A New Zealand Bren carrier

[Mike Cecil]

In episode I, Lynn stated that:

"Its W.D. number was T2831 and its British Registration number was HMH384 (this info comes from Nigel
Watsons Universal Carriers Vol.1 and was at odds with Mike Cecil’s early(but wonderful) Profiles book
which described T2831 as a Bren no2 Mk1. (Mike corrected this in a later publication)".


Actually Lynn, you'll have to refresh my memory, as I'm not sure I ever did 'correct' the nomenclature. In my defence, the information on the original census card from the RAC Tank Museum (yes, I do go back to primary sources where I possibly can!), has three lines for the group of carriers with registrations issued under contract no. T3888: line one states '1st 150 Arm MG Carrier No.2 Mk.1' Second line states 'next 250 Bren Carrier No.2 Mk.1' and the third line as '26 Bren Carrier No.2 Mk2'. My mistake was misreading the card as being all Bren No.2, (Mks 1 & 2) rather than the first 150 as 'Armoured MG Carrier No.2 Mk.1' I also missed the obvious cue from the Registration issue list, which clearly states T2831, reg HMH384, followed by the word 'Australia', and followed by 'Carrier MG No.2Mk.1'. Mae maxima culpa. But, again in my rather (flimsy) defence some 25 years after publication, the issue list page heading states 'Bren Carriers, Machine Gun, No.2 Mk1' - so again, I missed the fact that, starting at reg T2831, the vehicles were actually 'MG Carriers', not Bren carriers as per the page heading, thus compounding my error. Oh well.

However, despite the above blunder, 'LP Carriers 1939 to 1945' remains the most comprehensive book available on Australian carriers, and every carrier owner should have at least one copy in their library! Those that have not can purchase a copy direct from me..... (and those discerning readers who already have a copy should scribble over the word 'Bren' on page 8.... )

Mike

[Lynn Eades]

Mike, What can I say. Back in the day, no internet, research done by mail. You did a great job! You book is as you stated, The best book on these machines ever produced!
I treasure mine.
I never went back to the source, on this. A friend told me that you had corrected in a later publication? Jeff Plowman and Nigel Watson have errors as well, but over all you guys have recorded history as best you can with the info you were able to gather, providing us plebs with amazing resources, that we are very grateful for.

For me, the reason for showing this, was to delineate between the N.Z. produced Bren, and the very different Australian LP1. where in many early publications from the other side of the globe,where ours are described as a copy of yours (N.Z.-Aust) That is to say they were each copied from different machines.

No offence meant to anyone.

[Mike Cecil]

Lynn,

Thanks for that but as I said, mae maxima culpa on that one. When I read your missive, I went back to square one to see why/how I stuffed that one up, and that explanation is above. All became crystal clear when I reefed out the original doc copies from Bovington, in the light of knowing the correct nomenclature. And AWM 126 didn't help, as it just has 'Carrier No.2 Mk1' without further elaboration.

Nice job with your text. A printed copy is going into the reference library, of course.

Mike