overseas service LP2A

[Poppy's Carrier]

Gday to all MLU ers

I am interested to know if anyone has any photos of aussie LP2A carriers in service in the middle east , as all of the photos that i have seen have only been LP1 type carriers.

I

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

The AWM has many images of Carriers on overseas service. I am curently collating images with my pending database, however Carriers, other than LP1s were in Palestine, Korea, Japan and New Guinea to mention but a few theatres.
Bob

[Poppy's Carrier]

Gday salesman Bob,

The main reason i am asking the question is because the other day i was removing some rust from the exterior of my hull and lo and behold found some remnants of what appears to be desert sand colour in the joins of the steel, is it possible that my carrier has seen service abroad and if so how can i find out its history.

Do you think that the AWM would have service records for SAR2564 ? and if so is there some way of gaining this information without being there in person i.e. online etc.

A few years ago i restored a 1942 Willys jeep and i got some info on my jeeps Aussie service from a John Edwards i think, do you know of anyone that can provide a similar service for my carrier.

I think i have rambled on to much for now

Cheers matt baker

[Shane Lovell]

Hi

The probability of determining the service of your carrier is challenging. The key starting point is the vehicle registration books held by the Australian War Memorial under the series AWM127. Problem is that this record does not journal the issue of vehicles to specific units and their subsequent service. It should, however, identify if the vehicle was sent overseas and the date this occurred.

The only way to determine actual unit usage is to methodically go through all the war diaries of units that may have had carriers on charge. This is no small feat in itself.

A further problem is that most war diaries do not identify vehicles by registration number, especially the infantry units. The quality and quantity of information on vehicles varies both between war diaries and over time. By over time I refer to changes in the actual person who compiled the diary and the level of detail they were prepared to include.

cheers

Shane Lovell
Canberra, Australia

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

There you go Matt, words of wisdom from Shane. However, if you haven't already done it, do as I do and track back through previous owners. At some stage you should reach the date of demobilisation, usually through a government auction, that could give you vital clues of units, etc. You could also find that a previous owner changed the paint colour.
Bob

[Darren Witty]

I has just spent hours looking through journals trying to locate information on my carrier. There are about 26 journals and there are in no particular order except one that has all the armored vehicles. You may have a short list of FORD trucks then a couple of trailers and then a group of carriers. So its a matter of sitting there and literally going through each journal page by page. Saying that, the journals are listed in ARN numbers so if you have the ARN you can go to that book and locate the info for that vehicle. My problem was that I had the hull number only so I had to go through until I found that hull number which I did. I have attached a photo of that page and you can go down the second last column and see 1105 which is my vehicle. The coloum to the left is the original engine number. I went through the engine numbers and found my engine number and which carrier that was originally fitted to. The next two columns are the type and model of vehicle. LP2a Carrier. The next is the ARN, mine being T16990. The next three columns will tell you about OS service. My vehicle doesn't seem to have any but you can see the one above went to the Middle East ME on the 8/1/1942. On the opposite page there are some notes on each vehicle. The next attached photo shows those notes on the opposite page. The top line refers to my vehicle i.e allotted to the AMF with ARN C26698 on the 30/12/1941 with the order number next. Some have information about disposal dates most carriers being around 1958. That is it! Nothing more. From what I have seen of the records there doesn't seem to have been many vehicles returned from the ME. Many have a big red line drawn threw them either LOST IN GREECE or ABANDONED IN M.E. Hope this helps

[Darren Witty]

Opposite page

[Darren Witty]

please ignore the number should be 1105

[Darren Witty]

AND MY REAR!

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by Darren Witty
I has just spent hours looking through journals trying to locate information on my carrier. I have attached a photo of that page and you can go down the second last column and see 1105 which is my vehicle. The coloum to the left is the original engine number. I went through the engine numbers and found my engine number and which carrier that was originally fitted to. The next two columns are the type and model of vehicle. LP2a Carrier. The next is the ARN, mine being T16990.

Darren, T16690 is not the ARN, but the AIF no. The plate on the carrier would have been written AIF T-16690.

Originally posted by Darren Witty
The next three columns will tell you about OS service. My vehicle doesn't seem to have any but you can see the one above went to the Middle East ME on the 8/1/1942. On the opposite page there are some notes on each vehicle. The next attached photo shows those notes on the opposite page. The top line refers to my vehicle i.e allotted to the AMF with ARN C26698 on the 30/12/1941 with the order number next. Some have information about disposal dates most carriers being around 1958. That is it! Nothing more.

By cross referencing to the later book with the AMF C-xxxxx no.s, you will find more later info. Your carrier will be found under 26698 in AWM 127-08. I haven't got details for your carrier (in the same book, but earlier on), but here's the listing for AIF T16694, which became C28919 on 17/12/41, hull no 1110. Some carriers were regd straight onto the C (Commonwealth Gov't) system from new, while others went to the AIF. It would be more likely for an AIF regd carrier to have seen O/S service, but some AMF carriers went to Rabaul and PNG.

[Poppy's Carrier]

Gday to all,

I would like to thank everyone that has replied to my thread R.E. service abroad ,

I will be contacting somebody i know who's uncle owned the parcel of land where my carrier came from to see if he can shed some light on the carriers history, i do know that the land owner was into buying surplus WW11 equipment after the war and then storing it on the figtree pocket property, i am thinking that he may have been a scrap merchant as i have also seen bits of aircraft in the bush nearby .

I am hoping to get my hull in the shed in the next couple of weeks so that i can start restoring the old girl , i will keep you all posted on my progress i am reaklly hoping that i can get my carrier to the MJCQ field day at cunungra in october
:

[Roddy de Normann]

Hi to all -

In light of the excellent work above, does anyone have a listing of all the AIF carriers by T number, their corresponding C No and where they ended up ?

Roddy

[Tony Smith]

I am about 1/2 way through collating the AWM's records on carriers, including T- Nos, date of change to C- Nos and then to hull No only. I believe Bob Moseley has some records of disposals of carriers, their subsequent fates and some current owners.
The delay in arranging the AWM data is that some carriers went straight to the AIF then hull No, while some were only in the AMF system and didn't recieve a T- No at all, while later carriers missed both these systems completely and got their hull No only from new. It's hard to discover if you've missed a reference in between as, so far, the carrier info is spread over 4 volumes and isn't in a consecutive block.

As can be seen in the example above, carriers 1105 and 1110 had consecutive engine numbers, both received AIF T- numbers 5 apart, but then for some reason were allocated C- Numbers that were 1800 apart!

[Roddy de Normann]

Tony

Thanks for that. Fully understand the difficulties...I have spent many a day in the Nat Archives here searching and then attempting to collate T Numbers fm War Diaries. Long, laborious but great fun !

Roddy

[Tony Smith]

This is the later volume covering 26698 shows your Carrier 1105 initially had the AIF reg AIF T16990, Engine number 2G9318F, AIF plates to 30/12/41 then issued with the ARN C26698. Some time after that (Poss '43?), it just became carrier 1105. No disposal date recorded.

Pic below is from the AWM books:

[Ian Pullen]

I hate to burst your bubble, but both the two and three colur cam pattern of the vehicles in the defence of Northern Aust had a sand brown as the base shade.
Not saying that it didn't serve overseas, (it would be great to discover another true veteran), but the majority did stay in Australia.

[Poppy's Carrier]

Gday ian,
I have recently found that while stripping the rust etc of the hull that there appears to be just as much green paint in some places , oh well doesnt worry , would the sand colour be called portland stone? , and the green pine green.

I have recently been pre occupied with the possibility of aquiring a C15 wireless van so the carrier is at a standstill at the moment,
thanks for your reply.

cheers matt baker

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Matt
The sand colour would be Light Stone and the green would be Khaki Green No.3.
Bob

[Pedr]

Originally posted by Ian Pullen
I hate to burst your bubble, but both the two and three colur cam pattern of the vehicles in the defence of Northern Aust had a sand brown as the base shade.
Not saying that it didn't serve overseas, (it would be great to discover another true veteran), but the majority did stay in Australia.

Sir,

I would like for you to prove that this is the case, as all info that I have available to me says otherwise - that carriers were infact No3 green as a base coat.

Pedr