HI guys

Thanks for the great feedback. Im wait to get some back from when I had the carrier on display at work. Those videos had sound with them.

Jason

Yes I do require a parking brake. I will PM you.

Here's a picture. if your interested l let me know.

I just spent this past weekend masking and painting on a disruptive pattern for my Carrier. The RHLI at the time had a rather bold patterning and latest research shows the colour to be black instead of the more usual dark green colour.

Here is an NOS bracket in the original KG#3 compared to my modern day paint.

I did some research by looking through some of the battalion war diaries today. I came across the informal account of the King's visit on 27 March, 1941. WHat is interesting is it gives a bit of information on how the Regiment's carrier platoon (4th Platoon) got its informal name of "Hell's Angles" The following was written by Major Waldron of the RHLI.

On 27 March 41 the battalion really reached the top - - we were inspected by our Colnel-inChief, his Majesty the King, who was accompanied on part of the inspection by Her Majesty.

The battalion was further honoured by being allowed to give His Majesty his first rinde in a Bren Carrier, who was driven by Lieut. Denis Whitaker, who commands that platoon. For the ride Lieut. Whitaker selected his own carrier - - which he has named GAIL after his daughter in Canada who was born after our arrival in England. The King was accompanied by Major-General Odlum, G.O.C. 2 Cdn. Div and Brigadier C.B. Topp, Commanding 4 C.I.B. Gail had been bathed, painted and polished until she became a joy to behold. Even the tracks had been manicured.

Ones first ride in a Bren Carrier is and experience never to be forgotten. They have a peculiar motion - 1/3 Camel, 1/3 St. Vitus and 1/3 unadulterated hell. Our Bren Carrier Platoon mixes all three without reserve and dishes up and overhelping of rattled bones, aching muscles and strained nerves. Thus do they live up to their name of Hell's Angles, which with a picture of the devil, is painted on the sides of each vehicle.

His Majesty was unfortunate in his Company as rarely does a subaltern have the opportunity of giving the G.O.C. and Brigade Commander the works - - the temptation was too strong. However the King apparently enjoyed it as he was most enthusiastic and thanked Lieut. Whitaker very sincerely for the experience. The event was featured in all the Canadian and British newspapers, and Lieut. Whitaker had the unique distinction of having a picture of the Bren party published far and wide.

The King then inspected "C" Coy camouflage. The inspecting party were standing on a hill looking over the typical English countryside. On the blast of a whistle 150 men, fully armed and equiped rose out of the ground. The five clumps of bushes of a moment before, suddenly were revealed as trucks.

His Majesty then inspected Bn.Hq, the R.A.P., and H.Q. Coys. He was particularly interested in the cookers on which the midday meal was being prepared.

As he left our area he wasvery kind in his remarks and complimented Lieut.-Col. R.R. labatt, our Commanding Officer, on the splended work of the battalion. All ranks gave tremendous cheers and a "tiger". The visit did us all no end of good.

During His Majesty's inspection the Queen drove past on a road running down one flank of our area. Sgt. William Tullock of "C" Coy. was standing at the edge of the road by himself. As the car drove by he came stifflty to attention and saluted. Her Majesty, very graciously, leaned forward and acknowledged the salute with a wave of her hand. Sgt. Tullock stood there for about three minutes and then cut his hand to his side. For some considerable time he wandered around in a daze exclaining - "Boy of boy she waved at me alone!"

Here are some film stills from the British Pathe site. The film is #1111 - 19. Thanks to Brad Mills for initialy finding this film clip. This film basicaly shows the kings visit to Cnd troops as described above from the RHLI war diaries.

I guess I lucked out having the RHLI carrier filmed and pictured from all sides. Not to many units had that distinction.

Enjoy the pictures. I sure did.

I would imagine Lt. Whittaker is demonstraing the proper text book "climbing aboard" technique for such a destinquished guest.

And way they go.

And now for the fun part. Off of the road. Apperantly the King really enjoyed his ride and Whittaker equally enjoyed driving him around.

Last still

Thanks for sharing these images. They are also very rare in that they show H.M. armed. If the King had to go about armed it sent a worrying message to the populace.
Now, if that film could just be downloaded we may be able to see a lot more toys in the background.
Cheers,
Dave

Naw, two factors -- first, it's part of the uniform and he's the CinC of an Armed Forces at war... second, showing HM armed tells the British public that he, personally is prepared to fight if necessary (and I'm sure he would have if he wasn't spirited away first).

IMHO, it's a good call and a propaganda coup. I suspect he insisted on it himself... :)

I like the cammo paint
I will post some pic's of mine as well
CC#2 as base color with CC1a as the pattern color
in MTP 20 cammo style for a 1942 carrier
Steve k :D

Fine Work
 

Jordan,

Thanks for doing such a good job of researching and restoring your Carrier, and for sharing it with the MLU gang. You can be proud of your efforts.

The cammo you applied is a fine tribute also - glad you chose it. Painting it the other way would have been 'micky mouse'. ;)


Stewart

Stewart, thanks for the encouragement. Only you would bring "Disney" into this. Thanks

I have been busy working away on the vision slots for the last couple of weeks. I now have about 90% of the hardware needed.

Do to an almost non-existant source for the plunger housing and knob I have made a mold and cast some up. I have two original ones but I still needed a third. They are cast from a 2 part casting resin. These show my first shot at it and I had some big air bubbles. The resin was really old and no loner that good. Once I get some new stuff I should be able to cast them up very easily. The only down side is that they are very light in weight compared to the originals. However once painted and installed you will never know. Plus the resin is extremely strong. Its also used for rock climbing hand holds.

I also got some NOS plungers and then made up the springs and pins for them. I tired to use the original spring retaining pins but they kept "mushrooming" on me before they would go all the way in. I ended up using some galvanised fence wire. The springs came from Home Depot and had originaly been compression ones. I simply streched one out and it made up enough for the 3 plungers.

Ive also got NOS fastners for the vision covers. I only have to re-drill my holes to fit them and then eveything should bolt right on. The pile of rusty bits near the top of the photo is what I had left of the original vision slot covers. Un fourtunatly they had been cut up a bit and were no longer good to use other then for patterns.

The only fastners I couldn't find were the flat washer types. These had a cotter pin insterted into a collar. The collar was located between the hull and the striaght pivot arm.

The pink blocks just to the right of the left most cover is the mould for the knob.

Unfourtunatly the Illustrated part cat didn't have any drawings what so ever for the vision slot covers. But I have figured out where everyhting went and what part numbers when with what parts. I will hopefuly get some drawings made up and post them so others could use them.

Spent the better part of the evening (actually all of it, even missed a new episode of Prison Break) working on the vision slot covers. I have now got the drivers and the central one installed.

I have used modern day machine screws as the originals were too far gone. I did use NOS nuts and countersunck washers. Im also happy to say that everything works just as it should considering most of the components have been replaced.

The plungers have been completly rebuilt. New springs and internal components. The NOS nuts did have to be re-tapped from the original BSF thread to match the screws. All thats left is to cut off the screws and drill them for cotter pins.

One thing that I do find odd is that the shutters had 4 different height settings. I would have thought that open or closed would suffice. But then again its a British design faithfully copied by us colonials. :dh:

vision covers
 

Hello Jordan,

Nice job on the covers, I saw you have new frames around your glas, is there a place where I can find them? I am still looking for two of them. :)

Greetings from a wet Holland

Hendrik van Oorspronk

Its been awhile since I last posted some updates. I have finaly managed to get some road wheels for my back end. I don't have them yet but hopefully in a few weeks time.

I have also managed to pickup the 3 pyrene extinguishers and brackets needed for the UC. I decided to paint the bracket in semi-gloss black as every bracket I have seen always had some black on it.

I was also just sent this part from another forum member. Its the cover for the steering cam plate. It also had an original rifle butt holder on it but it was in too poor of shape to use. Luckily I have some excellent repops from John Bizal over at Midwest Military.

Glass Surounds,
 

Hi Jordon,
Your carrier looks great you have done a great job on it, I notice that you have new glass surounds on you vision covers, are these available? if so can you please tell me where? mine are broken but the glass is ok.
Regards,
Ron.
Merry Xmas,

I picked up a spare ammunition bin at a militaria show sometime ago. This one is original 1943. For the strap I am using one from a P37 map case. Sometime during its life its had the word "HARE" painted onto it.

I should add that it fits a quantity of five .303 rifle bandoliers perfectly. This adds up to the 250 rounds of ammuntion specified in the manual. This leads me to think that it was a "ready" bin for when the MG crew dismounted. An early version of the "bags" found in the Mk2 carriers.

That is the height of the spare ammo box that I am used to. John Bizal sells a taller reproduction, which I am unsure as to whether it is a later revision, or for a different application. Seems to me it is a tight enough fit now in the back of the carrier without a box sticking another 3" into the Isle way.

This is the front firing rest that I made up. Another forum member loaned me his original one to copy. Me and my trusty angle grinder and 3 cutting disks made a great copy. All of the holes were drilled to match the original.

I have since replaced the repro exhaust guards with original ones that I picked up. Also as you can probably see I don't keep rations inside the ration bin. I use it to keep (hide) all the fastners/ drill bits that are used on the carrier. If I leave them around I will find them being used on somthing around the farm.

Hi Rob

I have the repro from John Bizal too. It is a few inches taller then my original. However I think there were two different kinds. My original one has a part number of (TL - 1184 - A) In the Illustrated parts manual, also listed is a CTL 12299. I wonder if this could have been a larger size. Or simply that there was a few sizes made.

Here is my Pyrene extingusiher mounted to the top of the engine deck. The extingusiher bracket is original but I made up the part that holds it to the engine deck. They two csk screws at either end are original ones that I save from other parts. Im glad I painted the brackets black instead of green as it gets rid of the "everthing is green" look.

Well I just had a great piece of mail delivered today. Ok so its not a carrier part but it is what the Universal Carriers were intended to carry.

Im the happy new owner of a Bren Mk1 dewat.

Nice Bren...
 

Jordan,

Nice Bren gun mate, sometimes I wish I would have held out for a mk. I. Of course, now we can trade so you can make amends for the "battle damage" on mine, right? hehehe....

And say, do Mommy and Daddy know it's in the house, or did you sneak that in with your Sten :P

Can't wait to see it mounted up in it's proper spot in the carrier buddy!

Tim

Thanks for the "comments" Tim.

It would have been hard to hide it since my Dad accepted that pkg at the door. I hsoudl have said "look mom and dad, Corgir models just released a 1:1 diecast model of the Bren." Of course if they did that woudl be illegal in this country.