Australia and Lend-Lease

[Lang]

Looks like anything USA just disappeared into thin air. There must be something, somewhere to tell us what happened to them.

Keep looking!

Lang

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Lang

Looks like anything USA just disappeared into thin air. There must be something, somewhere to tell us what happened to them.

Keep looking!

Lang

...or deep water!

There are many references of the items dumped at sea at Vanuatu's Million Dollar Point, so named because of the (1945 dollar value) US $1 mill worth of gear dumped there.

Surely not the only dumping ground the US used?

[Lynn Eades]

With out finding any documentation, so this is just hearsay, rumour and opinion, but it is my understanding the Mr Giltrap and Mr G.T. Gillies became quite wealthy (probably were already) by hauling vehicles back from the Pacific islands For resale. How did the NZ built C8AX that was a restoration feature on this forum, some time back, get to Australia? Was it hauled back from the islands by a similar enterprising Australian? Let me know.

[Tony Smith]

The majority of the C8AX's in Aust were purchased in bulk from Post-war NZ auction sales (or was it a tender?) in the Solomons. There may be a couple that have come over from NZ individually since then, but that's the source of the majority.

[Lang]

8. (a) The Government of the United States, in partial consideration of the payments to be made by the Commonwealth of Australia pursuant to section 3 of this Agreement, agrees to transfer property, selected by mutual agreement, located in or outside Australia, heretofore or hereafter declared to the Office of the Foreign Liquidation Commissioner, United States Department of State, as surplus to the requirements of any department or agency of the Government of the United States, of a total value aggregating $6,500,000 computed at prices to be mutually agreed. There shall be included in the property covered by this paragraph

(i) all property so declared as surplus included in sales or agreements to sell heretofore entered into between the two Governments; and

(ii) all such property included in sales or agreements to sell to any firms or individuals in Australia or in Australian territories, heretofore or hereafter made by the Government of the United States, in respect of which import licenses have been or may hereafter be issued by the Commonwealth of Australia;

and the contract value of the property included in such sales or agreements to sell shall be taken into consideration in computing the total value of surplus property transferred hereunder. This Agreement shall govern in any case in which the terms hereof are in conflict with the terms of any of the agreements described in paragraphs (i) and (ii) above.


That amount paid by the Australian Government is getting close to 100 million dollars in today's terms. The written down value of all the surplus US stuff adds up to a massive amount of gear - vehicles probably made up a large proportion.

There must be records somewhere of where it went. Once Australia owned it, certainly not dumped as the Australian Government was scrambling for every penny and newspaper articles have politicians trumpeting after every big disposals sale how much money they are recovering.

Lang

[Lang]

I think I might have found some of the answer. Looks like the Americans had their own Disposals Commissioner running around the islands selling gear to all comers.

A lot of mention of stuff being bought by Australians (Leslie Theiss and his brother were quite clear in their histories that they bought thousands of tons of equipment - earthmoving and vehicles- from the Americans in the islands, not CDC)

Looks like there was a second commercial stream of ex-military equipment flowing into civilian hands in Australia.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id...201946&f=false

[Mike K]

Don't know if this is relevant but:

I recall reading something relating to surplus in the SWPA . Sometime in the post war period, the Aust. Govt. was offered the equipment that the US had left behind on Manus Island, Seeadler Harbor. The Aust. Govt. knocked back the offer after the equipment was assessed as being suitable for scrap only.

[Mike Cecil]

Lang,

Not me: I'll leave that to others living much closer to the NAA in Canberra to look at those files.

Remote research using Recordsearch throws up lots of nice related file titles to look at, but at $69 each not including GST (and a low research priority for me) far too expensive. A project like this could easily require 100 or 200 file clearances & copying - $6,900 to $13,800, and add 10% if you are in Oz. Over the last seven years I've opened and copied around 160 files on one project alone, and used another 130 on the same project that were already available on line. With NAA costs fast becoming prohibitive for 'off site' research, it is looking cheaper and more pleasurable to fly to Canberra for a few weeks, visit friends and hit the archives with notebook in hand , even from the USA!!

I'm pretty sure Gina would get a shock if she sat down and calculated what the paint project has cost her thus far, but research is our hobby so.......

Mike

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

How did the NZ built C8AX that was a restoration feature on this forum, some time back, get to Australia? Was it hauled back from the islands by a similar enterprising Australian? Let me know.

Lynn

As Tony wrote, the C8AX vehicles were imported from the Solomons. Apparently the company involved was 'Torokina Spares' , based in Sydney. The final number imported must have been significant because C8AX's are fairly common in NSW . Could have been 400 or more ?

It's been noted that C8AX were seen driving around Sydney during the later stages of WW2 with RN markings ( The old W&T article ) . VMVC member Len Schutt's C8AX was found to have the RN script on the doors, he contacted the RN in the UK archives but no luck. Len's C8AX is a regular Corowa antendee , I followed it back down the Hume and it was speeding along like no other CMP I've ever seen! On the back to track outing, it blew a head gasket and passing semi driver loaded it to Adelaide for free !

I had a C8AX and the NZ built GS body, I sold my example to two young brothers in Perth WA . I've still got the plans I had drawn up up of the GS body . Somebody in NSW actually built a body from my plans. Might have been the restored C8AX that was destroyed by catching on fire .

I had a C8AX article published in Army Motors the US MVPA club magazine years ago.