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Bren Gun carrier


BIG MIKE

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I remember seeing the very flat remains of a carrier which had been pulled out of the marshes on Fingringhoe firing range several years ago .Having been used for live fire target & spent however many years down in the salt it was a very sad little vehicle . Unfortunately I don't have a pic of it .

Incidentally - the military manual for my snow trac refers to them as Weasel -I'd never heard them referred to by that name before I bought mine.

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Dont know if it is of any help to you but when I was at Beltring on thursday I saw an excellent new book on carriers for sale by the author ,it was the first of 3 volumes and included loads of original factory drawings etc.It was £30 for a signed copy and was for sale in the re-enactors field at the arena end on a display that included 4 carriers

Nigel

 

 

 

theres a write up about it, in greensheet this month.

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ok, took some more pictures today, check out the storage bins, completely original :-D and the unused bolt on wire cutter :-D :-D

 

hopefully the engine will be fired up in the next week or so, were going to put some hours on the engine in a test bed before installing to be safe

 

Baz

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not 100% sure as they had been removed years before we started work on the bren, but whilst in france this June i tool a load of pictures of the Bren in the Bayeux museum and at some point will get round to studying them to figure out where it all goes.

 

Baz

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Just got back from Beltring. There were about 8 carriers of different sorts and I also bought Nigel Watsons book. It is an amazing piece of work and shows that almost everything I wrote about mine is complete pifle!!! All the details, serial number etc just show it exhibits features of the Mk I Universal except for the join in the side plate on the left hand side (not the right as I wrote earlier). According to Nigel, that is unknown, all Universals have single piece sideplates so I am still unsure about its true history. If it does turn out to have been built from single sided parts, should I restore it as a fake single sider, a Mk I Universal as built or a Mk II as it ended up What do other people think.

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Just got back from Beltring. There were about 8 carriers of different sorts and I also bought Nigel Watsons book. It is an amazing piece of work and shows that almost everything I wrote about mine is complete pifle!!! All the details, serial number etc just show it exhibits features of the Mk I Universal except for the join in the side plate on the left hand side (not the right as I wrote earlier). According to Nigel, that is unknown, all Universals have single piece sideplates so I am still unsure about its true history. If it does turn out to have been built from single sided parts, should I restore it as a fake single sider, a Mk I Universal as built or a Mk II as it ended up What do other people think.

 

 

I'd say whatever YOU are happiest with John!!

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the only photo of a single sided scout I know of is in 'Making tracks'(British Carrier story 1914 to 1972 by Chamberlain and Ellis, published 1973. Still available second hand I believe.

 

 

There are quite a number of photos of Boyes-equipped Carriers in service with the BEF. Is it safe to assume that any such would be Scout Carriers ?

 

This one came up on eBay.de recently.

 

width=150 height=108http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9791/58741wu6.th.jpg[/img]

 

John, if you're interested, I'll happily start a thread to show the Scout shots that I have in various publications. Please go easy on me if I misidentify though ! :-)

 

There are very few BEF era vehicles around. I think it would be great to see it built as a single-sider. If it is as far gone as you suggest then you won't be destroying too much.

 

Rich

 

 

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I have to eat so much humble pie that I need a shovel! ALL of the stuff I have written about my carrier is cr*p!

It has sat under a tarpaulin for about 7 years, untouched and unlooked at until last saturday. As a result of this topic and Nigels book, I actually stripped the cover off and had a look. You know what? No side plate butt join so it was definitely NOT built as a single sider but has always been a Mk1 Universal, equipped as a Scout. Now this was odd as I clearly remember a butt joint in the side so I thought I must be going Dulally but a bit of searching and I found a plate join but it is on the lower side, not the upper. I guess everyone has one of those (behind the front suspension unit) so hopes that a single sider had survived is false. What more can I say but sorry!

 

Number by the way is T12793, name 'Shaiba', both still visible in the paint, even though some bits of the metal are missing due to rust in other parts of the same vertical plate.

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