Western Desert images
 

I was browsing Google Life images of the western desert and got quite a variety of interesting shots of vehicles. Some of them I don't have any idea what they are.

There weren't any captions other than War in the Western Desert. I cropped out a lot of sky and sand then changed to greyscale and resized them for the forum.

The pictures with all the clutter are quite interesting. Those boats seem to be out of place in that landscape!

Interesting
 

Some of these are good candidates for the in the background thread.

First pic is a C60L, third I can see a F15 fourth a cab 12 C60L as is the last one which looks to have flat tyres and been made into some sort of semi-permanent office.

.. wonderful images, there are even more if you search for "Western Desert"

Greetings
Chris

Wow! These are great & fairly unusual pics. Made my day!!!

David
 

Second pic, with spare wheel, and no tyre, is a I/2 ton Dodge ambulance. the water cart is a MW bedford, as is the one beside it, facing the other way. It is followed by a heavy Humber. The tyres ,springs, gen. sets, body parts etc. tell stories. Lots of broken springs, tyres either shot up, or failing due to heat/or cracking. Lots of tread on most. Keith, I think that truck with the flat tyres, is shown again later, and is the blacksmiths wagon. The tyres are buried, rather than flat. Some days were worse than others, in the desert (the wind blew on some days)

Dodge ambulance
 

The only really notable point for me about the Dodge ambulance is that the Red Cross markings have been re-done much larger than 'factory' for air recognition.

Great pics, thanks for sharing

Here's another round of pics.

Some more.

What's the vehicle in this first pic?

I'd guess a South African Marmon Herrington?

Chris

. . . or for Bob Landry.

These pics come in two series; War in the Western Desert and Western Desert after Axis Retreat. Each series has over 200 pics and Google will only show 200. To access the others a person might have to search by year also. There aren't any captions to search for key words.

David,

The third pic in the last series you posted is interesting as it shows a F15 with canvas-covered square roof hatch, a typical North African theatre modification. But pictures of CMPs with this type of hatch are few and far between.

Hanno

Interesting pic
 

It also appears to have recently rained. How common was that?

That canvas hatch is interesting. I guess you wouldn't have to worry about rain getting in in the desert!

Mud? Very common in wintertime in Libya!!!

One thing I notice on these images is the paint jobs on the vehicles. The majority of them are plain desert sand with the rest being caunter or MTP46 camo schemes.

There's something else I noticed. Several vehicles either have the sloping windshields painted or have canvas covers with vision holes and the side windows or vertical windshields don't have anything. This is obviously to try to avoid detection by airplanes. Here we have the real reason for the sloping ahead windshields on 13 cabs!

From left to right:

Libya / Wadi Ku'uf
Egypt / Cairo (most probably)
Libya / Derna
Egypt / Great Sandsea (SDF or LRDG Truck)

Also interesting, this is a 12 cab, but with 11 cab tow hooks, the same as mine. My truck also has 11 cab engine covers (a recent discovery!)

Cab 11/12
 

I once bought a cab from a F60L cab 12, the chassis of which was being made into a forklift, and it had the early type towing eyes in the bumper mounts but had normal cab 12 engine covers.

KIWI Morris CS8
 

The chap standing on the bonnet of the CS8 Morris with field glases would likely be a Kiwi . The Kiwi fern leaf tac logo is seen on the near side guard. The same pic is in the Alexander Turnbull collection in NZ.

Mike

Here's some more. It's interesting to note the commercial pickup box in the first pic.

Would that be an Indian pattern box in the first two pix?

More to come.

Also see Western Desert After Axis Retreat - 1942 on FB; and also EGYPTE - DESERT OCCIDENTAL - 1942.

H.

A couple more from Life, may have been posted before:

Attachment 82741

Attachment 82742

And one from AWM:

Attachment 82743
"ID number 014125
Maker Hurley, James Francis (Frank)
Place made North Africa: Western Desert
Date made 20 January 1943
Description Westward Ho 1 streams of Australian Army transport vehicles hurrying in the wake of Rommel's retreating army in the Western Desert."