SASR Land Rover

[Jye maude]

A few months back I picked up late 2A Land Rover from Andamooka

[Stuart Kirkham]

This is Jyes LRPV in action - Battle for the Golden Road Pt 1

Action starts at 1:42.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upiOj4LFCds

[Robin Craig]

Great to have such a vehicle and great to have in service footage even from training, good luck with the project.

[Jye maude]

All clean and ready to start tidying it up mechanically

[Mike Cecil]

Nice find Jye,

I assume you are a regular on the REMLR forum, or at least follow the posts on this page:

http://remlr.com/forum/index.php?board=32.0

Lots of fitting out to do to bring it back to the SASR spec, but at least much of the rear compartment stowage was manufactured from plywood, so should be easier to replicate. Stuart's images on the REMLR thread (from 'Dimer Bob', I think?) of the ones at disposal are amongst the best source available, plus the Army Museum Bandiana (Victoria) and the SASR Museum (WA) both have restored/display examples.

The 'Golden Road' movie is interesting as it shows the 'enemy' with an Austen 9mm SMG (out of Aust service since the end of WW2), and your LRPV Series 2A with a .30 cal MG on the rear pintle mount. The latter always seemed to me to be an unusual choice for SASR, as it would require another calibre of ammunition to be carried along with 7.62 (for issue rifles & GPMGs) and 9 mm (for pistols and SMGs).

Look forward to more updates as you progress.

Mike

[James P]

Is the paint original (in service) or something shot on post service ? If original maybe worthwhile to consider saving and clear coating.

[Jye maude]

Thanks Mike, I'm going to have to go check out the one at Bandiana.

Hey James the paint is original but the last pic posted had been edited to show it better than it is, I will do my best to replicate it when I repaint it.

[Mike Cecil]

AMB is only a hop-skip-and-jump away if you attend Corowa.

Interesting that yours is a late pattern 2A with the lights in the guards, not the grill.

Mike

[Jye maude]

Could this possibly have been from machine gun? It was wedged between bulkhead and guard

[James P]

^ looks like a 7.62mm round (judging by the shadow) headstamped Small Arms Ammunition Factory, Footscray . Could have been fired from a MG or rifle (but would make a good key fob to go with the truck now).

[Mike Cecil]

James is right - 7.62 NATO (7.62x51 mm). Marked F4 which is the Australian Ball round: see http://www.australian-munitions.com....%202pp_WEB.pdf

1982 manufacture.

So in Australia at that time, most likely to have been fired from an L1A1 rifle or GPMG M60.

As James said, nice momento.

Mike