Bataan cab 11 water truck

[David Dunlop]

Gentlemen.

I would bet dollars to donuts, if those Water Trucks and Carriers were photographed in the Philippines, they got their directly from Canada.

When Canada sent the Winnipeg Grenadiers to Hong Kong, two ships were assigned to get them there. One carried all the troops, the second all their vehicles. The vehicles included a full compliment of Water Trucks and Carriers.

For whatever reason that escapes me at the moment, enroute to Hong Kong, the two ships stopped in the Philippines. When the Americans discovered the vehicles on the one ship, they commandeered them and the Canadians were powerless to stop them in spite of the importance of them to their mission in Hong Kong.

It was my understanding the Americans got little or no use out of the vehicles before being forced to withdraw to Corregidor and the vehicles were abandoned.

These CMP’s and Carriers may very well have been the first of their types the Japanese’s had a chance to have a close look at and study in detail, hence the appearance that these photos were taken as part of a documentation process.

David