Trailer challenge

[Nigel Watson]

Anyone id this trailer for me? I know the truck but the trailer I really would like some idea of. Apologies if I have already posted this here, its my age!!

[Nigel Watson]

Guess this one has you all beat!! Or is there someone who is keeping hush hush!!!

Nigel

[Rolf S. Ask]

on a generator or welding trailer of german origin....
And so far this is the best answer

It looks also as if the men on the picture is in a very good mode, so perhaps they just have "aquired" the Ford Truck and loaded it with the trailer. They are for sure happy.

Have adjusted the picture so the panels on the back of the trailer is a bit clearer.

Rolf

[Nigel Watson]

I had thought it looked a wee bit like a generator trailer but the date of the photo was 1941 and also they would weigh a fair bit to load on the back of the truck. Why not just tow it? I thought the folk in picture were British too, or Commonwealth. Can't find any early trailer that looks like this one.
Thanks for your input though.

Nigel

[Keith Webb]

one I saw at Hughes Trading some time ago - I don't have a picture of it at hand but they had something similar which they had purchased in the UK in the 1950s as surplus. The brought in quite a lot of stuff to sell - this one didn't but was sold at the auction in 2000 when the yard was cleared.
I'll see if I can dig up a pic to compare.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I know nothing about German Fords, but did they offer a 6-wheeler? I thought it was a E917T [I have mislaid my model listing] i.e. the County Conversions 6-wheel Sussex/Surrey WD chassis. This could have been captured at Dunkirk or in France, and then liberated?? Am I going nuts? [Wife says yes]

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Nigel
Guess this one has you all beat!!

Nigel, a though one for sure! I'm going along with Rolf, this probably is a German trailer. The Ford is a Commonwealth 6-wheeler as David pointed out.

What type of trailer are you looking for? Wouldn't a British 10-cwt trailer fit the bill?

[Nigel Watson]

David you're correct its a Fordson E917T. Its British/Commonwealth, Dagenham I suppose. How it got to the desert is any one's guess but I suspect through a shipment of this type to South Africa, you did tell me a while back that a batch went out there.

Trailer type I'm after Hanno is an early war one, around 1940 to 1942, something I can tow behind my new truck, when its finished next year! A trailer which was used in the desert, want it to be realistic. It's not much to ask, or so I thought!! Impossible to find!!! Come on you trailer buffs, help me out here!!!!!

David, Hanno hope you are both well.
Am flying to Beltring this year, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Carrier getting a break.

Nigel

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I take it that the markings are British? There is no visible WD Census Number, nor an Egyptian WD style plate I could see. Therefore I was pondering whether this was a Dunkirk/French campaign captured truck, and like so many Fords and Chevrolets, captured, refurbished and then shipped out to North Africa? Ford plants in Antwerp and the Netherlands [Rotterdam?] and also the Matford facility in Possiy were used to repair ex-French campaign Fords, both British and French Matford, plus Belgian and Dutch Fords.

Please do not mention the 'B' word when Geoff is around...he starts to whimper & then goes to fetch another drink...

Nice to see you guys. I hope you are all well.

Julia

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Your Majesty, which "B" word does GWB objecto to? British, Beltring, Booze or Backoftruck? My wife, Juliette, aka SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED, sends her Best [another B word] Wishes.

[Keith Webb]

Beer (although I heard this referred to as a malt sandwich) or indeed our Canuck friends are finally picking up the fact we call CMPs Blitz Buggies or just plain Blitzes.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Keith, regrettably the world "blitz" locally brings back memories of the terrible bombing of Southampton, the main attack being 30 November to 2 December 1940, when the town as it then was was razed to the fround in places.

I see that we have a big range of Amber Nectar that ostensibly hales from Aussie, for sale here in the UK. However it does appear on closer inspection that these are local brews.

To bring the conversation round to the forum again, my father grew fond of Stella Artois when in the RAMC in Egypt and Palestine in 1946-48. This is of course a Belgian beer. However he and his mates grew suspicious of this beverage that the Brit tommies were imbibing, and so they asked the RAMC chemists to analyse it. It turned out to be chemical beer... some sort of base compound to which alcohol had been added. Needless to say everyone stopped drinking it!

[Martin IJdo]

...that Stella Artois has changed it´s recipy after the war, and it´s perfectly well drinkable beer nowadays!!!!!!!!!!

To get back to the truck in the pic, has anyone given the French a thought? The type of numbers remind me of markings on French Renault tanks in 1940, and they have allways been quite active in Morocco, and other parts of Africa with their Foreign Legion.
Anyone with hard evidence for this theory ???

Martin.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Stella Artois was brewed in the UK, althopugh the imported draught lager from Belgium was better.

I am not sure about the French forces unless this was a British truck issued to the FF in North Africa, as it is evidently a British County Commercial Cars conversion Ford Model E917T on the E91T chassis. I have seen no evidence of any Matford 6 x 4 chassis yet. I don't know of any Koln/Cologne Ford 6 x 4 trucks either.

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I know that the E987T [short wheelbase] and E917T were available to British forces but the body looks to me like the wooden Searchlight body for the South African Defence Force on the E917T chassis. I conject that this is a South African truck in North Africa, formerly a Searchlight truck with same removed as by then they were obsolete. I have a photo of 1940 Model GMC S/L trucks about to be renovated and used as G/S trucks etc. in the UK in late 1941. Could those markings be South African?