Wartime pictures: 20-cwt trailers

[Hanno Spoelstra]

15-cwt CMP truck towing a 120-gal. water trailer (on a Canadian 20-cwt chassis).

Location: near Deventer, the Netherlands. Date: unknown.



Here's the uncropped version plus the source where I got it from:



https://www.nmm.nl/hij-of-ik/materieel/

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Wolfy

Heres one I posted on HMVF - 10cwt nearest 20cwt further down.

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/attachment...1&d=1478186405

The body may looks a bit like the Canadian 20-cwt, but the wheels and mudguards look like British 1-ton to me.

http://www.mapleleafup.nl/cmpvehicle...on_2wh_gs.html

[Grant Bowker]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

The body looks Canadian 20-cwt, but the wheels and mudguards look like British 1-ton to me.

Doesn't the body of a Canadian 20cwt GS trailer extend sideways over most of the mudguard? Other body characteristics make me quite sure this is not a Canadian 15 cwt GS trailer.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Grant Bowker

Doesn't the body of a Canadian 20cwt GS trailer extend sideways over most of the mudguard? Other body characteristics make me quite sure this is not a Canadian 15 cawt GS trailer.

Agree. Plus a 15-/20-cwt trailer is much wider than the Bedford MW towing it.

For comparison, here is a F15A CMP 15-cwt towing a 20-cwt trailer. The CMP was both longer and wider than most British 15-cwt trucks.

[Harry Moon]

The bud wheels indicate a 20 CWT.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Harry Moon

The bud wheels indicate a 20 CWT.

Indeed, as I wrote that is a F15A CMP 15-cwt towing a 20-cwt trailer.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Groningen city park, 1945. Source: Groninger archieven, courtesy of Arjan van der Hoek.

Here's a better version of this photo, plus another one showing the same 20-cwt trailer. Obviously it has been modified with hoops and a tilt.


Source: https://hdl.handle.net/21.12105/689e...9-f2071a8c0e2d and https://hdl.handle.net/21.12105/1ea3...5-f8e729653f20


The second photo gives some more insight into it's use. It looks like some kind of mobile workshop. There is a stack of cylinders to the right and a small sign set up in front of the trailers and the cylinders. What could it have been used for? Is it artillery related, like for filling recuperators (seeing some Mack NM artillery tractors parked next to it)?

[Grant Bowker]

My understanding is that the Gas Welding trailer (that would have had the gas cylinders) was built in a 15 cwt trailer, so this may not be a very likely answer.

The following is pure speculation - perhaps kit transferred from a 15 cwt to 20 cwt depending on what was available - or possibly later production on 20 cwt (but I haven't seen any documentation to suggest this)?

[Harry Moon]

Looks like a standard 20cwt GS trailer with hoops and tarp modified on it.

[Alex van de Wetering]

There is a stack of cylinders to the right and a small sign set up in front of the trailers and the cylinders. What could it have been used for? Is it artillery related, like for filling recuperators (seeing some Mack NM artillery tractors parked next to it)?

Hanno, I think you could be right that they are indeed for filling recuperators. For a moment I though they might be rockets for the land mattress, but on closer inspection they do look more like gas cilinders.

[Bob Carriere]

....when enlarging the picture......... some of the cylinders are smaller (oxygen) and the RH pile larger as if acetylene cylinders......

....but my glasses do need changing....!!

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Found one! A water trailer in front of a building in Tilburg hit by a V-1.

Found a larger scan in the Tilburg archives, seems this is a British 20-cwt water trailer

Caption: "WWII. Bombs. One of the 37 V 1s that crashed within the municipality of Tilburg ended up in the Minister Talmastraat on 1 February 1945, killing 23 people. The explosive power of the bomb even caused great damage to the nearby Leo School, where British soldiers were housed."


Source: https://hdl.handle.net/21.12103/6aa4...c-8fdaaf7c16e5

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Found this document on equipment being offered to NATO allies under the Canadian Mutual Aid Programme in 1955.

The list includes a total of 580 of "Trailer, 20-cwt, 2-wh, GS" being offered to Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Portgal and Turkey. As far as I know, Norway was the only country to take up this offer, totalling 65.


SGM-0110-55_ENG_PDP.pdf
Source: https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/...55_ENG_PDP.pdf

[Hanno Spoelstra]

20-cwt water trailer in use:




Seems the photo above was taken post-WW2 withe the RCEME in Germany, just like this one showing 20-cwt trailers and CMPs



https://www.facebook.com/groups/1117...6620569177503/

[Hanno Spoelstra]

20-cwt trailer in a column with a Fort Garry Horse’s Stuart tank. Somewhere in the Netherlands, 1945.


Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/7378...6822434933329/