What is this vehicle

[Lang]

Good find Mike.

Looks like my New Guinea line up aircraft is not a rack but directional aerials.

[Lang]

Mike Kelly can you give us the captions for your AWM Beaufort photos (I can't find them)

Lang

[Lang]

Found it. Whatever the gas is it can not be too bad with the blokes in shorts and bare arms. Ute is a 1938 model.

COROWA, NSW. 1943-03. FILLING THE CONTAINERS ON A BEAUFORT BOMBER OF THE RAAF WITH A MIXTURE (MODIFIED S. 2) USED FOR TRAINING PURPOSES AT THE LAND HEADQUARTERS GAS SCHOOL AT BONEGILLA. THIS MIXTURE WILL BE SPRAYED FROM THE PLANE OVER A PREPARED AREA AT THE GAS SCHOOL.

[Grant Bowker]

More seriously than my last... I had wondered about insect suppression spraying but the caption seems to be the answer...

[Mike K]

Down in the Sale and Bairnsdale area the Beauforts were christened 'Gippsland Hailstones' because so many of them either crashed or dissapeared in Bass Strait. The problem was I believe a faulty elevator control cable. I guess most of us have seen the movie of the Beaufort flight where one hits another and falls into the sea.

[Tony Smith]

For those that haven't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfuUvfxWrWM

"The two Beauforts A9-27 and A9-268, of the RAAF's 8 OTU, collided over Jervis Bay on 14 April 1943 while performing a 'Prince of Wales' break for people of the media."
"All eight crew members were killed when both aircraft hit the water: Crew of A9-27 F/O Raymond Sydney Green (Pilot), F/O Maurice Francis Hoban, F/Sgt Eric William Sweetnam, Sgt Albert John Bailey. Crew of A9-268 F/Lt David George Dey (Pilot), P/O Jack Norman, P/O Rex Lindsay Solomon, Sgt Hugh Sydney George Richardson."

[David Dunlop]

Interesting how this thread has morphed, Lang.

I looked up the Gas School and it appears to have been quite an establishment, involved in development of warfare chemicals, both offensively and defensively. In the process, I ran across a low resolution photo of a Beaufort making a pass over some part of the school, laying a smoke screen, but the plane was too far away to get any details of the equipment it carried.

I would suspect, however, that the aircraft attached to the school probably carried quite an assortment of kit, and it was constantly changing.

David