M8 Greyhound in Australia.

[Ryan]

Come across a possible photo of one in Oz during WW2. Pretty sure we never used them but did we have a few for test purposes?
It's the lower picture in this ebay auction.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/War-Photos-x-...3A1%7C294%3A50

[gjamo]

Why not buy the real thing. Item # 320367985168

Here is the link, I hope
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...dc=1&viewitem=
US$20,000 Reserve not met
Rich

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by gjamo

Why not buy the real thing?

Because of all the attention you'd attract!

[Douglas Greville]

Fellas

That Greyhound on ebay is a mongrel.
- It has what appears to be a Gamma Goat engine in it (Detroit Diesel 3/53). Owner says it is a "453" which is unlikely. The alternator would have come with the donk. It should have a JXD Hercules (Studebaker 6x6, White Scout).
- It appears they have cut a hole through the side of the hull for
the exhaust (a Greyhound's starts on the LHS and goes across under the
engine where the muffler is
located then up and out through the rear RHS mudguard panel).
- A ~6" extension collar has been fitted around the engine bay to take the
extra height of the retrofit motor but it appears they have kept all parts
and reinstalled them such as engine louvre decking.
- Breech has been cut off and the shell deflector and side guards are missing,
although owner says he has replacement breech.
- It is hard to tell, but it appears that the fuel tank is not insitu, which would
suggest either a jerry rigged fuel system or none at all.
- The binnage on the front face of the firewall are all missing.
- No picture of the large capacity shell rack that should be in the sponson.
- Extension mudguards missing, however this is not that unusual and many
owners take them off to reduce the width of the vehicle - the
owner says he still has them.

+ On the plus side, those data plates look old, originals perhaps?
+ RHS rear panel does not have cutout for exhaust, which suggests this
was a very early build vehicle.

As to Oz use of Greyhounds. General opinion is that there was at least one Aussie unit in Europe that had Greyhounds on some sort of loan basis, which could have been either British inventory or even direct from US stocks.
It would be nice to be able to find out the details of which unit this was?
Nobody appears to know of any actually purchased by the Australian government.

Regards
Doug
M8 Owner.

[BSHEVLIN]

Originally Posted by Tony Smith

Because of all the attention you'd attract!

LOL that me in the Gunners seat on the way back from cooma 2008

[Ian Pullen]

As far as I believe we (Australia) didn't have any Army units serving in Europe in WW2. We served in North Africa, Crete, Greece etc but by the time the Allieds came to re-occupy Europe the only Australians in that theatre were Air Force.
All Army units were by then in the Pacific in the defence of Australia.
As for any M8s in Australian service, I can't recall any.

[Douglas Greville]

Ian

Have to disagree with you. It is a documented fact that Australian Army personnel landed on in Normandy either on or shortly after D-Day. I remember reading several first person accounts of it (many years ago) in an RSL club.

As to M8s, well, being that Australia appears not to have purchased any doesn't mean we never operated them in some sort of secondment posting. I know that officers are often posted individually on secondment, but in the case of enlisted personnel, would expect that if it happens it would be in groups, not individually? The story I was told was that it was a "Squadron".

Just as Australia is not listed as having been equipped with Chaffee, Sherman, Leo 2, FV-432, M-60: all those vehicles have been operated by Australian personnel in Australia, some vehicles remained here, others were returned at the end of the evaluation.

Strange things happen, a surprising amount never gets recorded in publically available material.

A few years ago I was talking to an RAN veteran and when I asked what ship he was on, he said "Shropshire" (IIRC). I then queried if he had been on secondment (he was a rating) and he said no, that the ship was given to Australia by the British government.
So, where as it is normal for a ship's name to be changed when it is transferred from one navy to another, in this case HMS Shropshire and HMAS Shropshire are one and the same ship.

Regards
Doug

Originally Posted by Ian Pullen

As far as I believe we (Australia) didn't have any Army units serving in Europe in WW2. We served in North Africa, Crete, Greece etc but by the time the Allieds came to re-occupy Europe the only Australians in that theatre were Air Force.
All Army units were by then in the Pacific in the defence of Australia.
As for any M8s in Australian service, I can't recall any.