British Empire Staff Cars

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

9 May 1940...did it come back or became a present for the Germans?

[Bill Murray]

A Polish "Staff Car" in Italy.
Bill

[Lang]

Just found a couple of photos of General Douglas MacArthur's staff car outside the US South West Pacific HQ in Lennons Hotel, Brisbane Queensland. What is it?

Lang

[Bill Murray]

Hi Lang:
I am pretty sure your vehicle is a Wolseley, mid to late 1930's but I have not come up with a real good photo to post here yet.

The main identifiers are the badge on the rad and the dip in the front bumper.
Bill

[Lang]

Thanks Bill,

Pretty interesting as MacArthur had a couple of Packards in Melbourne when he first arrived in Australia. Wonder if the Wolseley was just an interim vehicle provided by the Australian Government when he moved to Brisbane until his Packards arrived from south?

Lang

[Bill Murray]

Hi Lang:
No real clue as to where the Packards got left, but I'll bet it was the Lord Mayor's car we are looking at here. Gen Mac always travelled First Class!!
Bill

[Jordan Baker]

Heres the link to one of my posts from awhile ago. It is in the marking for the RHLI. The soldier on the bicycle is Harold Lazier who was an officer at the time. He went on to command the Regt. after the war. The soldier getting out of the car in the second picture is Col. Labatt who was taken prisoner during the Dieppe raid.

http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...highlight=rhli

Originally posted by Bill Murray
Hi Lang:
I am pretty sure your vehicle is a Wolseley, mid to late 1930's but I have not come up with a real good photo to post here yet.

The main identifiers are the badge on the rad and the dip in the front bumper.
Bill

Yup, 1934/36 Wolseley 15 I think, several images found by a Google search and a few in use here as wedding cars.

R.

[Jeff Gordon]

Cliff I think that photo titled EL GAZALA is a Hupmobile,
Jeff

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

[Les Freathy]

Heres one for you Bill a Humber Snipe but what are the front end modifications about
Les

[Bill Murray]

Hi Les:

This is going to sound incredibly stupid, but it looks to me like some sort of a marker car, perhaps sitting on the side of a runway in the countryside. That's all I can think of.
Bill

[T. Metsovitis]

Hi all,

Going by its markings it belongs to the REME. Could the central contraption be some sort of blackout strobe light, if that makes any sense, and the two on the sides be horns? Perhaps some sort of emergency LAD car?

Fyll

[Bill Murray]

That was my first thought too, but I kept looking for a siren and did not find one. Maybe under the bonnet??
Bill

[T. Metsovitis]

I think the two dome-shaped things on the sides could be sirens.
Fyll

[Bill Murray]

Jeff:
The El Gazala car is an Opel Admiral, pic attached.
Edit: Sorry, I forgot I disabled the photo attachment function at my shop PC. Employees were doing funny things after I leave.

As to the other one, could well be although sirens usually look different than what seem to be two very large and possibly very loud air horns of some sort.

Edit: Two times an idiot. I have been to the UK often enough and watched enough Peter Sellers films to know that the Brits use tuned horns on their emergency vehicles, not sirens as we do here. Therefore, it is quite likely it is an emergency response car and most likely at one of their training camps or some such
Bill

[Bill Murray]

Pic

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Model Ad38

Nice shot!

[Bill Murray]

Yes David:
When I lived in Sweden in the seventies, one of my friends owned one of these and what a car it was.

Built like a bank vault, solid as a rock. A bit heavy but the motor was strong and it had good pickup and speed. A bit heavy on the steering. Had a very luxurious interior, leather and wood, a very nice instrument panel and lots of map pockets etc.

For my money, it was a better car than the contemporary Mercedes models in it's class because it was built more or less on the American model. Very simple motor, gearbox and suspension, well overbuilt in terms of strength of components and dead simple to work on.

My friend's car spent the entire war on blocks on someone's farm in the south of sweden in a barn so even in 1974 it was in almost as new shape. Too bad not many were made and precious few survive until today.
Bill

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

30.6 hp 3.6 litre OPEL ADMIRAL
1938 # Ad38-1 > # Ad 38-3300 ENGINE SERIALS: # 38Br-1 > # 39Br-439
1939# Ad38-3301 > # Ad38-6404 ENGINE SERIALS: # 39Br-440 TO # 39Br-3585

So Russelsheim assembled the cars but the engines were assembled at Brandenburg!

For other wartime Opel information:

http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/...940to1944.html

Cheers Bill!

[Les Freathy]

A few more photos for this thread, all fords in the desert. Bill you can tell us the year of this one

[Les Freathy]

These are all Ford V8 Pilots built at Dagenham

[Les Freathy]

V8 Pilot

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

The middle and bottom ones are I believe models W0A1 or W0A1A staff cars, and the top one a 91A saloon rather than a model 01A as per Dagenham-assembled Canadian sedans.

[Bill Murray]

Hi Les and David:
Actually, the vehicle is a 1940 Mercury and all the more rare at that.
The main ID features are the trim line on the bonnet which ends in a sort of rounded swirly thing and the fact that the windscreen is slightly shorter than a Ford and angled back a few degrees more.
Edit: Sorry, this is a 1939 model with a slightly different headlamp treatment but otherwise the same.
Bill

[servicepub (RIP)]

Here is what I could find in my files;
; ; ;

[servicepub (RIP)]

More, Note minor differences in station wagon - roof rack, spare wheel...
;

[servicepub (RIP)]

Still more..
;

[servicepub (RIP)]

Last ones...
;

[Bill Murray]

Hi Clive:
Most excellent and , to me at least, totally new photos.
Thanks for sharing.
If no one else on the other side of the pond does the specific ID thing, I will give it a shot in the morning US time.
Bill