Welfare Vehicles

[Steve Guthrie]

Originally Posted by Matthew P

This mobile canteen looks to be British and most likely . The building behind it still stands today in Brussels. It was a canteen/club/leave centre late in WW2. I zoomed and cropped on the markings on the truck because it is so unusual to see that on these vehicles. Can anyone help me to identify those?

Thanks
Matt

Looks like a number of British Divisional markings, including Airborne, 49th Infantry and 79th Armoured. Could represent the units the vehicle visited

[Radek]

The picture with Austin inst war time, but from ree event ;-)

[Matthew P]

Steve,

I wonder where/when that Canadian Red Cross vehicle served and in what role? During WW2 the four agencies providing welfare to the troops were Salvation Army, YMCA, Knights of Columbus and Canadian Legion.

Thanks for the vote of those were units that Canteen served. That seems the likely consensus so far.

Matt

[Matthew P]

That Canadian Legion canteen photo was most likely in England. The first many canteens by the services I listed above in England were local trucks, the very first were donated from a tea company. It was several months before Canadian trucks caught up with their Welfare services in Great Britain.

Matt

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Any interest in the Queen’s Messengers food convoy trucks?

This one was pictured in Rotterdam, early May 1945. Courtesy of Alex.

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[Matthew P]

Hanno,

That's a Bedford OXC correct? Somewhere I have reference to these canteen body Bedfords and it's my understanding the UK War Office was trying to standardize the chassis used because so many different ones were being donated it was hard to maintain them in good running shape. Here's a few more from the very late war, post war period. The first picture is captioned as being in Lengerick Germany and in the same series one of the gentleman at the canteen is a German officer POW stripped of rank and title conversing with a British Sergeant. The second of the cargo box is captioned as Brussels headed to Germany and the last is missing it's captions. No dates were given, but the circumstances and locations can give us a pretty good idea of when these photos were taken. There's also a series of pictures I've found from an air field in England with POWs being re-patriated. A Bedford chassis canteen and trailer feature prominently. I'll try to post them up later.

Matt

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Matthew P

That's a Bedford OXC correct?
Matt

Matt,
All three photos show Bedford OYC 3 tonners.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Matthew P

That's a Bedford OXC correct? Somewhere I have reference to these canteen body Bedfords and it's my understanding the UK War Office was trying to standardize the chassis used because so many different ones were being donated it was hard to maintain them in good running shape.

Matt, indeed OYC's, as Richard already noted.

Here's another example of the myriad of vehicle types the British government had a hard time supporting the myriad of vehicles bought and donated by civilian organizations. This Commer Q2 is one of only two identified in pictures so far. Both were donated by Jamaican organisations.

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Richard Allebone sent me a screenshot, a quick search yielded the original of another Commer Q2 flying food truck. This is another vehicle, note “Jamaica’s Women War Material and Comforts Committee” on the side. It was supplied by UNNRA so this is a postwar picture.

Read more about how Caribbean women supported Britain’s war effort in a variety of ways at http://westindiacommittee.org/caribb.../women-in-war/

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Source: https://search.archives.un.org/unrra...-flying-squads

[Matthew P]

Originally Posted by Matthew P

Somewhere I have reference to these canteen body Bedfords and it's my understanding the UK War Office was trying to standardize the chassis used because so many different ones were being donated it was hard to maintain them in good running shape.

Matt

If anyone knows where I might have gotten this notion I'd appreciate it. I'm approaching article writing time and would like to source my facts and fact my sources.

Thanks
Matt