Austrialian Vickers tank on the beach

[nuyt]

Picture from Orient Magazine, Oct 41:
Australian Army preparing for an invasion, "near" Darwin.
This a Vickers tank, but not a MKVI?
Enjoy,
Nuyt

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

I beleive the tank is a Vickers Light Tank Mark IIB.

The "beach" is far more likely to be somewhere near the Pyramids than Darwin however, as the tank is painted in the Caunter scheme that was used in the Western Desert.

The strong diagonal lines of this type of camouflage is clear on the photo.

Did the Australians ever use the Caunter scheme in Australia?

I would imagine that the picture editor was short of photos to go with his article, or that somebody in the military wished to conceal the lack of suitable tanks in Australia at that time by using a photo from elsewhere.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[nuyt]

Hi Nick,

you may be right there: there is no proof the picture with the article was indeed taken in the Northern Territory....

Several of the other pics do seem to be taken there however.

The text (by American Frank Clune) is also very explicit and detailed like the artillery's barracks Larrakeeia and the infantry's at Vesteys Ltd slaughterhouses, both in Darwin.

Anyway, Vickers MKIIs were employed earlier that year in Syria with the 6th Australian cavalry. Were these troops redeployed to Australia that same year to form 6th Aus cavalry brigade? In that case they might have brought the tanks as training vehicles...?

Well, some of the Aussies on this forum might be able to shed a light or two here...

Cheers,
Nuyt

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Nick's remarks made me do a bit of googling, which turned up an article titled "Australian Armour in the Middle East, 1940-1942". From this we learn the 6th Australian Division Cavalry Regiment trained in Egypt using six very well used Vickers Light Tanks Mark IIB wearing the Caunter camouflage scheme.
I'd say this picture depicts men & machine from the 6th Australian Division Cavalry Regiment, photographed in the Egyptian desert during October 1940.

H.

[Shane Lovell]

Dear colleagues

The photo is definitely taken in the Middle East during 1940. It is only one of a series of stills of taken during a training exercise. The Australian War Memorial also holds motion footage of this exercise.

Secondly, no Lt Mk II tanks ever arrived in Australia.

Thirdly, it is plausible that some vehicles returned to Australia from the Middle East in the 'caunter' scheme. You should note that the AIF returned from the Middle east in two main batches. 6 and 7 Aust Div in early 1942, and 9 Div in early 1943. Prior to this the Australian Corps had been in Palestine and Syria and came under the command of HQ Palestine and TransJordan. This area had its own vehicle camouflage scheme.

The Palestine and Transjordan scheme set out a two tone finish of Light Portland Stone and Standard Camouflage Colour Green No 7. This was promulgated during the Middle of 1941, however, at least for the AIF field and anti tank regiments this was not put into effect until late 1941. Thus the majority of the AIF vehicles should have been finished in this scheme during 1941 early 1942.

There were however, a small number of AIF units that remained in Egypt, ordnance depots, port detachments and workshops. Presumably these units would have progressively adopted the appropriate Western desert schemes as vehicles were repainted.

The next point relatres to the fact that not all vehicles on issue to the AIF returned to Australia. Certainly, no tanks returned. Unfortunately, the records are very patchy at best, however, key vehicles that returned included specialist B vehicles eg workshop lorries.

cheers

Shane