Hello everyone Were wicker panniers dropped in the desert to resupply units between 1940-43? I am having difficulty finding any photographs showing them. If you have photos I'd appreciate seeing them too. My interest is Universal Carriers and desert campaigns of Africa 1939-43
I had a look through various searches on google and couldn't find anything in text or picture form. Do you have any reference to the wicker cannisters? Cheers Andy
I have scanned my bookshelf and found plenty of info on the wicker panniers Size, dimensions, weight etc. From Volume one of 'Tommy, Uniforms, Weapons and Equipment of the Airborne Forces' by David Gordon. What they looked like packed aboard the aircraft and how they were received on the ground but what I can't find is a date of first use. In John Weeks' 'Airborne Equipment, a history of its development', there is a couple of pages talking about the genesis of the British supply container and it would appear that the CLE (Central Landing Establishment) container appeared first. the CLE had the advantage that it could be dropped from any aircraft fitted with bomb release equipment, either internal bomb bays or underwing. The Wicker basket had to be pushed out of the door. Which in itself limits its use to the Dakota as the previous delivery aircraft for parachutists just had a hole in the floor. I would venture to say that the wicker pannier did not enter service before the Dakota. This would tie in with the start date of March 1944 for the formation of the RASC air despatch companies. So use in the desert, unlikely I would conclude.
Although, wicker baskets are used across North Africa for storage and transportation... Orange crates for example.
Andy and Bodston thanks for that. Could they not be dropped through bomb doors? How did they resupply the guys in the middle of the desert? Surely not just by land. I'll keep searching. Thanks.
Although, wicker baskets are used across North Africa for storage and transportation... Orange crates for example. Also for holding up the back of the cart by the looks of it!
That made me laugh! And I thought he was trying to get the right trajectry (spelling?)for the Donkey Rocket! Auck
Andy and Bodston thanks for that. Could they not be dropped through bomb doors? How did they resupply the guys in the middle of the desert? Surely not just by land. I'll keep searching. Thanks. An incredible effort of the part of the RASC coupled with the railway and water and fuel pipelines. From what I have read there was very little air transport in the desert. Certainly in the early days, up to 1941 and into 1942 among the dedicated transport aircraft were ancient Vickers Valentias and Bristol Bombays. I have read of these transporting the sick and wounded back to safety in Egypt. From exairwork BOMBAY A/C 216 SQDN. DESERT OPS MAY 1941 The Bristol Bombay – Jack-of-all-Trades Never one of the glamorous aircraft of WWII – the Bristol Bombay was ugly, slow, virtually unarmed, few in number and out of sight in the vast desert for most of their operational career. But the unique usefulness of the Bombay lay in its capability, in spite of its size to land very short, on extremely rough ground, thanks to its high wing and nose as well as its huge rugged, non-collapsible undercarriage and big fat tires. Bombays were go-anywhere, do-anything, land-anyhow, Jack-of-all-trades. This multi purpose versatility saw them tackle a gamut of specialized roles during the four years of the desert campaign. In 1940 when Mussolini attacked British forces in the North African desert, 24 Bombays and Vickers Valencia biplanes were the only ‘heavy’ bombers in the Middle East. As a result Bombays were the first to bomb Axis Mediterranean ports, Tobruk, Derna, Benghazi, Tripoli, etc. Throughout the successive campaigns, as battles moved back and forth, up and down the desert, the Bombays kept the battle area supplied with ammunition. The crews were in the vanguard of para-dropping – they also pioneered landing and unloading large heavy loads on rough, unprepared ground – where angels and prettier aircraft, feared to tread. Bombays were in at the birth of the Special Air Service (SAS) offspring of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and assisted with behind-the-enemy forays of destruction. They were in the air every day regardless of conditions – a typical days work included taking bombs and ammunition, oxygen or medical supplies, to the fighting area and returning with the wounded. The multi purpose interior, looking rather like the inside of a tramcar of the same period, could be converted in minutes to take stretchers suspended in two tiers along the fuselage as soon as the outward cargo had been unloaded. Techniques for in-flight casualty care were developed to incorporate blood transfusion facilities and drips. In four years, thousands of Eight Army casualties were evacuated from battle areas by Bombays. Bombay crews spent much of lives on detachment. Frequently a lone aircraft, or two or three, would be detached ‘up the blue’ (as distant reaches of the desert were called) for some days at a time. Then the aircraft became a flying caravan, the crew living, sleeping, eating on board, organizing their own life support provisioning. Sometime a day or two would become a week or two. A 14 gallon water tank was mounted behind the midships bulkhead and topped up every opportunity. The crews became adept at self - sufficiency, equipping and supplying themselves for the nomadic life style, while getting on with whatever operational task they had been sent out to do. Base being some hundreds of miles behind them. An evening meal would be cooked over a petrol tin with its top cut off, half filled with sand – of which there was never a shortage – petrol was then poured over the top and it would be lit by throwing a match into it. The cooking pot would sit on top. In windy weather the a/c door was removed and used as a windscreen or sometimes as a table top. Much of the Bombay’s work was dropping supplies by parachute. It would seem that the Bombay had a side door. So more possibilities.
I'm still looking. I found this in 'Without Tradition, 2 Para 1941-1945' by Robert Peatling. Taken from a the personal report on the Depienne/Oudna operation in Algeria, by Lt.Col. JD Frost, MC. CO 2 Para. 29 November 1942 EMPLANING. The Bn emplaned at Maison Blanche aerodrome in 44 C47 aircraft. There was considerable confusion over the emplaning and loading of the containers owing to the markings of the aircraft, the order in which the aircraft formed up being very different from that which it was expected they would form up and heavy rain turning the aerodrome into thick mud. This picture is also from the book. Still no sign of the wicker panniers. Just CLE's and folding hand-carts.
I had a look through various searches on google and couldn't find anything in text or picture form. Do you have any reference to the wicker cannisters? Cheers Andy Andy I'm not sure what you mean by wicker cannisters, sorry. Are they similar to the rubber/metal drop cannisters? Nigel
Nigel, Sorry I should have worded it as panniers...I searched various options in google inc 'wicker cannisters' all with no joy. I wonder if Ron or Tom (WW2 Vets on here-They were in Africa) have ever seen them? Cheers Andy
