The Great Manitoba Carrier Recovery

[super dave]

Cool, I can ad that info when telling people about where my carrier came from

[David Dunlop]

Kevin.

The information I obtained from the surplus dealer who bought them from Crown Assets and sold them to the Lodge, was he sold them a dozen. This was out of a lot of close to 50 he had purchased in Lloydminster. It was a short road trip from his place to the waiting trench as the Lodge. Once in the trench, a number of useful bits were scavenged from the carriers and under the dirt they went.

The length of our magnetic survey suggested 8 vehicles were present in the trench. I believe we visually confirmed the existence of the 7th carrier and were very certain of another immediately behind it, but their location was too close to the boat launch site and we did not want to risk damage to that facility at all. So I recall 6 came out. One more had been used to putter about the lodge for many years but had long before been scrapped. That left the three our front end loader driver told us were buried under the nearby highway. Some of the guys from Prairie Command who attended the entire excavation probably have additional photos of how the work progressed.

David

[rob love]

As far as I recall, we found 5, and of those the lower hulls were left behind on the first two.
The next two went to Derk and I (mine is now with Superdave and Derk has restored his). The last one went to Gordon Falk, and from there went to the UK.

In each case, as we dug up one, the next one was touching the first. After number five we did not hit anything else.

[Jim Burrill]

Rob, I know a number of bins and boxes and stuff came to me when I bought the arrier from Jim Rice. Do you recall if the lower hull was one of the carriers? or Did I just get a handfulll of take off parts? IIRC, Jim said the rotton grenade boxes and top armour came fromt he first carrier uncovered. I still have all the rusty bits. I saved them for patterns to make the ones I used in the restoration. I sold the carrier to Steve Kantnor, who later sold it on, to the UK I believe.

Cheers,
Jim Burrill
15th Recce

[Jordan Baker]

I believe the radiator cover and armoured air vents used on my carrier came from one of these buried ones.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Jim Burrill

Rob, I know a number of bins and boxes and stuff came to me when I bought the arrier from Jim Rice. Do you recall if the lower hull was one of the carriers? or Did I just get a handfulll of take off parts? IIRC, Jim said the rotton grenade boxes and top armour came fromt he first carrier uncovered. I still have all the rusty bits. I saved them for patterns to make the ones I used in the restoration. I sold the carrier to Steve Kantnor, who later sold it on, to the UK I believe.

Cheers,
Jim Burrill
15th Recce

Yes, your stuff was from one of the two hulls that remained behind. Gordon Falk could confirm this I believe.

[David Dunlop]

Thanks for the corrected count on the recovered carriers.

I think Derk Derin posted some great shots on the carrier forum back on 25-01-10. The title was:

Buried Mk 1 Bren carrier restoration


David

[rob love]

We were camping last weekend about 4 miles away from where the carriers were recovered. Having been in the military for 25 years, I hate camping. So I took a drive to as far as I could drive, then walked the last km to the carrier site. Since I was last there, there are obvious signs of more flooding on the two remaining hulls. Large logs are on top of the hulls, along with other debris. But the whole area remains abandoned. Here are some photos of how they exist today. About 60 feet away I found the tray for the portable cooker laying in the sand, along with a piece of conduit that may be from the carriers.