Stefan - Air Photo - Dieppe - 21 Aug 42

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally posted by Tony Smith
The Dingoes have a channel iron rear bumper with callsigns on them, I have'nt seen this on other Dingoes. Was the bumper fitted because the Dingoes were embarked on LCA's and likely to be damaged by tanks, or were they fitted to have clear place to paint the name to work in conjunction with poor visibility tanks, or were they just standard early equipment on the Dingo?

Hi Tony;

I haven't found, or seen, these rear bumpers fitted before. They could very well be a 'unit thing' of the Calgary Tanks. All the scout cars embarked on the Raid were from Headquarters Squadron, these bumpers could very well be fitted for the soul purpose of 'Night/Poor Visibilty Markers'. You'll notice that the ends of all these rear bumpers pictured are painted white, add to that they're height, and I suspect thats why they're where they are. I really can't think of any other reason for them to be where they are. Surely, not for the soul purpose of somewhere to paint the vehicle name on, that could have been painted directly onto the rear of the cars, below the louvers.

Cheers

Tony;

I just had a thought, there were two D7 Bulldozers that accompanied the Calgary Tanks on the Raid, these bumpers may have been fitted for a point for the dozers to put their blade against to give the cars a 'push', if need be. (ie if the cars became 'bogged down'). Just a note, the scout cars were all towed by tanks to begin with (right off the landing craft) because of the beach, but the point about the bumpers and the dozer blades does seem valid, just a thought.