Brad,
My Vickers gun is a dewat that bears a serial number in the 800X range. I selected a tripod that bears a date stamp 1943. Both were in super condition. The deactivation was tastefully done, and I would recommend the services of Fred and Al at Collectors Source for anybody looking for any articles of this type.
I had been researching the Vickers mount on the Universal Carrier platform for some time, and had been frustrated by my inability to locate good war time pictures, nor any drawings. The few pictures that I did locate did not show what I needed to show to enable me to reproduce a mount.
Following a tip from G W-B last year, I contacted a Canadian CANLOAN veteran in New Brunswick, who had recently released a book about the CANLOAN experience of which he was a decorated participant. Mr. Fendick also lamented the fact that he was unable to locate an example of the part during his documentary effort – even after visits to the museums in London and Bovington in the UK. He indicated that the mount was a travel or temporary mount, and not nearly as elaborate as the tripod used for indirect fires.
The mount that I have employed is indeed the tripod, lashed to the Bren tripod mount and the radio antennae mounting bracket on the radiator armoured cover. It looks as if my plan has worked as I had intended – by taking low shots, you can barely see that I have done this
. The travel mount did not use any elevation gear, but the set up is very handy for leaving on the Carrier while I drop the Vickers into its crate and load my trailer for the trip to and from shows.
I wonder if anybody out there has a real mount that they would be willing to share with us ?
Stewart
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