Roof Hatch

[Phil Waterman]

HI All

What year did they go from Square to Round roof hatches and do we have any idea what percentage of vehicles had a hatch at all?

I remember there is a very clear cut off date on the square hatch, but I also remember that there were a significant number of hatches cut in the roofs of CMPs in North Africa as an expedient to watch for aircraft.

As trucks often had parts shifted around finding a round hatch on an early Pattern 13 could just mean the cab roof had been swapped.

While I'm talking I'll tell you a story I heard from an Old Canadian Soldier years ago. Our MV Club had done a parade in Jaffrey New Hampshire a small town near my home, after the parade we had the vehicles on display around the town square and an older gentlemen came over to look at the HUP, from the look in his eye you tell the CMP meant something special to him. He told me he had served in the Canadian Army during the 2nd WW. We talked about the truck and its history, and he climbed in to look around some more he stood up through the co-drivers hatch and we continued talking. He said something like "do you know why some of them have square hatches and some round" I didn't know so he went on "round people into square corners don't go" then he explained that it was because with the early square hatch guys would get thrown around on rough ground and they were ending up with bruised and broken ribs. Several years later at the 84 CMP Seminar I has the design panel if there was a particular reason for the change from square to round. None of the panel could remember why the change, then related the story I'd been told. There response was it was a very plausible reason.

Cheers Phil