[Mike Cecil]

A few comments about items in this thread:

Dave Buckle: the number 61176 over three coloured bars on the bonnet is not an ARN, but the Unit Serial Number. The ID of the unit and the explanation of the three colour-coded bars system is explained in my book 'Australian Army Units and Unit Serials of the Second World War,' available from Virtual bookworm (unless some other Forum member has a copy handy?) Not a marking that usually survives.

The Holden body plates: there was one mounted on the front shell, called the Front End by Holdens, and this is visible stamped on the plate next to the Model line on the 44 10193 plate. There was a second plate adjacent but attached to the main cab body with the cab body production number. This second plate was sometimes (?) attached to the cab frame vertical face below the windscreen on the passenger side, above his footwell. A third Holden tag was attached to the rear sill of the rear body, with the body type stamped onto it (eg GS, Office, etc). The one eaten away was probably made of Zinc sheet.

The '44' in the stamping would normally indicate a 1944 pattern Holden body. These had the demountable steel frame/canvas doors and a strap across the bottom edge of the doorframe, but the cab pictured appears to be a sunshine cab with solid steel doors. Production of Sunshine cabs had been discontinued by 1944, so I'm at a loss to know why 44 pattern cab plates are fitted. Sunshine cabs were originally designed for use on 15 cwt Battery Staff vehicles, though the type has been observed on other CMP chassis/wheelbases/body types.

996-01 on the doors of a pale blue/grey painted truck is similar to the colour, style and identification used by the Electric Power Transmission Company (EPT) who were big users of ex-military equipment including Diamond-T, GMC, Studebaker and CMPs.

The underbonnet nomenclature came into use on new-production vehicles in mid-1942, and was also supposed to be painted onto all vehicles then in Aust Army service (but wasn't). It was for correctly identifying the make and model for parts ordering and for correctly completing census returns.

The sign with the 2-inch wide white bar across the top is an early war (1940-42) unit sign where the formation was indicated by the white bar, and the unit sign would be the area below that. For example, 1 Aust Corps Petrol Park in November 1940 was a white 54 unit sign superimposed over the arm of service sign of red/green diagonally divided with a white 2 inch wide bar across the top. No formation sign as such was carried for 1 Aust Corps at that time, the white bar indicating the unit was a Corps unit. HQ's units had a white bar across the bottom of the sign. Lines of Communications units in 1943 also used a white bar across the bottom, along with a territory affiliation letter in black in the middle of the white bar.

A 1 inch wide bar at the top came into use for Corps, Army and HQ units in 1942. A 1 inch wide bar across the bottom came into use for Lines of Communication units, and there are instances of a white 1 inch wide bar across the bottom used by some Corps units during 1943. (Also a grey top bar for some Force units, eg NT Force).

So it will depend upon the width of the bar as to what it may indicate.

Nice collection of CMPs, and very very unusual for a Unit Serial Number and the three colour bars to survive.

Regards

Mike