WW2 Surplus Trucks

This is an extract of a speech to the British Parliament on the incompetence of the disposal operation in 1946. The highlight is mine.


almost gasp with astonishment. I prefer to try to be constructive. I think the Ministry of Supply must at once be cleared of some responsibility, because they are not the only owners of dumps in this coun try. In fact, they are the residuary legatees of dumps of surplus Government vehicles owned by the War Office and the Air Ministry while the 1582Home Office have their own special dumps on which vehicles of the National Fire Service are thrown. These vehicles are being thrown on the dumps by the various Government Departments and are left there by them fartoo long whilst the Ministry of Supply are not disposing of them in anything like the time they should.
I will take the case of one Royal Air Force dump at Spanhoe, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire. There are some 10,000 vehicles on that dump, in the open air, with an inadequate number of men to take care of them. Some of these vehicles have only recently been overhauled. One in particular—and I have the number of it—was overhauled a few months ago at a cost of £139 3s. Since then it has run 300 miles and has stood on this field at Spanhoe for four months. On this dump there are at least five Humber limousines, staff cars, standing in the open. The value of each car is quite considerable, probably over £1,000 each. What is theresult? With the inadequate number of men to look after these things, clocks are stolen, parts are taken, carpets are removed and the leather upholstery cut up by razor, blades for chair coverings and the making of handbags. I ask the Ministry of Supply,who are still supplying staff cars to the Service Departments, to adopt a firmer attitude, and to refuse them more cars until they make better use of those they have now.

What is the Government's policy with regard to the disposal of these surplus vehicles? We have not had an announcement from them, and I think I am right in assuming that their policy for the disposal of surplus Government stores is that indicated by the Chancellor of the

Great topic, photos & interesting stories Lang / PDU .
Just getting back to your earlier posts on GMC workshop trucks Lang, I was always interested in these & what kit they carried on-board.
A little Google research turned up these photos courtesy of the 493rd Bomb Group Museum in Suffolk England.
Interestingly & no real surprise there were different workshop configurations for the various arms of the army & airforce ie; Signals, Motorised etc.
The Motorised units were fitted out with Generator, Drill Press, Hyd Press, Grinder, Lathe etc the Signal vehicles with more radio jazz!
cheers
Pierre

These were pretty scarce in those photo lineups Lang!
Pierre

Pierre, on the HMVF, these is someone reconstructing a WW1 workshop truck.
He's finding the equipment one piece at a time. Lineshaft driven, IIRC.

Jarrod.

Pierre

There were thousands of tankers. Just think about the millions of litres of fuel needing to be moved every day to keep hundreds of thousands of vehicles getting less than 5 miles per gallon operating.

I think the one you put up is a figment of a restorer's imagination. Those tanks were not on anything I have ever seen. The dual tank standard vehicles had square ends. By far the most common was the big single tank.









Interesting thing about this fuel depot is although it is American 99% of the jerry cans are either British or German (identical). Even the Yanks hated their lousy screw tops that always leaked and spilled everywhere when pouring.

asw120 - Yes I've been watching that thread as well. Some great workmanship.
Yes I gathered there would be heaps of them, some more great pics there too, thanks Lang!
Imagine the cost of all those jerry cans full of fuel at today's prices!
cheers
Pierre

I remember reading about the Yanky jerry can which when I was reading about it they still use to this day, might have changed over the years since I read about it

But still had the stupid screw top, still spilt fuel everywhere and if my memory is correct it was something like 20% of all fuel shifted in American jerry can in WW2 was spilt or contaminated, no doubt Lang or someone would have acmore accurate figure but no matter it was a huge amount

Paul

Most armies have gone to plastic now. Same size but lighter and cheaper. They were not as good as the original because they did not have the 3 handle system to allow blokes to carry 4 empties or one can between two people if they had a long way to go but more importantly the new ones can not be handed man-to-man easily in a chain like the old style. They woke up to themselves and this is the current US can. Unfortunately they are still dickheads as you can see if they are stacked vertically the top can rests on the filler cap leading to damage and failure.










So crappy were the American screw tops that the French set up production lines just after the war to convert the leaking caps to the German style cam lock on tens of thousands of cans.

How could the story of a tin can be so interesting? This great little narrative totally misses the point the British had access to German jerry cans in large numbers from 1940 in France before Dunkirk and even more so in the desert long before the 1942 dates the American author refers to' It also points to how complicit American companies were in German war industries GM and Ford are two huge offenders. All they basically did was "change the local management board" when the Germans took over and stepped back into the factories the day the war finished.


www.thefabricator.com/thewelder/blog/arc...-the-jerrycan-part-i

www.thefabricator.com/thewelder/blog/arc...the-jerrycan-part-ii