thew lorain

[sapper740]

Originally Posted by Les Freathy

The second lifting a halftrack, now that looks like the remains of a packing case underneath so would the vehicle be as complete as seen straight from the case

Y'know Les, I think you're right, the crane is picking the halftrack directly out of a crate. There are no external stores whatsoever and the M3 is clean as a whistle with additional smaller crates stored within suggesting that it is new. I am surprised that the crane operator isn't using a spreader bar of any sort to relieve the strain across the back of the halftrack, however I see they have placed some timbers in an effort to spread the strain across the entire back of the halftrack.

While we're on the subject of cranes, I have an interesting picture from 1940 of an airfield engineer battalion. I posted pics of a similar small tipper a while back asking for an ID and received a reply of a Muir-Hill tipper. In fact it may have been you who identified as such. In this picture there is a similar small tipper being loaded by one of the smallest shovels I have ever seen. Would you be able to identify it by any chance?

CHIMO! Derek.