Morris C8 Posted June 9, 2021 Author Share Posted June 9, 2021 One left on the beach, Dunkirk 1940. Photo from my collection. Keith 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rootes75 Posted June 9, 2021 Share Posted June 9, 2021 2 hours ago, XS650 said: The Wehrmacht soon had them up and running. I believe around 700 Pioneers were left in France . Very useful kit for the Germans and pop up in many soldiers photos. WIth five makers of Gardners under licence in Continental Europe spares not too hard either. 700! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XS650 Posted June 9, 2021 Share Posted June 9, 2021 Yes guesstimated by looking at the heavy artillery/AA gun numbers left in France. May be out but it must have been in the many hundred s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rootes75 Posted June 9, 2021 Share Posted June 9, 2021 Sometimes its hard to simply understand the scale of what was left behind, so so many vehicles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10FM68 Posted June 9, 2021 Share Posted June 9, 2021 7 minutes ago, Rootes75 said: Sometimes its hard to simply understand the scale of what was left behind, so so many vehicles. If you think that's bad, just think how many Wehrmacht vehicles were left behind at the end of the war! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welbike Posted June 9, 2021 Share Posted June 9, 2021 It's not just the vehicles, it's the troops that were left behind! There's a very good book about it, and then you realize, it was not just the SS that was bad!! Cheers, Lex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utt61 Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 17 hours ago, XS650 said: ... I believe around 700 Pioneers were left in France . ... I'm not sure if this figures is just for the R100 or is all models, and I don't know how many other types of Pioneer were left at Dunkirk, but if it is just the R100 that is 700 from a total production of 980. Adds a sense of scale to the disaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trooper 3/9 RAAC Posted June 10, 2021 Share Posted June 10, 2021 Keith, Just in awe of these fabulous photos. Thanks for all your work in preparing & posting them. It has been stated that British orders were to pull the sump plugs & run the engines. Do you think that just applied to vehicles at the beach head or included all those vehicles we see on the side of the roads leading to the beach? The Germans must have worked pretty quickly to save a lot of these vehicles for their own use. Just a thought cheers Pierre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris C8 Posted June 10, 2021 Author Share Posted June 10, 2021 1 hour ago, Trooper 3/9 RAAC said: Keith, Just in awe of these fabulous photos. Thanks for all your work in preparing & posting them. It has been stated that British orders were to pull the sump plugs & run the engines. Do you think that just applied to vehicles at the beach head or included all those vehicles we see on the side of the roads leading to the beach? The Germans must have worked pretty quickly to save a lot of these vehicles for their own use. Just a thought cheers Pierre British orders were to pull the sump plugs & run the engines and if possible destroy the rad and carb, in a lot of my photos you can see the bonnet up. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris C8 Posted June 12, 2021 Author Share Posted June 12, 2021 Morris PU of 58 Medium Regt RA with aos 28. with info on the back. Photo from my collection. Keith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryH57 Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 To reiterate what others have said - a really great selection of photos. I have read of the various methods of disabling vehicles but it surprizes me (in the comfort and safety of my living room chair) why so many vehicles were abandoned in a usable condition. Surely setting them on fire would have made many useless to the Germans. Did the occupants have no time to do this? Did they surrender immediately they got out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzkpfw-e Posted June 14, 2021 Share Posted June 14, 2021 On 6/12/2021 at 8:21 PM, LarryH57 said: Surely setting them on fire would have made many useless to the Germans. Did the occupants have no time to do this? Did they surrender immediately they got out? The last thing that the retreating troops would want, is to send up a big pillar of smoke "Here we are, send the Stukas". Some did find themselves suddenly faced with German soldiers, others simply abandoned their vehicles, maybe removed the distributor head. Enough damaged vehicles for the Germans to salvage parts from, to get others working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris C8 Posted June 14, 2021 Author Share Posted June 14, 2021 A lot were set on fire. Photos from my collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rootes75 Posted June 14, 2021 Share Posted June 14, 2021 That is a lot of burnt trucks in the last picture. I would imagine on the roads towards Dunkirk it was disable the vehicles but once into Dunkirk it didnt matter if vehicles were burnt up creating smoke etc, it was last ditch destroy them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edd Posted June 14, 2021 Share Posted June 14, 2021 Superb selection of photos, thank you for posting them. I'm always interested in seeing any of the Pioneer R100 photos. It's very helpful with the restoration of my one. With 700 Pioneers destroyed or captured I wonder how many of them survived and were recaptured? I know of two early R100's that must have either stayed in the UK or captured and returned. Would be fascinating to which it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris C8 Posted June 15, 2021 Author Share Posted June 15, 2021 Morris PU [ radio truck ] left on the side of the road. Photo from my collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rootes75 Posted June 15, 2021 Share Posted June 15, 2021 It looks very good with some colourisation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryH57 Posted June 15, 2021 Share Posted June 15, 2021 (edited) Regarding burning verses abandoning, I too was thinking that there must have been so much smoke, that it would have not attracted any attention or that it was so thick as to obscure what was below. Would a Stuka pilot just bomb blind; I doubt he would want to return to base to report that he had bombed in a vague area where the enemy was likely to be? Obviously British & French soldiers just did what was best and even if the British Army lost circa 93,000 vehicles, did it give the Germans a really great advantage if they did not capture the men that drove them if they were eventually evacuated? Edited June 15, 2021 by LarryH57 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris C8 Posted September 16, 2021 Author Share Posted September 16, 2021 German with British army tool box on the back. Dunkirk. Photo taken from my original negative . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welbike Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Nice detail! the bike is a BMW. Lex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris C8 Posted October 5, 2021 Author Share Posted October 5, 2021 Holland, Belgium or France 1940. Can any one ID the area these colour slides were taken. Does not look like Holland. Not a lot to go on.Slides from my collection.Keith 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris C8 Posted October 7, 2021 Author Share Posted October 7, 2021 French and British veh left. 1940. Photo from my collection 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welbike Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 No idea about the bridge picture, but more Belgium/France than Holland. I have just bought a motorcycle that was left behind when a bridge was blown in Belgium in 1940, I'll check that out. Lex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris C8 Posted October 7, 2021 Author Share Posted October 7, 2021 36 minutes ago, welbike said: No idea about the bridge picture, but more Belgium/France than Holland. I have just bought a motorcycle that was left behind when a bridge was blown in Belgium in 1940, I'll check that out. Lex Hi Lex, Do you have a photo of your m/c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welbike Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 Yes, I will get to that in a minute! but I checked the bridge that is 1,5 mile away from where my bike was residing for years and years, and came up with this shot from Google, old factory buildings could have been torn down, and new ones erected, but church looks the same, it's the village of Escanaffles on the south side of the river Scheldt, I'll try to find some old postcards online of the village. Are the slides German or British?, and can it be that your second picture is in mirror image? The Brits left behind a lot of material here, when 4th Division blew this bridge, but I'm not sure in what direction they went? I assume northwest, so in the direction of the coast. Interesting stuff! Lex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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