Is this a shot test

[David Dunlop]

Michael.

That test mark you showed was on six locations on one side of my Mk II Cdn Carrier - two, top and bottom rear, centre and front (upper front missing when this piece of plate was cut out. The other side of the carrier had the test marks in the same locations, but each location was a grouping of three marks in the pattern your middle three finger tips would make. The marks were more 'random' on the rest of the carrier - single marks or none at all.

Mike.

You are correct in that these tests were done by the plate manufacturer, prior to delivery to the vehicle maker (at least that is how it worked here in Canada with the plate made for the Carriers built by Ford). The armour plate was time-consuming to make and expensive for the day. It had to be right before going into production. A neighbour of my parents many years ago had been an engineer at the Ford Windsor plant during the war and he told me that when the pattern torch had cut back the side armour at the upper front ends, these small pieces were then used in the fabrication of the armour shrouds surrounding the fan/rad assembly, immediately aft of the front bulkhead. Waste not, want not.

David