Census Numbers on Amphibious Jeeps

[Ian Grieve]

Clive and Hanno

Hi there. I have photos of amphibious jeep M5186568, location not known, however, desert camouflage painted, in a river with up to four storey block buildings on the shore and scattered date palm trees.

British contract cards refer to P5219692 – P5219876 (185 GPA’s), P5219881 - P5219981 (101 GPA’s) and P5587101 – P5587200 (100 GPA’s), ie 386 GPA’s TOTAL. (The British has a lot more GPA’s than this, approximately 690 GPA’s by November 1, 1944.)

Bart Vanderveen once told me M5219692 - M5219731 (40 GPA’s) were assigned to amphibious jeep and these fall within the first batch of numbers above. The difference is M and P.

The first amphibious jeep mentioned above, M5186568, is outside all these numbers.

A question becomes – How many vehicles fall outside the above three series, and how many start with an M?

My only clue that numbers changed from M to P is the reference from Bart Vanderveen above. I guess it can be concluded that some GPA’s were given M series and others, probably the majority, P series.

Ian

[Rich Payne]

Rob van Meel's reprint of the Chilwell census number lists indicate that 5171201 - 5191200 were allocated for issue in the Middle East - 'Various types' so it rather sounds as if it was a number issued in theatre with perhaps the wrong prefix ?

[Ian Grieve]

Rich

Great stuff, thank you.

Where would one get to see the Rob van Meel's reprint, particularly in the UK?

I understand he has no less than three Chilwell publications in print.

Ian

[Rich Payne]

I have a copy entitled "Allocation by Central census Tanks and Vehicles of 'B' vehicle WD Numbers"

http://www.robvanmeel.nl/catalog/301

The lists are in numerical order which is the most useful for researching photos etc.