Australia and Lend-Lease

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

The article concerned needs a big injection of truth and big reduction in sensationalism.



Mike

I agree . Sadly, people tend to become carried away with the war surplus 'stories' and this article has done its best , unfortunately, and added to the myths.

In this case, I would be relying on the CDC records and not so much on uncle so and so's recollections of his times in the army. Sometimes , the official records are the more reliable source . Paint, well that's another story

[Lang]

Mike

Just had a thought when you mentioned RLL stuff being returned. I presume this stuff was what he Americans did not want and was included in the $6,500,000 payment for all their leftovers. We had "sold" or "traded" it to them as part of the LL/RLL operation and it was technically just more American owned equipment.

Could the American jeeps etc being sold just be classified under RLL returns alongside say the Plymouth staff cars built in South Australia for the Americans.
If that was the case there would be no record of specific "American" sales.

Lang

[Mike Cecil]

Lang,

No, I doubt it, given the fact that the surviving lists of RLL vehicles returned to the Commonwealth for disposal contain only vehicles (cars, trucks, mobile cranes tractors, etc) supplied from Australian resources to the USASOS/USAFIA, not equipment of US origin like jeeps.

Although the Australian government agreed to the disposal of US equipment to assist in the exit of US units from Australia, it was clearly defined as being of a very limited degree and was to be accounted for separately. While an agreement at government level is one thing, as I said previously, I am yet to find any evidence of the CDC actually handling the US stuff through the disposals process, whereas plenty of paperwork survives for RLL returns & disposals.

Mike

[Lang]

Mike

There is no denying there was a lot of American stuff left here - $6,500,000 worth - if it does not go on the Australian disposal sales records how was it disposed of.

Did they have large American-only sales in big places like Townsville. Of course we got all the stuff in Australian territories and there is plenty of evidence of Theiss Bros etc bringing that gear back to Australia.

In Mikes advertising thread there is an ad for a massive number of vehicles in Rabaul in the one sale - I would presume many, if not most of these, might be of American origin. This is not just any sale, it is a vast number of vehicles - 1,700. Far beyond one would imagine the Australians had in that area. Were they brought across from Bougainville, but once again, there were probably more American vehicles there than Australian?

I also note there was a Lae sale the week before and one would imagine there would be even more vehicles there than in Rabaul.

Any ideas?

Lang

[Mike Cecil]

Lang,

I'm not going to hazard a guess at the 'how or when': I'm only relating what I have found - and not found - in the surviving CDC disposal records.

As for the Rabaul CDC auction, a look at the actual catalogue list would answer your question, if a catalogue can be found. But I would not be surprised about that number being left by Australian forces - Army, Navy & Air Force - in the greater Rabaul area, and concentrated there for the purposes of disposal. For example, 1 Aust Corps, in February 1945, listed 6,005 vehicles on charge (they were in the SWPA). I'd have to go hunting to find what the allocation to a Division equipped for jungle operations would be, but 11th Aust Div at Rabaul would have had a sizable number of vehicles on hand at wars end, let alone the RAAF and RAN contingents in the Rabaul area as well.

I've a number of pieces of correspondence relating to the CDC disposal of vehicles in various locations throughout the SW Pacific/New Guinea areas, and again, the jeeps, trucks etc listed are all LL items with Australian registration numbers, ex-Australian military forces, and not US military equipment ex-US forces with US registrations.

Mike

[Lang]

Looks like anything USA just disappeared into thin air. There must be something, somewhere to tell us what happened to them.

Keep looking!

Lang

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Lang

Looks like anything USA just disappeared into thin air. There must be something, somewhere to tell us what happened to them.

Keep looking!

Lang

...or deep water!

There are many references of the items dumped at sea at Vanuatu's Million Dollar Point, so named because of the (1945 dollar value) US $1 mill worth of gear dumped there.

Surely not the only dumping ground the US used?