Australian Army Vehicle Registers AWM126
 

The Australian War Memorial is digitizing and placing on-line the Army vehicle registers. :thup2:

The entire AIF series, and the first few AMF series are available to view or download at:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM126/

Thus far, the AMF registers include many motorcycles, Cars, early CMP purchases, MH artillery tractors, Wiles steam kitchens and much more.

No jeeps or jeep trailers as yet - they came later.

The rest of the registers will be progressively uploaded as digitization is completed.

Happy hunting!

Mike :salute:

News
 

That is excellent news. Now all we need to do is decypher the scribbly writing .

The diaries are good reading too , they sometimes mention a specific vehicle and its ARN which means you can match a vehicle and a unit together . I was reading the wartime diary of a air liason unit , didn't know they existed .They described the training , using Hawker Harts or Demons ? and Wirraways and wireless sets 109 and AT5 AR8 on the ground communicating with the aircraft. A detailed summary makes interesting reading .

Awm 126
 

That is really good, and as Mike said all we need to do is read them. Be even better with a full database you could cross reference... one day perhaps...

Great news Mike! Thanks for sharing with us- very encouraging news for the hobby!


Cheers,
Ian.

books
 

Boarded G33 means ??????????

The red lines indicate the vehicle was written off ??????????

Ford 1/wt would be a 1 Ton van Wireless ??????????

Ah ! found a vehicle, went to Doug Wheelhouse..well known surplus dealer in Melbourne !!! Oakleigh wreckers in Dandenong road .

Thanks Mike
 

Cheers for the heads up Mike!

Found one of my carriers so far, it went to the middle east.
Now to do more research.

Thanks Mike,
What an amazing bonus for collector/restorers, I never thought I would see the day when this happened.
Just found my truck 46660 didn't get sold from Cecil Plains aerodrome straight to the farmer, but was sold to Ford at a sub-park. When I first started reading the pages I wondered who the S Park was that was buying heaps of trucks, then the person entering data, wrote sub park on a few entries which made it clearer.

Ken

sub park
 

What does Sub Park mean ?

Returned = returned from the ME ?

I see CVT 30 GS ( 30 cwt GS ) and also CVT KIT ?

Great news
 

Terrific to hear.
How much of the AMF records will be digitised? Will I see my 1960s vehicles?
Ryan

Aif
 

The early AIF books are interesting, quite some number of vehicles 'lost in Greece'. Some small number of (Chevs) returned from the M.E. and sold to GMH for a rebuild or resale through a GMH dealer maybe.

I see Blamey's Buick is AIF#1

Also see many M/cycles apparently impressed from civilian dealers .

The very early three digit and lower numbers eg 12cwt Ford would possibly be a 1939 ute .

Still have not worked out some of the vehicle types , very odd abreviations.

I see the first of the MK1 Inters start at ARN 88598.
I found my Bedford QLB Gun Tractor ARN 89101, this is getting better and better.

Ken

AIF-M-1 was one of several LHD Buicks supplied to the AIF (and allocated to Blamey) in the Middle East. Unfortunately, the register does not record the chassis number, only the engine number, of a Buick staff car which was gifted to Blamey just after the war.

Just over 2,000 are marked 'Lost in Greece' - quite a significant loss of MT for a small army, all needing to be replaced, along with considerable quantities of other 'kit'.

Ryan: the registers cover the period 1939 to 1972 (when the 'new' series came into effect), so once they are all on line, will indeed cover the vehicles from the 1960s. Read the series intro for more information on content range.

Mike

Cheers Mike, the clarity of the pictures is impressive.
This is indeed a major boost to all private restorers and collectors.

Well yes and no, Ryan: the registers have been available for researchers to view since the Memorial started to receive them in the 80s - you just had to travel to Canberra to see them (as I used to do for many years before moving to Canberra in 2000). In those days it was sit down and copy entries out by hand - a very laborious and time-consuming process.

Still, having the registers on line is one thing: finding what you want, and interpreting the entry, presents a whole other problem. 27 Volumes are a very large haystack in which to locate one vehicle 'needle'.

As I said, good hunting!

Mike

Yep agreed, but having them at your fingertips is just unbeatable. And available for free. Definitely looking forward to the other volumes being uploaded.

M-h
 

Two Marmon Herrington LP3 tractors handed over to the the US Army in March 42.

A few vehicles transferred to the NEI forces and RNIL.

1941 Plymouth 12 cwt Vans ( ute ) transferred to US Navy and the RAAF .

Found the Bedford QLB bofors tractors QLB .

No Morris Commercials .. what happened ?

No Pontiacs
 

The 1941 12 cwt Pontiac 'masonite' utes are missing , along with the Chev version. I think these were issued new to the RAAF and the US army in Australia, that's why they are not seen in these army AIF and AMF records ? Haven't seen any 41 or 42 Ford 12 cwt utes either.

Mike C. Would you care to put up a few explanations of the abbreviations?
cvt, san, etc. I have the various motor cycles sorted.

One was in Book 6,no.14000 Ntn (Norton?)mcycle, comb (sidecar?) 53251,4 1/2h.p.1940,400x18 (rear tyre?) with pwr/dve (power drive?) What is that?

Also if you have time to waste, can you explain the entry in Vol.6. 16720. There are convoluted notes on the l/h side about a couple of Bren carriers T3374 and T3375.
Do the books relate to certain areas? Any clues? My reading of hand writing seems to have deteriorated.

I was excited to see the various Vickers MkVIa light tanks. (bk5,266- 279)

Entry no. 281 is for the British M.G. carrier No2 MkI T2831

No.633 being a R.Royce is interesting I guess impressed.

What were the LP3's, Stingray, Starfish, and snake?


Thank you.

Cvt
 

CVT = Chevrolet

sans = ?????

boarded = ??????

Ford and GMH , seems that a high percentage of the trucks went back to them for resale ?

The Chrysler stuff ( Dodge , Fargo ) some of them went to Harden & Johnston, a Chrysler Australia distributor in Sydney. Lanes Motors ( the Morris dealers ) gets a mention as well , I know they got the Morris Commercials CS8 and PU's but no mention of that in these books.

The Chev Indian pattern Ambulances went back to GMH . Did GMH remove the bodies and resell them with cargo trays ? Maybe that's why none exist today? Spotted the Chev seater utilities on the 115" wb ( not the CMP based type ) .

Lp3
 

They were pre-war Australian Local Pattern armoured cars, Ford based with Marmon-Herrington 4X4 kits., also other names such as Bandicoot, Boomerang and others. There are some survivors.

Lynn,
Norton Big4 633 cc combination with sidecar wheel drive

Thanks guys.
Boarded; I believe it to be when there is a "board of survey" and the item is written off by the boarding officer.
B.E.R= Beyond Economic Repair.

As an example. (creative accounting it's called)

Me watching a Storeman Corporal and a Captain.

The Corporal had laid out these broken tools in a row along the floor of his store. Amongst those tools were 3 chalk drawings of 8 inch Cresents. (the storeman was short of these 3 items)
The Captain moved along the line.
"What are those Corporal?"
"They are 8 inch Cresents Captain"
"What's wrong with them Corporal?"
The Corporal stepped forward with chalk in hand scratched a quick line through them, and replied
"They're broken Sir!

The Corporal had his 3 Cresents written off in the "Board of Survey" and his inventory again balanced

True story. The Corporal later became the only foreigner to ever serve in the Queens Guards (as a Beefeeter) There you go, I've pretty much named him.

Found a few more interesting entries;
280 Dragon Mk3 Field Artillery (Vickers)
282-287 Tilling Stevens petrol electric searchlight lorries
641 Laffley sweeper
642 Schneider
6900 M6 Cruiser tank with V12 Liberty engine (odd one here as M6 had a radial and think not classed as a Cruiser)

Worked out a few more abbreviations of makes;
FED Federal
VXL Vauxhall
REN Royal Enfield
TPH Triumph motorcycles

Morris
 

Found some Morris Commercials 13810 - 13829 ..20 in all.

Described as " Refugee " LAT Portees . I think these are the 2 Pounder Portees , a few have turned up . A Browne had two of these. Hughes in Coburg had sold a few ( purchased from Lanes Motors I would think ) . Hughes had a NOS engine and some spares too. The A Browne Portees were last seen heading Nth. to Bruce Wiltshire. One chassis nr. in the reg. book: C8 AT 1928 6465


And I think a Morris 6 wheeler CDSW ! 13809 is a recovery 6x4. Wonder where it ended up ? Amazing .

13808 is a Albion ?

Pilot
 

Interesting : 42789 was a 'pilot model' Ford 6 seater utility 1942 .

A Ford version?!
 

That is very interesting indeed, well spotted Mike! You'd think the Chevrolet version would be somewhere in there too... unusual engine number, 2D prefix which would be a 1941 motor... and we're still in cab 12 territory as far as the Aust deliveries go - and 9.00-16 tyres. I wonder whether it was a cab 12 based pilot? I don't think any Cab 13s appear until later on in the ARN series.

I'm confident it is not a CMP.

The class letter M=car
9:00 x 13 tyres, not 9.00 x 16 (it's hard to read, but it is a '3'.)
2D is a late 1941 & 1942 (the 2D series commenced in Aust in Nov 1941) engine 3-3/16 inch (239 cubic inch SV) coupled to a 3 speed transmission, for use in cars and utilities.

The CMP version was classed as a 'truck', and had a 3 -3/16 inch bore V8 coupled to a 4 speed transmission which had the 'G' prefix, such as 3GXXXXF.

Mike :salute:

more
 

Each time you look at these books , you see unusual stuff.

Cletrac with Hercules engine, but Diesel.


43884 A cab 12 Ford ? converted to gas producer , as well as a few K5 Inter .

43880 transferred to US army ?

I don't know who "AH Jolly" was, but this individual purchased quite a few vehicles .

My blitz (142736) is in AWM 126 22 Image 63.
Engine and chassis numbers match.
Can anyone tell me what the red writing means please.