Nice aiming marks on the captured one!! An anti-tank gunners dream.

Mike C

Why has L4426482 in (attachment 55804) got a 2 ton Bridge Plate??

Regards Rick

Here is a original photo that i have from my collection with info on the back of photo..
Keith

Rick, well spotted!

Most likely an error, although one could argue it is part of its camouflage ;)

H.

There is a Dorchester in the Merredin Military Museum fully restored . It is owned privately but is displayed there . The story goes that there were 7 Dorchesters in WA in the ww2 , Four of them were cut up for grader blades ,one went back to England , one that nobody know what happen to it and the one in Merredin , The merredin one was found in a back yard in Bayswater and was being used as a garden shed , all it was , was a shell , no running gear .the back yard was very close to a site used a scrape metal yard for many years and that may have been were the lost one may have gone ,

It changed hands a few times before it tuned up in Merredin , A chap name Mal spent five year off an on restoring it . Mal has since past away and his Wife has left it on display ,

It was stationed in Northan , Nungarran & Merredin at differant times . In 1945 a VULTEE VENGEANCE crash ( http://www.ozatwar.com/ozcrashes/wa88.htm ) and the same Dorchester that is in Merredin was used as a command vechicle for the search for the crew an plane,

If im able to help you with anything else just ask .

The photo's of the German ones, Rommel troops captured three Dorchester's at a road block , Pommel decided to use two of them one as a command post and the other as his sleeping quarters .

When he English use them , they used them in threes , one for the officers . one as the radio room and one for listening in on enermy radios and questioning prisoner .

AEC ACV in Australia
 

Hi Will,

There were indeed seven AEC ACV imported to Australia during the Second World War. All were retained in the post war period, and most were disposed of in 1960 from ordnance depots in the eastern states. Two were converted to training aids in 1958.

Two bodies/hulls are known to still exist:

The body/hull at Merredin was recovered by the late Bob Dimer, who also matched it to an AEC Matador chassis/running gear which he recovered from a quarry operation near Geelong in Victoria.

The other is a stripped-out hull at the Army Tank Museum at Puckapunyal.

Regards

Mike