C8AX Tac Sign

[Rob Beale]

The NZ numbers were set up about 1942. The early ones went on pre war vehicles and impressed vehicles taken from civilians. Once the orders for new vehicles started arriving, the tally of numbers leapt so that the earliest C8AX numbers are around 22,000 and up. One source says the C8AX were assembled in batches of 200 each month, and all have a date of the 5th!
We believe there were 1200 of them, sent from Canada in 1943 as cab and chassis in CKD form (completely knocked down) and assembled in the GM plant in Petone, near Wellington: hence the XH on the chassis number, 8448 is the model number and the next 3 digits are the chassis serial.

I have a copy of the NZ numbers in existence at the end of the war, so the early stuff has gone, and there are many gaps for vehicles written off or sold. There is no correlation to engine or chassis numbers, and the whole numbering system is quite random with sequential numbers jumping between vehicle types.

Your vehicle won't be on the list as it will have been sold off and not returned to NZ. As well as the doors, the number was also painted on the rear of the body, sometimes on or below the tailgate, or one one side of the back panel.
(On post war vehicles it might be on the glove box, or below the windscreen).

As Tony said, it seems Aussie got a lot of our war service vehicles, while we have the ones that stayed at home!
It is likely that some have served in K Force in post war Japan, and K Force in Korea. I guess the forces in the Malayan Emergency may have had a few too.

I've got the 'set' of C8AX: GS, Ambulance and Radio shack. The first two have original decks and I have found original canopies in NZ to copy.
PM me for photos if you want.

cheers
Rob