Carriers in U.S. Service

[Rob Beale]

Daryl,
The later NZ carriers were stamped on top of the front lifting eyes, so discard the photo of the back plate near your aerial bracket.

The photo of the front of your carrier should be modified with another arrow each side of the centre towing bracket, with the rear arrow deleted.

The pic inside the carrier of the gunners area should show the inside of the gunners slot too to see what gun mount was used.

Rob

[Lynn Eades]

Is the position of the ID plate another indicator?
The Australian built ones appear to all have them situated on the RF guard.
The New zealand ones are on the triangular top plate above the instrument cluster. Is this a point of difference between the Aust. and N.Z. carriers or are there differences on each side of the Tasman?

[Rob Beale]

The early Kiwi carriers had the plate on the track guard like the Australian ones.

In later production it was moved to the top of the hull and welded above the instrument cluster. This is possibly to stop loss of the plate.

I think the first 520 NZ carriers were all issued to home based units during the war. 3 NZ Div took some to Guadalcanal but found them unsuitable and converted the carrier platoon to infantry. Given that a number of C8AX puddle jumpers ended up in Australia as war surplus, it is possible that a carrier was left behind.

I have a picture of a field full of carriers and other vehicles brought back to NZ from the Pacific. These include LP, UC and 3" Mortar types

We know some of these were swapped to USMC, but where they went is unknown.

Also the ones sold to the US and given to the Free French in the Pacific were from the later ESGC contract for 650 LP2A.

So, yes, a photo of the plate on top of the instrument panel would help.

Rob

[Big D]

Rob/Lynn,

Thanks for the replies. I'll get the changes made and send them to him this weekend.

Cheers.

[Big D]

Hi all,

I've finally got some photos back from Honiara. Apparently some rioting over there has held him up. Excuses!

Anyway, I'm not sure that these photos add any value to the discussion but I will post them for what it is worth. It looks like he has not sent (or taken) everything I've asked him to but judging by what he has sent I don't think many more photos will help.

The carrier seems to have been stripped long ago and the corrosion on it has probably prevented any markings being visible.

I'll let the experts on this forum judge and if you think I should ask for some more details, please let me know.

IMG_0442.jpg IMG_0443.jpg IMG_0444.jpg IMG_0445.jpg IMG_0446.jpg

[Big D]

More photos.

IMG_0447.jpg IMG_0448.jpg IMG_0449.jpg IMG_0450.jpg

[Rob Beale]

I will suggest it is a mid production NZ produced carrier from the first wartime batch of 520.

It shows two sets of holes for the MG mount which suggests it could take either of the heavy Vickers casying or the light UC style bren casting.

The centre towing eye and square tapping blocks also point to mid production.

Late production had no central eye, and most tapping blocks were circular.

Rob