MLU FORUM - What makes a truck a Maple Leaf?

For interest, text of the article I wrote about the Chev Lorry, remembering this was written for, and published in, Army Motors, hence the 'merican-zation' such as the use of feet & inches:

Quote:

Just Another Chev …

By Mike Cecil, Colbert, WA, USA

We were all sitting in the Richard Farrant’s mess tent at the War and Peace show in 2012 when the subject inevitably turned to vehicles and pending restorations. Neil Harris, from Ben Bullen in New South Wales, mentioned he had a rather nice modified conventional Chevrolet Maple Leaf lorry awaiting restoration some day. Like many country-based enthusiasts, Neil is in the happy position of having enough room to collect and store vehicles that interest him, without the space imperative to work on them immediately.

Just another Chev, I thought, one of thousands taken on charge by the Australian Army during the Second World War. Virtually all were disposed of in the immediate post-war period, their history of service going unrecorded. Years of post-war use – and abuse – usually deletes what few clues remained on the vehicle at the time of its disposal. So, just another faceless, featureless Chev …..

Then, almost in passing, Neil mentioned the names scratched into the dash panel and the glove compartment lid. The researcher in me sat up and took notice. What names, I asked? ‘There are several names … can’t recall them now … scratched into the dash panel, along with some numbers,’ he said. Now I was really interested. Could he send me some images?

Neil, true to his word, emailed them, along with some essential details such as the chassis number, and the hunt was on. Clues to a vehicle’s history are few and far between, so having several names and service numbers to work with, together with the remains of the formation and unit signs, provided a lot more information than usual. There was now a real possibility of narrowing down the ‘what, when, where’ of the lorry’s military use, thanks in no small part to a group of Diggers who had ignored all the rules and defaced Commonwealth property with the point of a penknife!

The Vehicle

The lorry is a 1941 right hand drive Chevrolet Series 16 ‘Maple Leaf’ 3-ton General Service lorry , the model designation being 16-41/E7. It has a 159 ¼ inch wheel base and was originally equipped with a fixed-side rear body complete with a demountable canvas canopy and tubular frame. The body measures 12-feet long by 7-feet wide. The lorry features the usual modifications to make it suitable for Australian military service: a roof hatch over the co-driver’s position, a heavy duty ‘U’ channel front bumper bar with towing D-rings, and so on. There was no doubting that this had been a military vehicle.

This particular lorry has the engine number ‘HR3753383’ and the chassis number ‘4116M912’. The chassis number indicates the model year (1941), the series (16), and the point of assembly in Australia (M), which stands for ‘Melbourne’. In other words, it was assembled at the Fisherman’s Bend plant of General Motors-Holdens Ltd, and the ‘912’ indicates that it was the nine hundred and twelfth assembled. This also narrowed down the approximate period when it would have been delivered to the Army. There were two possible places to look: the 2nd Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) registrations and the Commonwealth registrations, particularly those corresponding more or less to the second half of 1941. What came next was unexpected: the chassis number is listed under both registration schemes, and both confirmed that the lorry still has the original engine.

The lorry had first been registered under the 2nd AIF scheme, and assigned the registration number AIF L-19127, but in February 1942, it, along with a number of other 3-ton GS lorries, had been transferred to the Australian Army, and assigned the Commonwealth registration number C-42864. This latter registration number also corresponded with a ‘4’ on the side of the hood – the only discernable part of the painted registration number to survive.

Also surviving on the face of the front left fender is the formation sign and part of the unit sign. The formation sign is a water buffalo atop a boomerang. Both the buffalo and boomerang are in white, on a black background. This was the approved formation sign of Northern Territory Force (NT Force). It was adopted late in 1942, and officially listed in the system of vehicle markings issued in January 1943. It is also sometimes shown as the sign for the 12 Australian Infantry Division. On 31 December 1942, HQ NT Force was renamed HQ 12 Australian Infantry Division, with various elements of NT Force under command. The Rear HQ NT Force became HQ NT Lines of Communication, but the changes lasted only a matter of a few weeks before reverting to the NT Force structure and names. Indeed, none of the official system of vehicle marking instructions refer to ‘12 Australian Infantry Division’, while all those issued from January 1943 onwards show NT Force with the formation sign of a buffalo over a boomerang. The formation sign on Neil’s Chevrolet had to have been applied sometime after January 1943.

The remains of the unit sign shows multiple applications of what appears to be a three-digit unit number. The first two numbers are fragmentary and the multiple applications overlap, but the last numeral is clearly a ‘4’.

So, from all this we can deduce that the lorry was assigned to an as-yet unidentified unit in NT Force. Since there appears to be only one application of the formation sign, it would also appear that the lorry remained with NT Force and was not assigned to another formation prior to its demobilisation and disposal.

The Names

Scratched into the dash panel and the inside face of the glove compartment are several names and service numbers. Some are quite clear, while others are jumbled and difficult to read. Fortunately, the National Archives of Australia has an excellent on-line search tool called Recordsearch. One of the series is B883, which includes the titles of the personnel files of most people who served in the Australian Army (including the 2nd AIF) during the Second World War. They are listed by surname and service number. By using the various search tools, it is possible to narrow down possible individuals quite quickly, particularly if the name is unique.

I started with the prominently scratched names of ‘Jack Spragg, Dvr’ and ‘LEN Payne, Learner’. The latter name illustrates the difficulty of identifying an individual with a common name: there are plenty of service personnel with the name ‘Payne’. While a smaller number have first names beginning with ‘L’, the number of service dossiers was still too many to warrant spending $15 for each file to be made available on the off chance that one might be the ‘LEN Payne, Learner’.

On the other hand, ‘Jack Spragg’ proved to be an easy mark. SX26800 John Edward Thomas Spragg, a grocer’s assistant in civilian life, was activated to full time duty in late 1941 with the service number S39404. He was initially posted as a Grade 3 Clerk to the South Australian Lines of Communication Ordnance Depot Detachment at Alice Springs, where he commenced duty in early April 1942. Promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal in July, he volunteered for the 2nd AIF at the end of November, and was allocated the new service number SX26800. Spragg served with various units in Alice Springs, most notably 11 Lines of Communication Sub-Area Ordnance Depot, and at Mt. Isa until 1944, when he transferred out of the area.

‘Dr Mules’ had fortuitously provided not only his name, but also his service number, SX16204. Henry Robert Mules wasn’t a doctor, of course, but a driver: he had formally qualified as such on February 27, 1942, and been posted to the Northern Territory. He served with various transport units, and in mid-August, marched in to HQ, 11 Lines of Communication Sub Area at Alice Springs.

So, too, ‘D.M.Davies’ thoughtfully provided his service number ‘VX76944’, while Wesley Vaughan, another Victorian volunteer, had only scratched his service number ‘VX71119’. Both served with 14 Supply Personnel Company, the Northern Territory Lines of Communication Area, and the Central Australian Bulk Issue Petrol and Oil Depot (BIPOD), located at Alice Springs.

Finally, there was ‘R Downing’. Two possibilities presented themselves: ‘SX28622 R. Downing’ and a Victorian, ‘VX149018 Roy James Downing’. Both had served in the Northern Territory. Fortunately, the ‘R Downing’ who had scratched his name had included ‘Kyabram, Victoria, 1942’ as well. Although Roy had been born in the country town of Rushworth, he listed his permanent address – and that of his wife, Dorothea, as ‘Kyabram, Victoria’. Roy was also a qualified driver, and served with 14 Supply Personnel Company, the Central Australia BIPOD, and both the Central Australia and Northern Territory Lines of Communication Areas out of Alice Springs.

If it is not obvious already, the recurrent theme throughout the service of these individuals was the Northern Territory and particularly the Central Australian town of Alice Springs. This town was a major supply hub on the route between the southern areas of Australia and the units located across the far north, centred around Darwin. It was the terminus of the railway from the south, and everything travelling north from that point had to be transferred to motor transport for the long, rough journey along the North-South Road. Throughout the Second World War, the town was a hive of activity, with thousands of troops and many tons of supplies passing through the town each month.

Apart from the location, the men had Army units in common: all had served with units that were part of the Lines of Communication sub-area based at Alice Springs.

In the light of that information, the remains of the unit serial number was re-examined. There was no doubting that the last number was a ‘4’. The Australian Army unit serial numbers list published in early 1943 provided the most likely answer for the elusive first two numbers. Unit serial ‘384’ denoted the headquarters of a Lines of Communication Sub-Area Camp Staff. Although the figures had been applied at least twice and were slightly offset, it was possible to see the horizontal top bar of a squared ‘3’ and some rounded parts of the lower part of the ‘3’ and the adjacent ‘8’. Unit serial ‘384’ certainly seemed to fit the profile.

The No.11 Lines of Communication Sub-Area Camp Staff, first formed in April 1942 shortly after Headquarters NT Force was created, was located at Alice Springs. Although a formation sign was not initially carried by the unit, later on they adopted the formation sign of NT Force. It all fitted nicely into place. So Neil’s Chevrolet had most probably been the camp staff general transport in the Alice Springs area for the majority of its service life. This ‘local area’ use, as opposed to being ‘hammered’ up and down the rough North-South Road, also accounted for its remarkable condition.

Thanks to several Australian servicemen armed with pocket knives, and some judicious digging by the author, Neil now knows a whole lot more about the history of his modified conventional Chevrolet. It’s no longer just another Chev…

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Neil Harris for allowing me to research his Chevrolet lorry and all the help he provided along the way. Thanks also to Dave Whiteman for providing the excellent images. All images copyright 2012 Dave Whitemen.

Plate 1: A smiling Neil Harris stands proudly beside his 1941 Chevrolet Maple Leaf lorry, with the Gum trees and the rolling hills of Ben Bullen in the background. The vehicle is in a remarkable state of preservation, even including several original tools. (Dave Whiteman)

Plate 2: The interior of the lorry, showing its remarkable state of preservation. The farmer who acquired the vehicle in the immediate post-war period certainly looked after it. (Dave Whiteman)

Plate 3: The Unit and Formation signs on the front left fender. The buffalo over a boomerang was the Formation sign of Northern Territory Force. The badly obscured ‘384’ represented the No.11 Lines of Communication Sub-Area Camp Staff based in Alice Springs, Central Australia. (Dave Whiteman)

Plate 4: The Holdens body tags on the engine compartment fire wall. The left plate has the color as ‘D STONE’, which stands for ‘Desert Stone’. The 2nd AIF vehicles were delivered from the factory finished in the Army’s Light Stone colour overall. This is further indication that this was originally a lorry purchased for 2nd AIF use. (Dave Whiteman)

Plate 5: Jack Spragg and L E N Payne scratched their names above the glove compartment: no doubting who was the one in charge! (Dave Whiteman)

Plate 6: SX 16204 Henry Robert Mules scratched his name into the driver’s side dash panel. Note the use of a Ford starter button as the horn button – and just so you know, the word ‘Horn’ has been scratched above it. (Dave Whiteman)

Plate 7: The inside of the glove compartment lid, with a whole raft of names and service numbers. Roy Downing thoughtfully included the name of his town in Victoria. The ‘(B’Gun)’ after his name probably stands for Bren Gunner – co-drivers were often armed with Bren light machine guns which, in theory at least, was for use through the roof hatch against hostile aircraft. Wesley Vaughan’s service number ‘VX71114’ is in the centre. (Dave Whitemen)

Sorry, cannot post the images as they are not mine: you'd have to hunt out the Army Motors article to see them.

Mike