Vehicle Data Book: pre-March 1944 edition??

[Alex van de Wetering]

I will have a look with the link Hanno posted to see if there are differences between the december 1944 issue and Bill Greggs book based on the March 44 edition.

So far I haven't noticed any differences; even the page numbers and index pages match. The only differences are the pictures from what I see, but as Rob mentioned this is mainly a difference between the original publication and Bill Greggs publication. What is interesting though is that some pictures were not just replaced by the non-edited pictures, but sometimes completely different ( and incorrect in some cases) pictures.
So, it seems the March 44 and December 44 editions are identical. Or maybe Bills mentioned of "March" is just incorrect and it was actually december 44(?)

Alex

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

Or maybe Bills mentioned of "March" is just incorrect and it was actually december 44(?)

I hope Mike Cecil chimes in re.:

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Bill Gregg was quite open about the source being that data book. This from his introduction: 'The first part is essentially a photo facsimile of the original Vehicle Data Book issued in March 1943...'

[Alex van de Wetering]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

I hope Mike Cecil chimes in re.:

Hanno, this is what it says in the second edition of "Canada's Fighting Vehicles", March 1944. Can anyone check in the first volume if it says 1943 or 1944?

[Alex van de Wetering]

Alex, here is a sample page Ed posted in an earlier thread. It looks like the Data Book Canadian Military Pattern Vehicles contains interesting info re. the C60X Machinery that you've been looking for?

Hanno, yes, you have me there....I was indeed interested in what the book says on the C60X Machinery C, but just much as what it says on other early material....C8, early LAAT, Machinery ZL etc.

Ed, is that page from the Manual series data book, or the december 1944 Data book? The reason I ask, is that the page doesn't match the scanned december 1944 data book that Hanno posted earlier. Could it be that it's actually a page from the Manual series Data book?

The dates are pretty confusing to me. It seems the Manual series data book has "1M-6-1942 D.L.L." printed in the left lower corner of the cover, while some of the contents says "issued 1 March '44" and I understand even "issued 1 december 1944" and "issued 1 August '45"(?)

Alex

[David Dunlop]

Alex.

It might just be an initial print date in loose leaf format and any new information pages added, came with their own date. Sometimes the word “Revision” was only added to a new page if the new page was actually replacing a preexisting older one.

David

[Alex van de Wetering]

It might just be an initial print date in loose leaf format and any new information pages added, came with their own date. Sometimes the word “Revision” was only added to a new page if the new page was actually replacing a preexisting older one.

Hi David,

Yes, it sounds like it was more of an "active" data book as Hanno also described regarding the "Tank data book", but that means the "Manual series Data book" and the "Vehicle Data book" were used (and updated?) simultaneously.
Bill Gregg writes that "the original handbook was piblished to list vehicles chosen to serve in the imminent European invasion" (As Hanno also mentioned above), so was the Manual series data book the complete catalogue of all Canadian vehicles.....also including stuff like the many F60H special bodied vehicles as seen in Clive's Vehicles of Victory, for instance?

[Ed Storey]

I can confirm that the Universal Carrier page which I attached to my post was indeed from the Canadian Armoured Vehicles book.

Yes, this book series was live, being updated regularly with amendment sheets. The imprint data on the black covers is a good indication of the initial print date. Finding the original pages for these publications is the challenge as the print runs were small and the survivability of the books is low.