FWD SU-COE Medium Artillery Tractor

[Rich Payne]

This is presumably a fairly well known picture (IWM H 11484 taken from Vanderveen's 'Source Book of Military Wheeled Vehicles')

It doesn't seem to have been posted here before and I had a copy scanned because of the Norton in the foreground.

The FWD appears to carry Census number H4458790 (SM2018)

http://img362.imageshack.us/my.php?i...c7353iwak7.jpg
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/4...53iwak7.th.jpg

[Les Freathy]

A few more interesting shots, first a PW belgian airforce FWD with snow plough, second a demobbed truck still with the Canadian steel body in British Faiground use by H Davis and sons in the 1950s and a interesting advert for FWD trucks i would like to find out more about that unusual crane version on the bottom right
cheers
Les

[Noel Burgess]

I posted this link on a previous SU thread http://forum.ww2dodge.com/viewtopic.php?t=1767 I now find that you need to be registered to view attachments. Does anyone know the poster or the photos he refers to.
Managed to find one of the sets of thumbnails saved on my harddrive
Noel

[Rich Payne]

This is the contact sheet from the Dodge Forum in a bit more detail. The sheets are from the Bovington Tank Museum photo archive and prints are available from them.

Click on the thumbnail for a larger image :-

http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ave0005ya5.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/2...0005ya5.th.jpg

Rich

[Noel Burgess]

That's much better Rich - I see the MAT; GS Truck & is it two styles of snow plough? [plow to you colonials] - Look forward to seeing what else you have got.
Here's a photo of a model {not my work], produced by the now ceased Trux Models - it;s a FWD SU with Lister Generator; I believe the RE used these vehicles as Prime Movers and (it would seem) as power supplies.

Noel

[chalky]

My friend drove one of these SU-COE 's in the Italian campaign towing a 5.5inch gun, he much preferred them to the AEC Matadors as they were permanent four wheel drive so did not get bogged down as easily. By the time you changed into four wheel drive inthe AEC's you had often lost all traction. There only foible was their is no self centering action on the steering and they have to be 'wound off' after turning a corner, this used to catch out new drivers.

[Keith Brooker]

Some original photos from my collection of Su Coe trucks.
Keith

[Neilie (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Rich Payne

This is presumably a fairly well known picture (IWM H 11484 taken from Vanderveen's 'Source Book of Military Wheeled Vehicles')

It doesn't seem to have been posted here before and I had a copy scanned because of the Norton in the foreground.

The FWD appears to carry Census number H4458790 (SM2018)

Hi Rich,

Was there any info available as to unit, location and year of this photo. I am modelling it in 1/76 and would like to get that information if available.

Cheers,

Neil

[Rich Payne]

Neil, I'm afraid that the Vanderveen book doesn't include any background info but the IWM photo reference is something to go on. They should be able to provide you with a decent copy together with whatever caption was given at the time.

The 'H' series relates to the British Army in the United Kingdom commencing in the late 1930s.

I've searched the online archives and H 11484 isn't there but H 11489 is and shows a battery of 5.5" guns so probably taken at the same time. It is captioned as 240th Battery, 51 Medium Regiment RA at Ellesmere Port, July 1941.

http://www.iwm.org.uk//collections/i...ject/205197627

The Arm of Service serial '5' with Corps bar above is shown in the Vehicle Markings, 1941 listings as 'Medium Regt.(How).' but of course doesn't indicate which corps formation sign would have applied here.

51 Medium Regt. were 3 Corps troops during the 1940 campaign in France but I don't know where they were allocated after returning.

Rich

[Neilie (RIP)]

Thanks, Rich. I also couldn't find the H 11484 referenced but thought you may have some further info.
I have information that the '5' serial was used by 4th, 5th, 58th and 74th Medium Regiments attached to 5th and 9th Corps....not sure which regiments were with which corps. Unfortunately the Corps patch in the photo is just a very light square and as the 9th Corps did have an orange background, it could be it. That particular patch was used while still in the UK prior to joining 1st Army in North Africa.
A previous post referenced a driver's preference for the FWD for towing 5.5's during the Italy campaign....possible the photo is of one of those. Even the Norton in the foreground doesn't provide much of a clue as to location but the ground could be Italy or North Africa or even beat-up UK......and the search goes on.

Cheers,

Neil

[Neilie (RIP)]

Just as a follow-up to this thread, I took your suggestion Rich, and contacted the IWM who provided a number of scans and caption information and your hunch was right. It is indeed the 240th Bty, 51st Med Regt somewhere in Western Command territory in 1941. A view of the rear of the FWD (although somewhat distant) shows what appears to be the fig leaf on what background of 3 Corps.
Thanks for your suggestion and input.

Cheers,

Neil

[Neilie (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Rich Payne

This is presumably a fairly well known picture (IWM H 11484 taken from Vanderveen's 'Source Book of Military Wheeled Vehicles')

It doesn't seem to have been posted here before and I had a copy scanned because of the Norton in the foreground.

The FWD appears to carry Census number H4458790 (SM2018)

Hi Folks,

As there doesn't seem to be a model section on this Forum, I'm going to take the liberty of posting my effort which was inspired by Rich's post.
Hope you don't mind a model being shown here.
Build details and other photos can be seen at:

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforu...pic32073-0.php

Cheers,

Neil

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Neilie

Hi Folks,

As there doesn't seem to be a model section on this Forum, I'm going to take the liberty of posting my effort which was inspired by Rich's post.
Hope you don't mind a model being shown here.
Build details and other photos can be seen at:

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforu...pic32073-0.php

Cheers,

Neil

Neil
From inception MLU web site has been a 1:1 Full scale web site dedicated to preserving Canadian built and designed military vehicles..
While many of our members are master modelers and 1:1 vehicle restorers also ,with so many web sites dedicated to modeling it was decided,long ago when Jeff designed the site that we would not dedicate a forum to modeling..
We have some great and dedicated members here that are master modelers ,that have been here since day one ,two that I can think of ..off the top of my head are Bruce Parker and Cliff..Mr Roo..
Now we do encourage our members to post pictures of their Canadian models That they do so on occasion,and we all enjoy seeing and praise their hard work...
But it is well controlled by the members them selves,because they realize just how unique MLU web site is ...and as the 1st poster to this form on the Day that Jeff put it on line(other than Jeff and Sean,his son) I agree that we have maintained that format and ask that modelers limit their participation to that criteria..
To post more than the occasional posting of modeling topics will soon raise the ire of non modeling members and the offending postings will be deleted and membership will be disallowed..Banned..!!!
a fate worse than death..
So enjoy the site for what it is and join in to the discussions on the Forum..
As I am just a member,I have no authority on this web site ,although I support it each year and would hate to see it be anything other than it is..
Just MY Humble opinion and relating the thoughts of the members as I understand them...

Alex Blair.

[Neilie (RIP)]

Hello Alex,

Thank you for pointing out the error of my ways. I simply thought that if photos of other than purely Canadian vehicles were posted here, photos of models of same would also be acceptable.
Your point however, is well taken and in future will restrict my participation to research and dialog on this Forum.

Cheers,

Neil

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Neilie

Hello Alex,

Thank you for pointing out the error of my ways. I simply thought that if photos of other than purely Canadian vehicles were posted here, photos of models of same would also be acceptable.
Your point however, is well taken and in future will restrict my participation to research and dialog on this Forum.

Cheers,

Neil

Thanks You Neil..
With your attitude ,you are a welcome addition to the forum and I'm sure you will find much useful info here to assist you in your model builds..especially your CMP vehicles.Some of our common wealth member models are also discussed and are interesting to certain of our MLU long standing members.

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

From the other point of veiw:
Large amounts of the MLU Forum are neither Canadian Vehicle based, nor Canada based.
Forums, like clubs and associations, change focus as time goes on.
Modelers ask for and receive specific details on a large range of vehicles, if they wish to show their gratitude by showing the end result, thats fine by me.
Richard.

[Rich Payne]

The softskin forum intro does say that there is space for all softskins that served with the British and Commonwealth armies and I certainly found it interesting to see a recreation of a period photograph from the forum.

To my mind, the attention that it has drawn to the unit involved and the markings that they carried make it a worthwhile part of the discussion. There is a difference between a whole thread dedicated to modelling technicalities and a single image of the finished product - which might just inspire someone to source and restore an example of the real thing.

...but I don't own a Candian built vehicle, so I'm an outsider too...

[David Dunlop]

In the 1980’s there were rumours of one of these being found somewhere in British Columbia in relatively complete condition.

In the 1990’s two more showed up in a scrap yard in northeast Winnipeg. These two did not fair well. Both had the winches pulled and sold off and one vehicle was completely scrapped in days of arrival at the scrap yard. The second was purchased by an individual who used the frame and most of the original power train to build a mud truck with an early 1950’s panel delivery body on it. Subsequent fate unknown

Can the existence of the FWD-SU in British Columbia be verified and has it survived?

David

[Hanno Spoelstra]

FWD SU-COE artillery tractor towing a crated 3.7-inch HAA gun, 1944. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3356798).

Steve Guthrie added "The gun is packaged for overseas shipment and the photo was taken outside of Canadian General Electric Co. Limited (CGE), where the gun was made."

[Hanno Spoelstra]

This thread contains info of what seems to be the sole surviving SU-COE in MAT configuration:

[Hanno Spoelstra]

There are several unrestored SU-COEs (here's one). If the owners are interested in restoring these as MAT, there is useful info in the AEDB Design Record - see Volume 5 - Bodies and Non-technical Vehicles, page 291-294.