BEF Ambulance Vehicles

Discussion in '1940' started by 4/7 RDG, Dec 3, 2010.

  1. 4/7 RDG

    4/7 RDG Member

    My understanding is that the spare wheel cover hinged at the top on the Austin K2, with a hasp at the lower edge, so it must be missing (blast damage?) on that Calais example.

    I read somewhere recently that drivers were always catching the thing against buildings, trees and other vehicles so on late war manufactured versions the wheel was moved further inboard, with a much smaller and more rounded projection on the outside of the vehicle.
     
  2. JCB

    JCB Senior Member

    agree with Rich - that is not the type of Bedford ML ambulance I had in mind. This one looks like an impressed vehicle - but what? A horse box or a furniture van? I have trawled the net and can find nothing Bedford with quite the same shape.

    I've seen pre war High Street type delivery vans with this shape of body . Not many pre war Bedfords in preservation because they all went to France !
    1942 pic of Bedford ML with Austin K truck in background shows how similar they are , I can see why the spare wheel bulge was a nuisance-
     

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  3. May1940

    May1940 Senior Member

    Here's an actual K2 in Dunkirk with its wheel door completely missing. Must have been a design weakness in the hinge!

    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=41712&stc=1&d=1291647405

    Andrew
     

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  4. May1940

    May1940 Senior Member

    The ambulances I have always found interesting because no-one seems to have written about them are the Bedford commercial lorry chassis with Mann Egerton bodies seen 'all over the place' near Dunkirk.

    Here are a couple at La Panne to illustrate. The one in front is from a Field Hygiene Section (30 on black) in 4th Division (red circle with displaced segment).

    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=41713&stc=1&d=1291647791

    There is an excellent one in Taghon's book also. This could well be the ambulance at the back in the previous picture.

    http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=41715&stc=1&d=1291648076

    Andrew
     

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  5. JCB

    JCB Senior Member

    Found this on net labelled as Poland ! but it has every BEF evacuation hallmark down to the compulsory scattered uniforms :) sure someone here will recognise the port.
    Their must be a book in BEF vehicles , i agree the commercial Bedfords are interesting. The Mann Egerton body must have been a good design as they kept on knocking it out till the end of the war.
     

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  6. May1940

    May1940 Senior Member

    JCB

    It's Calais, the Gare Maritime. The Bundesarchiv has a few pictures around there but I have never seen this one so thank you. (Any more potential BEF pictures where you found this one?)

    Andrew
     
  7. 4/7 RDG

    4/7 RDG Member

    Seconded and thanks to everyone who has contributed, this is all excellent information. As far as I know nobody has ever put all this material together anywhere else.
     
  8. Lofty1

    Lofty1 Senior Member

     

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  9. 4/7 RDG

    4/7 RDG Member

    . . . so a close encounter with a French farm wall at speed would simply knock it flying. I had not been able to see that detail in other pictures, so thanks Lofty.
     
  10. JCB

    JCB Senior Member

    Strange in Loftys K2 picture above and May 1940s Calais pic below the ambulance is parked next to a similar pile of long boxes or timbers .
     

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  11. Lofty1

    Lofty1 Senior Member

    JCB I think k2Y ambulances are attracted to wood, mine crawled into one to die but I saved it, regards lofty
     

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  12. JCB

    JCB Senior Member

    Ashes to ashes or is it ash to ash !:)
     
  13. JCB

    JCB Senior Member

    It's Calais, the Gare Maritime. The Bundesarchiv has a few pictures around there but I have never seen this one so thank you. (Any more potential BEF pictures where you found this one?)



    Found it on image search from Miltaryimages.net ,find it a bit hard to navigate but these are the only other images i found in a quick look, and some look like UK , the Commer on a French rail truck with bren gunners interesting ,probably should be in the AOS thread:)
     

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  14. May1940

    May1940 Senior Member

    Thanks for the pictures. Apart from the Commer the other black and whites are in the UK. The other one looks like it could be on Mars but on closer examination seems to show Guy 15cwts (possibly).

    I will try to find out a bit more about the Morris CDF 6 wheeler's markings.

    Andrew
     
  15. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I recognise the formation sign on the Morris but have consistently failed to identify it. I'm pretty sure that it's the same as this one, complete with the two lighter coloured bars. (It's on the direction sign too).

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Although scanned from a French book, this is one of a series of IWM images captioned as "106th Provost Company, South Eastern Command" and located at East Grinstead. Unfortunately, I failed to note the date. The summer of 1940 or 1941 presumably. I have wondered if the badge is the 4 Corps HQ elephant but I'm not convinced.

    Does a bar top and bottom of the AoS marking indicate a Home Command ?
     
  16. 4/7 RDG

    4/7 RDG Member

    Today I received an enlarged IWM image F 4301 (thumbnail in Owen's post number 4) which shows up some interesting details.

    The driver has RASC shoulder titles and the corporal in the passenger seat seems to wear RASC collar dogs.

    The vehicle's number is A24731, but there is another number on the offside mudguard - 16478. In the windscreen on the passenger side is a plate with "1" on white, while on the side of the front grill surround is a white square or rectangle with a hollow circle painted on it. There is an angular "blob" on the bonnet which I guess is the yellow gas-detector paint.

    No divisional or unit markings anywhere.

    Oh, and the building appears to be a casino/gambling complex . . . .
     
  17. May1940

    May1940 Senior Member

    4/7 RDG

    Surprising that there are no unit markings. If it was early in the war you might expect it not to yet have markings - but the driver is wearing battledress so it is not so early. Is it really France?

    Have you seen the article on K2s in the June 2008 edition of Military Machines ...

    Andrew
     
  18. May1940

    May1940 Senior Member

    Rich

    I like the AA combination (if that's what it is) but am frustrated by the markings. I can find no references anywhere. I thought at first the unit marking was a trotting elephant (apparently belonging to 4 Corps) but it looks more like a Kiwi.

    Andrew
     
  19. 4/7 RDG

    4/7 RDG Member

    The setting ought to be France, judging by the writing above the windows/doors on the building: Jeux de Societes / Casino etc, but there is also the wording "M I Room" which looks much less French - perhaps a hotel and casino taken over as a hospital?

    The IWM image is annotated 9 May 1940, but I wonder about the lack of markings and the lack of service respirators . . .
     
  20. May1940

    May1940 Senior Member

    Sounds pretty French! Have you seen the article?

    Andrew
     

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