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Originally Posted by Mike Cecil
As mentioned in my earlier post, the register entry states it was received as Refugee cargo. That generally means on a ship diverted to Australia in early 1942, to avoid areas that were already under Japanese control. So on their way to British units in Malaya, perhaps? Either way, the register entry is quite clear.
Cab 12 FATs were not provided to Australian units in North Africa until well into 1942, and those that can be traced to that origin arrived much later than the example acquired by the AWM. Moreover, where such tractors were brought to Australia by the returning AIF, most were not then transferred to the Australian register, and those few that were do not have the accompanying entry 'refugee'.
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Hello Mike, thanks for the clarification!
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Like you, I am puzzled by the decontamination comment in relation to the body shape, and wonder at its origins.
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I asked for a source for my question #1, this is the reply from AWM's FB page:
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Thanks for the query. For an excellent developmental history of the “beetleback” or Quad tractor see Ventham and Fletcher’s Moving the guns : the mechanisation of the Royal Artillery, 1854-1939, pp.80-85.
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