British Gun Tractor for Long Tom

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

From my book, draft formL


This is another of the official pictures taken by Stuart Bale photographers for Pearson’s for the official records, and is captioned ‘7 1/2 Ton Mack S/M 6242’. This time it shows a Model NO6 assembled in Allentown or East Allentown, Pennsylvania and supplied under Demand S/M 6242. Census Numbers allocated were H 5589005 - 5589104 and 5837426 - 5837549, for ‘Tractors 6 x 6 Super Heavy’. This vehicle has a wooden body and Gar Wood 5 MB winch and was intended to tow the 155 mm gun, but when photographed had evidently been converted to a load carrier as the Census Number has an “L” prefix before ‘5559024’ which may have been a mis-stencilling for ‘ 5589024’. Note ‘CAUTION LEFT HAND DRIVE’ on the rear. This view is looking north from the triangular ‘gravel yard’ site towards Grinfield Street, just opposite its junction with Mason Street.