ACTIVE

ON ACTIVE SERVICE

This page contains images of Canadian Military Pattern vehicles on Active Service or in service with various armies around the world or even just being used in civilian service. If you have any images that would be suitable for this page, please send them for inclusion.

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. .Not military service, but worthwhile none the less. These are a couple of photographs showing the Blitz fire trucks in service with the Shire of Bruce Rock, Western Australia in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The truck on the right is a Ford, the other two are Chevrolets. One of the two Chevrolet C60s shown here is very likely the truck being restored by Rob Endersbee in Merredin for the Bruce Rock Shire as shown on the RELICS PAGE. My thanks to the Northam office of the Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia for allowing me to use these photos.

. . A couple of interesting scans that someone sent me of a Trucks 3 ton Recuperator Army Workshop (Aust). It's job would have been the servicing of artillery equipment with pressurised recoil / recuperator systems such as the QF 25 pdr field guns, BL 5.5 inch medium guns and 3.7 inch AA guns.

.Marc Montgomery sent me this pic of a couple of CMPs destroyed in battle somewhere in Europe. Sad sight isn't it?

.. Lloyde Hart of Geraldton in Western Australia gave me these two photos of him posing with his Chevrolet C60S kitchen truck in 1944 or 45. The other bloke in the second picture is his mate, Glen Thompson. The Ford F15A in this photo is probably a water truck. The location was the Gladstone Ammunition Depot in South Australia.

. A friend of mine gave me this photo out of a obscure book of unknown name that he found in a second hand book shop in Perth. The book is about unusual automotive designs. The caption says that this is a "Army gun towing truck made by joining a Chev Blitz truck to a small tank" They look like Universal Carrier tracks to me. I believe that this was an experimental vehicle built for the Australian Army by General Motors - Holdens.

. This photo is of a Chevrolet C60L trying to do a DUKW impersonation. The passenger doesn't half look like he's enjoying himself, does he? This photograph was allegedly taken in New Guinea and this vehicle had just had some waterproofing work carried out on it.

. This photo is apparently of a Chevrolet C60L belonging to the 3^rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR) in Korea which had been ambushed by North Korean or Chinese troops. This truck was probably issued to 3RAR by the British Army, evidenced by the round roof hatch which was never a feature of Australian built Chevrolets.

. Getting this water truck out of this bog will probably need a bit of digging by the driver.

.This is a wartime shot of a couple of British soldiers posing with their Chevrolet C15A. Mike Read sent me the photo which he says he "scrounged over a beer when in England on a course".

. Willy Butcher of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada sent me the URL for this pic. It is from a British Columbia government archive site but is the only photo with CMPs in that he found there. The original caption written on the photo reads " 10 Provost Corps - Sixth Canadian Division. Victoria BC. March 1943. The three CMPs appear to be from left, a Chevrolet C8A HUP, a 3 ton Ford and a Chev C15A. I can't identify the other three vehicles. Any ideas???

This is a great photo of a British 8^th Army convoy forming up in North Africa. The No 13 cab truck in the foreground is a Chevrolet C60L as is what appears to be a No. 11 cab above it. The trucks at the far left and the far right are both Ford F60Ls. Note the minor differences here between the Chevrolets and the Fords such as the Chevrolets radiator expansion tanks on the left front mudguard or fender and the Ford's horn behind the left side of the front bumper. Note also the different tray bodies on the two front vehicles.

The object on the roof of the Chevrolet in the foreground is a mount for a Sun Compass which works like a sundial in reverse and was a great aid to navigation in the largely featureless North African terrain. I'm not sure of the identity of the fifth truck in the convoy behind the No. 11 Chevrolet.

This photograph came from a book called "Soldiering On" which was published by the Australian War Memorial in 1942. The photo was taken in Malaya in early 1942. The original caption states, "Empire co-operation. A British machine gun carrier assisting an A.I.F. breakdown truck to drag an Indian transport from a roadside bog." The breakdown truck or wrecker is a No. 12 cab Ford F60L. It is fitted with an American built Holmes wrecker body. A.I.F. was the Australian Imperial Force which was the force that Australian soldiers served in when out of Australia. In WW1, they served in the 1^st AIF, in the Second World War it was the 2^nd AIF.

Not exactly Active Service with any military organization but active never the less. I can not remember for certain where I found this photo but I seem to remember it being of a government mail contractor operating in the outback of South Australia with his loaded? late model Chevrolet C30. The passengers had to sit on top of the cargo. Some of these contractors used to travel a regular route of up to 800 miles per week on what are optimistically called tracks in the most harsh landscape on earth. The contractor is the bloke standing in front of the Chev. He was apparently legendary for his great age and the amount of time he had spent on this job.