Otter LRC CM4647296 comes home

[marco]

Great to see this Otter in good hands and being restored!

In post #2 it looks like the remains of a registration number CM 46??296 are visible, similar to the number on the Otter on the attached photo (from the book “XII Manitoba Dragoons a tribune” by B. Tascona, showing Otter used during training in the U.K. 1943).

Marco

[Alex van de Wetering]

Lastly I found on the right rear fender what I believe to be a postwar Dutch marking. The Netherlands flag in what I think was a black circle.

Jordan, you might even be able to find an orange lion marking under the red-white-blue dutch flag. The black circle with orange lion was the marking used just after the war (and during the war by the Irene Brigade), later in life Dutch army vehicles received a licence plate and red-white-blue flag in stead of the older style markings.

Attached are two Ward la France wreckers in different time periods. Early post-war with orange lion and later with licence plate and flag marking.
source: https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/

[Alex van de Wetering]

By the way....interesting to see that some Otters were given a census number with CM-prefix, while others were given a (C)F prefix!

Alex

[Jordan Baker]

Thanks Alex.

My knowledge on the Dutch markings is quite limited.

Yes the difference in the WD numbers. Originally they were considered “cars” so they got the CM numbers. Later contracts they were considered “armoured cars” and got the F numbers. I think they started getting F numbers quite late in construction around October/November of 42.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

Jordan, you might even be able to find an orange lion marking under the red-white-blue dutch flag. The black circle with orange lion was the marking used just after the war (and during the war by the Irene Brigade), later in life Dutch army vehicles received a licence plate and red-white-blue flag in stead of the older style markings.

To add to that, here's an example of an Otter with the early post-war markings, consisting of an orange lion on a black circle on the center of the nose, plus a five digit census number in white on the side of the bonnet:

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

4075099082_91d6619b6f_o.jpg
An Otter of the Military Police in front of the "Concertgebouw" (Concert hall) during a military parade, Museumplein, Amsterdam, 27 March 1952 (Foto Ben van Meerendonk / AHF, collectie IISG, Amsterdam)