Please ID data plates

[Richard Farrant]

Hanno,
This is one of the vehicles that made up a GL MkIII (C) radar convoy. We have one of the radar trailers in Australia, recently converted to the site office for the Corowa military vehicle event. There were two FWD trucks with two radar trailers, and a C60L to carry extra equipment and cables, these are what comprised a convoy. I think there has been one of these C60L trucks identified in Australia. There should be a Contract number on it somewhere, all equipment was issued under contract S/M2828.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Hanno,

My first thought when seeing the data plate in the first picture was that it's an early cab 11/12 type plate, which would be out of place in a cab13...however, I am not sure when the switch from the old style data plate to new style data plate occurred exactly...it has to be somewhere in 1942.....my assumption was "simultaneously" with the switch from cab12 to 13, but there might have been a bunch of very early cab13's fitted with the old style data plate (?)
.....same question with the switch from old to new type description (8443 to C60448-M)....same time as cab switch?

Some of David Haywards research is posted here : http://hotrod.gregwapling.com/chev-t...dian-chev.html.
the 1942 8443 is about halfway the page and David mentions both Cab12's and 13's.

sorry, this doesn't answer what "X2" stands for...

Alex

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Richard Farrant

This is one of the vehicles that made up a GL MkIII (C) radar convoy. We have one of the radar trailers in Australia, recently converted to the site office for the Corowa military vehicle event. There were two FWD trucks with two radar trailers, and a C60L to carry extra equipment and cables, these are what comprised a convoy. I think there has been one of these C60L trucks identified in Australia. There should be a Contract number on it somewhere, all equipment was issued under contract S/M2828.

Added a better picture of the GL - MK-III CANADIAN plate, which clearly shows a REL-in-maple-leaf-logo (for Research Entreprises Limited), presumably as a sign of who converted the trucks.
The subject truck came from Norway, and is now in the Netherlands. I wonder if the plate came from another vehicle, like one of the FWD trucks which were used as tractors for the radar trailers?

C60L canada 004 (1).jpg

Note that the C60L in the thread CMP C60L comes home does have modifications which are not present on the subject vehicle here. Plus it has a different plate attached to it:

CMP 60 015 (1).jpg

PS: some related threads, but there are more on here:

• Radar Trailer
• Canadian radar tracking - Fort Bliss 1947 set 1/2
• REL Radar trailers

[Richard Farrant]

Hanno,
I notice the first 5 or 6 digits of the Chev chassis number are the same as the ones supplied to Australia in the Radar Trains, according to the copy of the page from AWM records in another thread.

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Richard Farrant

I think there has been one of these C60L trucks identified in Australia.

There are two that I'm aware of Richard. Both have appeared on MLU previously. This one belongs to Ghost (Robert Williams) in NSW:

Canada C60L 001.jpg Canada C60L 002.jpg Canada C60L 003.jpg

The other one sits in my backyard, after I paid $300 to save it from the scrappie. See next post...

[Tony Wheeler]

Alex, based on these two vehicles you could pinpoint the change in data plates to April '42 and chassis serial 312XXX - 313XXX.

TONY6765 - Copy - Copy.jpg TONY7944 - Copy.jpg TONY7957 - Copy.jpg TONY7930 - Copy.jpg TONY7941 - Copy.jpg

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

There are two that I'm aware of Richard. Both have appeared on MLU previously. This one belongs to Ghost (Robert Williams) in NSW:

The other one sits in my backyard, after I paid $300 to save it from the scrappie. See next post...

Thanks Tony, I did a search but could not find the post. Note on the data plate of Robert's C60, it has X2, so look like the contract S/M2828 was for the UK and assume part of it was sent to Australia.
I do wonder about the one in Norway, because if it was supplied after the war ended, my guess is it was equipment from the UK that they received. If the contract plate is present this will prove the point. UK did send a lot of surplus vehicles to Norway and this radar was probably being superseded by then as we had been developing our own.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Tony,

Thanks for posting that info! Are (were) they both equipped with a winch?

So we now have three known C60Ls which were delivered as part of the Gun Laying Radar convoy. Interestingly, the REL data plate only differs in the "Serial no.":

GL - MK-III CANADIAN
TRUCK no: 2
Assembly no.: ZC/C 1735
Serial no.: 164

GL - MK-III CANADIAN
TRUCK no: 2
Assembly no.: ZC/C 1735
Serial no.: 241

GL - MK-III CANADIAN
TRUCK no: 2
Assembly no.: ZC/C 1735
Serial no.: 364

Could "TRUCK no: 2" denote this is the second truck in the convoy?

H.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Tony,

Thanks for posting that info! Are (were) they both equipped with a winch?

So we now have three known C60Ls which were delivered as part of the Gun Laying Radar convoy. Interestingly, the REL data plate only differs in the "Serial no.":


Could "TRUCK no: 2" denote this is the second truck in the convoy?

H.

Hanno,
There is one of the FWD HAR-01 trucks from a radar convoy in preservation in England and the REL plate shows it as Truck no.3, Assy no. ZC/2675. My guess is that the other FWD is Truck no.1