Announcing 'From Desert Sand to Jungle Mud'

[Mike Cecil]

Gents,

Some images appearing on other threads and the queries (and conjecture) about where the late Rod McPherson's original image collection ended up have prompted Keith Webb and I to post this thread on MLU.

For several years, we have been working towards a book on Australian military vehicles of the Second World War. Keith and I have, between us, managed to amass quite a collection of information and images, including most of the image collection of the late Rod McP, plus many other images from a wide variety of sources. We hope the result, when it is completed, will answer many questions on the topic, and provide readers with a veritable smorgasbord of Australian MV photographs, from staged studio-type shots to servicemen's 'snapshots'. We anticipate including more than 1,500 images in the book, all at a size to enable readers to view the details.

The book will be laid out in chapters covering each vehicle class or type, for example, chapter 3 is 'Cars, Passenger Utilities and Buses', Chapter 4 is '1/4 ton Trucks', and so on. There are currently 22 chapters and 2 appendices, covering everything from motorcycles to engineer plant and AFVs.

Each chapter will be structured along similar lines: an introductory text, followed by the images with detailed captions. The books contents cover all three services: Army (AIF & AMF), RAAF and RAN. In many cases, images of the same vehicle from several different angles will be presented.

Although we are well advanced with this project, we still have a way to go yet. Anyone with images of vehicles in service use that they consider might be good to include are welcome to contact us, and of course Keith will be available at Corowa, if you have them with you. We are looking for vintage images of vehicles, including images of Second World War vehicles still in service use in the post-war period.

We are hoping to have the book ready for the printers within the next 12 months if all goes according to our current plans. It is a very big undertaking, so bear with us as we bring it all together.

Mike Cecil and Keith Webb

[Keith Webb]

Yes, I will be at Corowa with the scanner as well as my cameras, so please bring out those photographs. It's amazing what turns up at swap meets, ebay and sunday markets, and a lot of you have already kindly shared images for this project. It's largely a 'labour of love' for Mike and myself. I know Mike has invested thousands of hours over many years carefully researching every detail of this subject, the result of which is wonderfully detailed and informative captions to the images.
An interesting example of what can be found is an image of Ford No9 Gun Tractor 132141 which I originally had photographs of when it was new taken at Wesley Grammar in Melbourne; Euan McDonald's father in law, with his 'blitz radar' turned on found some pictures of the same truck in company with other FGT8 and 9s taken about 10 years later at Puckapunyal!

[cliff]

Put me down for a signed copy please

[hrpearce]

Sounds good and about a year goves me time to read my Christmas presents and save up some pennies

[Euan McDonald]

Mike and Keith,
This project sound like what we have all wanted for years and if it anything like the reference books that Mike has done in the past it will be well worth the wait.
I know that if we can all share as much information as possible then we will be rewarded with a excellent read.
I’m very excited that it’s starting to come together as I know that Mike and Keith both have been researching this dream for years and now it’s becoming reality.

[Lynn Eades]

What a great book it will be.
Let me be the first foreigner to order a signed copy please.