The "Z Arm" on CDN Jeeps

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Frank v R

further on mounts, the CF did have the M31 and M31C mounts in the M-38cdn and the M-38A1 cdn , some of these came out of Pet. surplus and went south about 10-15 years ago, I have seen photos of these installed in Germany, now back to the side mount , cover photo of Clive's book on the M-38A1 , Queens own had a Reg. Force Battalion at that point stationed out west I believe , that would make that vehicle part of Reg. Force, opinions?

Attached is the photo of the Jeep in question. The Jeep is an early 53 Cdn, so would have been disposed of no later than the time that Terry's CFTO is dated. As well, note the older 30-06 ammo can. That gun may proceed the C1 gun. Perhaps the mount is a locally fabricated mount.

Credit for the photo is from Clive's site. He has it in the Cdn3 section for some reason.

[chris vickery]

I have 53-33136 in my collection.
It has been covered elsewhere but is unusual in the fact that it is an Amercian Willys with a CDN CFR number, an early aquisition and close to the serial as shown on Robs post.
My question is, who can confirm the colour pattern as shown? It appears to me as tan over OD with maybe black at the bottom. Would love to reproduce this cam pattern on mine...

[Eric B]

Painting it in the Norwegian camouflage would make a unique vehicle.

If the M38A1's are 1953 CDN 1, they did have Bren gun mounts attached to the dash on earlier UN deployments. But these vehicles were generally UN provided vehicles, which were modified.

Thanks
Eric

[rob love]

That photos is not of a Cdn1. There are no hinges on the front grill....rather it has the later method of grill attachment at one center mounting point.

I always hated undoing that particular bolt when pulling an engine. The next worse was removing the cable that ran from the crossmember through the bellhousing.

[chris vickery]

Sooo, back to my question. Any ideas on the Norwegian camo pattern?

[rob love]

Not from me. It pre-dates the standard Cdn Jeep cam patterns which came out in the 70s.

[maple_leaf_eh]

In the 60s there was a TV show called the Rat Patrol which featured Jeeps and mounted machine guns, and the characters would win the war for the good guys by shooting up the bad guys. For a while, that was a lot of peoples' cultural reference for mounted MGs. The late 70s was no different.

In the reserves we thought putting a C1 "GPMG" on a Jeep was fun but not necessarily as easy to use as it first appears. In the end it was a way to make noise on exercise, and a way to carry the gun and ammo on battle runs at Gun Camps. But at least someone thought about us.

I saw two different improvised weapons mounts in my time. One was to wire an old Lee Enfield sighting tripod into the Jeep and (insecurely) attach an FNC2 as a noisemaker. The clamps didn't fit the C2 handguard very well. The legs got in the way of using the back seat and radios. And, the 30-rd magazine meant the firer had to cant the gun to the side. Not a stellar solution.

The other was a one-of-a-kind that I plan to reproduce for my M38A1 CDN3. It resembles the one in the pictures with the BREN. A fellow had welded one up or borrowed it off someone. Take the windshield off. Imagine a piece of steel angle with hinge pins and tiedown levers that fitted onto the cowl in its place. There is a rifle butt clamp on the right end and a vertical piece of 3/4" pipe about 6" high in the middle. Attach about a 12" long 1/2" pipe section to the middle of the C2 barrel with hose clamps. Clip the butt into the clip, and poke the male/female pipe sections together. When it was time to make noise, swing the gun to the front and fire left-handed over the hood.