[Golf33]

Hi folks!

I shall use my first post on this forum to embarass myself by asking what is probably a really obvious question. However, it's one that I haven't been able to find an answer to anywhere else, so your help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm currently researching the vehicle allocation of various WWII British/Commonwealth organisations (like Inf Bn, Fd Arty Bty, RASC Tpt Coy and so on). In the War Establishments, the following vehicles are listed:

1. Truck 8 cwt
2. Truck 15 cwt
3. Lorry 30 cwt
4. Lorry 3 ton

I believe "cwt" is an abbreviation for "hundredweight" which is 100lb, although given the numbers below I could be wrong about this!

If I understand correctly, these weights should refer to the payload of the vehicle, but as far as I can tell on the CMP Specifications page on this site (the only decent resource I've come across for these vehicles at all) this doesn't seem to be the case.

I thought "Maximum gross rating" would be the weight of the vehicle fully fueled, crewed and with full payload, while "Curb weight" would be the weight of the vehicle fully fueled but with no crew or payload. This can't be right though, because doing the math the C8 would have a payload of 15 cwt, the C15 would have a payload of 63 cwt, the C15A a payload of 30 cwt, the C30 of 52 cwt, the C60S of 92 cwt, and the C60L a payload of 90 cwt or about 4.1 tons. This seems really strange since the 15 cwt C15 would have a greater payload than the 30 cwt C30!

Can anyone clear this up for me? What were the gross weights fully fueled, crewed and loaded for these vehicles?

Also, does anyone know on average how many combat-equipped troops could be loaded into each?

The information is for use in developing equipment lists and characteristics for a WWII computer wargame (more information on request).

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Regards
Steve Long