Burmese mystery

[centurion]

I would like to find out more about the vehicles the photos of which I append. They are obviously American civilian cars (at least thats what I assume) from the early 40s but their location is very odd. The photos were taken in Burma towards the end of WW2. The military vehicles in the background of two shots support this. They are from an old album whose provenance is known. The photographer was with the British army in Burma for several years, almost certainly in a signals unit, unfortunately he died in the 1960s. Photos in the album appear to be chronologically sequenced with the early ones clearly in India and the ones just before these show a series of Burmese temples, the ones just after show docks - so this is possibly Rangoon. I can probably identify the cars (although any advice welcome) but what are such shining examples of expensive automobiles doing in Burma at this time. I suspect that they must belong to some high powered types, military or civilian. Possibly the plates may give some clue - they are not British or (I think) American. Any help welcome

[centurion]

Car

[centurion]

last car

As the horse thief who was asked to walk up a step ladder to be hanged said at the top - Gentlemen this procedure is new to me.
So is there a simple way I could have put all three images in one posting?

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by centurion
The military vehicles in the background of two shots support this. Any help welcome

There are two British Ford WOA2 Heavy Utilities in the background, one on extre left and other just to right of the car's windscreen. The truck on the right may be a Dodge?

Richard

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by centurion
last car

As the horse thief who was asked to walk up a step ladder to be hanged said at the top - Gentlemen this procedure is new to me.
So is there a simple way I could have put all three images in one posting?

The short answer is you can't - unless you have them located on another server, then you can use the IMG button to insert them.

Also, because bitmap images have to be downloaded, jpeg pics are better for this forum.

Geoff has posted detailed instructions on posting images on in the admin read me section.

Interesting pictures, though - the Buick is very similar to one my mother had when I was very young.

And speaking of Burma, when I visited Burma in 1977, it was still full of old military vehicles (mostly CMPs) in daily use.

[centurion]

Originally posted by Keith Webb
Also, because bitmap images have to be downloaded, jpeg pics are better for this forum.

And speaking of Burma, when I visited Burma in 1977, it was still full of old military vehicles (mostly CMPs) in daily use.

Thanks -I'll go JPEG in future. You're lucky, I never got as far as Burma (not big in the oil and gas stakes) but in my travels I have noticed that some military vehicles never die (for example an Egyptian farmer in the early 90s taking a sheep to market in the side car of an ex Afrika Corps BMW R75) so I'm not surprised at the longevity of CMPs. I've since noticed all sorts of ex US vehicles in Saudi and Kuwait being civilianised (but nobody loves a Humvee).
So one of them's a Buick. There is actually a fourth vehicle but the photo is too faded to scan well, this one looks non US - a Lagonda I think. The plot thickens.

[Keith Webb]

Here's the Buick - I cropped it to 600 pixels, saved it as a jpeg and the file size has dropped from 888 Kb to just 36 Kb - admittedly compressed, but showing how you can dramatically save bandwidth!

Interesting to note the bus in the background looks like one of the modified CMPs.

[Keith Webb]

I think this one is a Studebaker.

[Keith Webb]

And is this a Dodge?

[Bill Murray]

Ahaa, Ahaa, Ahaa.

I can help at last.

Number plate RC770 is a 1947 Oldsmobile
Number plate RB0244 is a 1947/1948 Studebaker
Number plate RC791? is a 1947 Pontiac

While these vehicles were considered "mid range" in terms of price in the US, I suspect they were rather expensive in Burma.

They could have been in use by high ranking Burmese, if there were any, or perhaps even more likely by British or other countries diplomatic or military staff.
Cheers
Bill

[centurion]

Originally posted by Bill Murray
Number plate RC770 is a 1947 Oldsmobile
Number plate RB0244 is a 1947/1948 Studebaker
Number plate RC791? is a 1947 Pontiac

Thanks for this - of course as is often the case when you get the answer to one question it creates a new mystery - the owner of the album from which the photos were taken was, as far as I can tell, demobbed and back in the UK by 1947.

[Bill Murray]

Interesting point.
The Olds and the Pontiac could well be 1946 models, there were very minor differences between the two years. The Studebaker does not seem to be like any other 1946 Studebaker photos I have but that is not many and it is hard to find photos of that vehicle for that year.

The reason I thought 1947-1948 is that the US industry was pretty well taken up with rebuilding our own vehicle park here after the war and I have the impression that most 1946 production was for that purpose and that exports started again in 1947.

Maybe you can get some more information from the family of the original owner of the alblum.
Bill

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi Centurion
I sometimes place several images on one posting by firstly using the Photomerge facility I have in my Adobe Photoshop software. This alows me to take two or more images and merge them into one. I only have Adobe Photoshop Essentials which is a fraction of the cost of the full package, but it gives me more than enough.
Bob

[centurion]

Originally posted by Bill Murray
.

The reason I thought 1947-1948 is that the US industry was pretty well taken up with rebuilding our own vehicle park here after the war and I have the impression that most 1946 production was for that purpose and that exports started again in 1947.

Maybe you can get some more information from the family of the original owner of the alblum.
Bill

Thats why I assumed that the fleet must have belonged to some high powered types (diplomatic or military) who could facilitate getting them shipped out to Burma.

Unfortunately the only survivor of the original owner of the photographs is his step daughter who says that he didn't like to talk about his time in Burma! So it'll probably remain yet another mystery.