Daimler Ferret Restoration - Canadian Service

[rob love]

The militia thing can be confusing, and in the case of units like the FGH, even more so. The reason being is that in this case, there was a regular force FGH and a militia FGH. The regular force FGH was reduced to nil strength in 1970 as part of the Liberal era force reduction.

The regular force had the ferrets, as well as the centurians. Most likely they had the Lynx too.

In the 70s there were occasionally loans of thingd like ferrets or Lynx to the militia units for them to train on, but those units would not have had them as part of their normal strength. For the most part the light recce militia had been relegated to using M38A1 Jeeps as their main vehicle.

The installation of the US pattern of lights was fairly common on the ferrets, although not on any mod instruction that I ever saw. As to those light towers, they were for the later style of lighting on the ferrets. Most likely, replacement parts for the ferrets ended up being the later pattern. It would have been the regular force that installed those lights, and likely so they could have turn signals. The militia had very little effective maintenance, aside from 3 or 4 regular force mechanics supporting each area. Having been one of those myself, I can tell you it was a challenge. So many vehicles, and so many unqualified operators.

There was also a modification to replace all the British style fire extinguishers with the Ansul extinguisher. As well, I recall seeing the old singnal stat turn signal arm mounted in the ferrets. I don't believe the early Mark one ferrets came with signals originally.