when, like mine, they are painted as US vehicles. This is no doubt a result of their being Willys MB lookalikes. On the other hand, Mahindras are much less acceptable despite there having been military ones made. Yet both are simply flatfender Jeeps licence-built in foreign factories; Hotchkiss in France and Mahindra in India. Having said that, one guy at the Portsmouth show recognised my Mahindra from 4x4 magazine and enthused about it and his own that he had at home.

 

EXHAUSTIVE TESTING

It rained as we drove onto the overnight ferry and was still raining when we disembarked in Caen the next morning. On the way to the campsite the Mahindra's exhaust suddenly sounded louder and I realised it had cracked somewhere. We put the tents up in the rain and then sun came out (which meant I didn't have to lie on my back in the wet while making a temporary repair to the exhaust). Luckily the crack was accessible and two jubilee clips and a bean tin made a repair that would easily last more than a fortnight. This incident was fortuitous: not only was it to be the only mechanical trouble we had from either of the Jeeps for the trip’s duration but it was the beginning of 10 glorious days of uninterrupted sunshine. Mostly, we piled into the Hotchkiss, driving around with the roof off and the ’screen folded down. When photographer Garry Stuart joined us, we used both Jeeps and went about compiling the D-Day magazine feature. The countryside here was the scene of fierce fighting in what became known as the Battle of the Falaise Gap but the town's fame stretches back another nine centuries to 1207, when it was the birthplace of William the Conqueror. A statue of him astride a galloping horse is found within the old town's medieval fortifications. The warmth of the afternoon sun seeped from the stone and the town had such a sleepy feel that it was hard to imagine the bloody events of August 1944 that are commemorated in the town's museum. Driving through Normandy is like driving through a history book – every place name has some connection with D-Day, the landings and the fighting that followed. Heading back to the campsite west of Bayeux took us through Thury-Harcourt and Villers Bocage on the Orne and Odon rivers respectively. In ‘44 these were formidable obstacles to cross. The British 50th Northumbrian Division was in action in this area for six weeks trying to capture Villers Bocage. After the crossroads at Tilly sur Seulles we pulled up at one of the British cemeteries where the peaceful stillness was a sharp reminder of the violent deaths of those interred here. Quite by chance I found myself in front of plot I.H.3 and was shocked to see my own name on a headstone. Of course, it wasn’t my name but that of 14669914 Private John Carroll of the 10th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, killed in action on 12th July 1944 aged only 20. The cemetery register records he was the son of John and Edith Carroll of Sunderland, Co Durham and that's all I know about him. His age and hometown mean there's an outside chance he was a distant relative. His youth means he probably wasn't married and his parents will be long dead so perhaps no one had stood before this particular headstone in 30 years. As we motored back to the campsite I couldn't bring myself to say anything at all and just listened to the gentle hum of the Jeep’s bar grip tyres.

 

 

[Rick W]

What happened to the idea of HMVF radio??

[N.O.S.]

What happened to the idea of HMVF radio??

 

Look on another thread Rick - I think you'll find that Jessie the Jeep has only just finished building it :whistle:

[Tony B]

Yeah but Jack was asked to plug the battery in. :cool2:

[R Cubed]

Perfect John!

 

Many thanks for that and I will remove from here and format it into an article and put it up on the front page.

 

Great work and many thanks.

 

Jack.

 

Did you do this or have I missed it ?