[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Hanno,

Thanks as always for your incredible input. I would be honoured to meet you and perhaps Dirk in due course when we get out over to the Netherlands in our new Honda.

1. Regarding the Australian FAT Rear-engined: note this was supposed to be a Field Artillery Chassis, and yet the official description albeit of the original model was "Rear-Engine Armoured Car" [Ford Model C011QRF...my square brackets]. I could not decide therefore after reading your reasoned and authoratitive note whether the Australians had ordered any FATs. Then I remembered that this point had already been discussed on the old forum. Because my PC crashed I lost all unsaved data. This file has been a casualty...I think we agreed before that this chassis was a Ford C291Q, # 13 Cab as per THE HISTORY OF FORD IN AUSTRALIA, P. 109, Australian design No. 8, on the F-GT chassis. So I was wrong, and will amend thje original posting. AMENDMENT HERE: the C291QH was the Royal Engineers' FAT-based truck chassis as used in India, but I seem to remember that it was thought that the 1942 3-ton FAT chassis for Australia was the same model, so can I correct that to C291QH please?

2. I am totally indebted for your reminding me of Rod's comments on the Rhino..Norm Darwin, my friend, states that there were 132 built . Now I confess I had no idea that they used the 8446 chassis, and so I am adding this information to my database. Sorry Rod, and thanks.

3. As to the final Rear-engined chassis, although the steering was central, my information has it that the model designation was C291QR(F), with the "F" in parentheses. The only other case of this suffix I can find is the C011Q(F)..now this was originally C011QF but as we know the "F" was dropped in some cases from 1942 and the 1943 Models that I know of lacked the "F" suffix as well. It is worth looking into again and I will do so, as the query arises as to whether the (F) applied to the right-hand steer chassis and was not applicable to the central-steered chassis. A similar query has arisen with regards to the C298QFS(Special) 4 x 4 F60L for India. Was the "(Special") a temporary or official addition to the "S" suffix?

4. I was totally stumped when you asked me why there were no references to rear-engined chassis for India. I ran through all the permutations in my mind, and then I decided that the answer lay in that the orders were for "Rear-Engine Armoured Car", and thus were not covered by S/M 2XXX and 6XXX series Ministry of Suply contracts! This did not apply to the GM of Canada Otter chassis nor the C15TA series....the Otter was to S/M 2424 which is the exception to the rule it seems. Up until the Otter, which was a "Reconnaisance Car", the Fox and Chevrolet Staghounds were orderded under the S/M 1XXX series as Armoured vehicles. So, the Canadian "B" Vehicle listing I sucked up after a lot of research of a file from Ottawa did not cover Ministry of Supply contracts for the Rear-engined Armoured Car chassis. Further, if the chassis were ordered by the INDIAN Government as against the UK, then they would have been referred to in a seperate file. This then requires me to check the Archives index to see whether there are any former DND files for Indian contracts. Of course Australian contracts are not in the file either. I am going to ask Norm if he knows anything about the E52 and 211 prefixes Keith...more work to be done!

Note BASRA destination...now we know where that is of course!