Citroen U23 British army

[Citroman]

The British army did have several Citroen U23 trucks at the Afcent headquarters in the Netherlands. Normally Afcent vehicles had a licenseplate with AFC and a number. So what is this?

Edited January 23, 2022 by Citroman

[chrisgrove]

Not entirely so.  The civilian vehicles belonging to Afcent personnel (in the Netherlands) were issued with AFC numbers.  The military vehicles of the HQ wore RC numbers (relic of Afcent's time in France - Region Centrale).  The fact that it carries an RC plate indicates that it was a NATO owned vehicle, not a British Army one.

And that pic, as far as I can make out, shows a Citroen 55; U23 was a much older and smaller vehicle

Chris

[Citroman]

Well 55 and 23 had the same cab body. 55 is a lot bigger and had 10 wheel nuts,.This is a 23 since 1953 they had this body, technically it didn't change much. For size see the mercedes next to it.

Thanks for the lincense plate info. We did only see the AFC cars around here in the region. The Afcent base is 8 kms from here. The base vehicles were used very locally i think. Later as they opened the militairy vehicle depot here in town we did see a lot of american trucks and MP vehicles but they all had US-plates.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Citroman

[radiomike7]

U23 was available from 1935, this is the early version:

[Citroman]

Yes, a friend of mine in France had one of those still in use in the 80s for his vegetable farm. They had a lot of electronics under the bonnet to operate the obligatory tachograph...

[chrisgrove]

Hi Citroman

Thanks for the info about modern Citroen U23s.  I only found 55s with that cab!

The RC cars used to roam further than South Limburg.  On several occasions on official NATO business, I used one to go well into Germany.  While the RC trucks (DAF 1600 4x4s in my time) were olive green matt (possibly even gelboliv) , the RC cars were, I think, dark blue.  I seem to remember that most of the vehicles were based a few miles west of Brunnsum - Schinnen perhaps - but over in that direction.  The trucks were used if the HQ had to take to the field, but this very seldom happened!

Chris

[Citroman]

Hi Chris, thanks for the info. In Schinnen at the US-base you mean? This Citroens were photographed on the mine terrain opposite the Afcent entrance. There is a US military vehicle depot now. I live in Kerkrade a bit to the east of Brunssum and there we didn't see RC vehicles. AFC we did see as the personel used to rent houses all over the region. P.S. were the radio vehicles in the Maastrich barracks also RC?

A+ Fer

[chrisgrove]

Hi Citroman

I would guess that if there is now a US military depot at Schinnen, that was where, as (then) a NATO camp, the AFCENT vehicles were based.  I cannot place your Citroen pic location as there were several vehicle entrances to the AFCENT HQ when I was there.  Certainly I do not remember any mine terrain opposite the entrance I used, which opened onto (or close to)  the main road that (further North) became the International Highway.  I never came across the Maastricht barracks, though I had frequent occasion to visit the caves.  If they were AFCENT or NORTHAG vehicles they would have had RC plates or NORTHAG ones (I cannot remember them though I think they involved Y like the Bundeswehr, though they were not the same as Bundeswehr plates).  NORTHAG had a lot of DAF1600s like AFCENT.

Chris

[10FM68]

NORTHAG used an "X" if I remember rightly.

[Citroman]

The Afcent headquarters were an old coalmine before. The entrance i mean is at the north side, near the afcent hospital. Opposite there is the "schutterspark" a leisure area with ponds, playgrounds and animals etc.