[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Tony Smith
And note the brackets on the side of the body on the FJExpedition find. Brackets for the sand channels?

Yes, you must be right!

This came up on the Historic Military Vehicle Forum:

This extract from "The Long Range Desert Group" by Bill Kennedy Shaw may be of interest to some:

In the western desert during the war thousands of Army cars carried slung alongside them a pair of these perforated steel channels yet probably not one man in as many thousands knew their origin, so for sake of history I record it here.

In the spring of 1926 Bagnold ( Major R.A.) had been up in Jerusalem,........After unsuccessful experiments with corrugated iron beaten into channels Bader discovered, by nosing round among the old-iron shops of Cairo, a stock of strong rolled-steel troughing designed in the war for roofing dug-outs. We bought a couple of these, five foot long, to carry with us.

Then in 1929, in the eastern edge of the sand Sea near 'Ain Dalla:

Every few miles one or other of the two lorries would get stuck in the soft ground........ If it had not been for these old steel channels we must have given up......They were the salvation of the expedition.


Taken from: Middle East General Order No 108 4:2:1944

INVENTIONS:

In accordance with para 3 Standing Orders for War M.E.F. it is recorded that (now) Brig R.A. Bagnold developed, in collaboration with other officers as stated below, the following inventions or applications of existing principles to military purposes:

(a) Sand Channels

Devised in 1929 and subsequently adopted, with modifications, as standard desert equipment.

(b) Sand Mats

Devised in 1929 in collaboration with Major P.A.Clayton in the form of rope ladders with bamboo rungs, subsequently modified by the substitution of canvas for rope, and adopted as standard desert equipment

The pictures which appear in this 1945 publication shows sand channels in use and clearly shows FIVE rows of holes.