Census Numbers on Amphibious Jeeps

[Ian Grieve]

Can anybody advise the following;

1. When Census Numbers would have changed from the "M" series to the "P" series, eg. M5219692 to P5219692.

2. When Census Numbers would have changed from the "P" series to the following series, eg. P5587101 to 47 XB 55.

3. Does anybody know the rationale behind later type of numbers, ie 47 XB 55?

Ian

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Ian,

There was no change over, each class of vehicle had a registration number prefix. Cars including jeeps, light utilities and staff cars had census numbers prefixed M. Amphibians had census numbers prefixed P.

Wartime vehicle's which soldiered on after the war were re-numbered in 1949. IIRC, the "X" series were reserved for vehicles which had previously been assigned a registration number.

HTH,
Hanno

[servicepub (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Ian Grieve

Can anybody advise the following;

1. When Census Numbers would have changed from the "M" series to the "P" series, eg. M5219692 to P5219692.

Ian

Ian,
Do you know for a fact that the same reg number was changed from "M" to "P" prefixes?

[Ian Grieve]

Clive and Hanno

Hi there. I have photos of amphibious jeep M5186568, location not known, however, desert camouflage painted, in a river with up to four storey block buildings on the shore and scattered date palm trees.

British contract cards refer to P5219692 – P5219876 (185 GPA’s), P5219881 - P5219981 (101 GPA’s) and P5587101 – P5587200 (100 GPA’s), ie 386 GPA’s TOTAL. (The British has a lot more GPA’s than this, approximately 690 GPA’s by November 1, 1944.)

Bart Vanderveen once told me M5219692 - M5219731 (40 GPA’s) were assigned to amphibious jeep and these fall within the first batch of numbers above. The difference is M and P.

The first amphibious jeep mentioned above, M5186568, is outside all these numbers.

A question becomes – How many vehicles fall outside the above three series, and how many start with an M?

My only clue that numbers changed from M to P is the reference from Bart Vanderveen above. I guess it can be concluded that some GPA’s were given M series and others, probably the majority, P series.

Ian

[Rich Payne]

Rob van Meel's reprint of the Chilwell census number lists indicate that 5171201 - 5191200 were allocated for issue in the Middle East - 'Various types' so it rather sounds as if it was a number issued in theatre with perhaps the wrong prefix ?

[Ian Grieve]

Rich

Great stuff, thank you.

Where would one get to see the Rob van Meel's reprint, particularly in the UK?

I understand he has no less than three Chilwell publications in print.

Ian

[Rich Payne]

I have a copy entitled "Allocation by Central census Tanks and Vehicles of 'B' vehicle WD Numbers"

http://www.robvanmeel.nl/catalog/301

The lists are in numerical order which is the most useful for researching photos etc.