Australian Stuart rear fittings

[Mrs Vampire]

I was photographing the unit badges for my Stuart ( pictres in another thread) and remembered that it once had something welded to either side of the engine bay doors.

Whatever it was was long gone by the time I got it.

Pictures below of the weld marks left after its removal. Any photos or information on what might have been put there would be gratefully received.

I have been told a tool box but that dosn't make sense given all of the storage on the Guards and the potential to put extra boxes on the top of the hull where they were less vulnerable to damage due to terrain .

I was wondering if they might have been inside sand guards like the outside ones .

[Mrs Vampire]

there are similar marks on the port side

[David Herbert]

My first thought was brackets to support the rear section of the sand guards but I can't find a decent photo to support or refute that. The only other idea that I had was mountings for electricaly fired smoke dischargers. Most British army tanks were retrofitted with them if they wern't built with them. The discharged air from the engine bay helped to spread the smoke from the smoke cartridges. My Ram had them welded to one of the rear engine doors. There will be a photo somewhere to prove it !

David