Canvas doors

[Mike Cecil]

Tony: missed your query first time around, but picked it up in Ian's post. 208140 is indeed within the registration block issued to the RAAF. The number was issued to a 'Truck, Heavy, Wireless/Telegraphy', a Ford F60S, taken on charge 14 November 1944, and disposed of on 7 August 1956.

To clarify Ian's comments, the RAAF vehicle registers were originally located at RAAF Support Command, Logistics Management Unit, St Kilda Road, Melbourne. They were relocated to the RAAF Museum in the mid-1990s, but were recalled by the Support Command in the late 1990s, against the wishes of the RAAF Museum staff. Soon after, they went missing and have not been seen since. The RAAF Museum librarian was extremely upset by their loss. As far as I am aware from speaking with her, there is no record of them having been 'lent' to anyone, and this is the first I've heard of that: the more likely scenario is they were 'round filed' during a clean-up/move: the unit certainly didn't appreciate what they were holding when I accessed them in the late 1980s and early 1990s, until I informed them of their historical value.

In the mid-1990s, I was instrumental in having them moved to the RAAF Museum (I actually recommended they be forwarded to the AWM, to be held along with the Army registers). I still have the correspondence.

Fortunately, I made copious notes from the registers when I had access. Those records were then transcribed to my registrations database: a HUGE and time-consuming job!

Mike C