Welfare Vehicles

[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

[lynx42]

I understand that the troops wanted a cuppa they gave their money to the NAAFI cashier and received a token which they then passed to the tea lady.

Recently our Museum received some NAAFI Tokens which are abut the size of an English/Australian shilling or 1/2pence.

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I am not sure what is printed on the round token. It looks to me to be for the value of 1/2pence for the "British, British, Armed, Armed, Forces Forces.1/2d.1/2d.1/2d."

IMG20191006132511.jpg

Regards Rick.

[dcrfan]

No expense spared.

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http://photos.kiwimodeller.com/image...a-1024x741.jpg

[ted angus]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

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.

Hanno it wasn't supplied by the UNRRA it would have been gifted to the UNRRA post war to provide relief in Europe manned by British volunteers. See this article on http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/14010-guy-vi...comment-261757

Ted

[Matthew P]

Richard and Hanno thanks for the correction. I'm not at all well versed in Commonwealth vehicles, but that's where my interests lay so I'm learning.

lynx42 here's a website with a bunch more of those tokens: https://sites.google.com/site/malstokens/naafi

dcrfan, that's an interesting photo. Although I've read about it in several locations I haven't seen many photos of standard issue cargo trucks being used as canteens by the welfare services. The other I can think of is also YMCA in fact.

Matt

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by ted angus

Hanno it wasn't supplied by the UNRRA it would have been gifted to the UNRRA post war to provide relief in Europe manned by British volunteers. See this article on http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/14010-guy-vi...comment-261757

Hello Ted, you’re right, I should have written supplied to UNRRA instead of by.

From that fascinating thread on HMVF I learned that two Queen’s Messengers Convoys (22 vehicles) were gifted to the Netherlands, which led to the subsequent discovery of pictures of the being in use here.

The Hague, 25/05/1945

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source: https://beeldbankwo2.nl/en/imagebank...b-b8bec7e49620

[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