Restoration of Hull 731- Carrier, MG (Aust) Mortar Carrying

[Darrin Wright]

Over time I have slowly been conducting research and trying to find out more info on the modifications to convert a BGC into the 3" Mortar Carrying version.
Months ago I emails the AWM if they had drawings AFV (T)1201, 1202, 1207, 1208 & AFV (SK)740, as these are the working drawings for rear echelon Ordnance Wksps to convert a limited number of BGC to provide for the mounting of a 3" Mortar on the engine cover and stowage of bombs and stores in the rear compartment.

They dug around and provided me with some reference material in the Melb office. Well I finally got around to registering with them and booked the files out for this afternoon.

It was interesting looking through the documents and the archive people were very helpful.

The information was not the holy grail, but it did document some of the history of how the modification came about, also found all the information from Met Gas on the production schedules (A & B) for 2 pdr AT and 3" Mortar Carriers. These schedules listed all the manufactures of the parts (pic attached) that were interchangeable between the vehicles and also listed all the Met Gas produced parts.
A common number of parts produced, as listed in these schedules is 210 for single items and 420 for items two of a kind. This leads me to speculate that they were committed to producing at least 210, 2 pdr or 3"Mortar carriers at that time.
These schedules were printed/written on 22 Sept 42.

back to the 3" Mortar, some condensed notes of my findings:
20 Oct 41, Mr Frank Mead writes a letter to the Army suggesting several modifications that he has come up with, from his service in the great war. One idea is to mount a Mortar or Howitzer onto the back of a BGC.
12 Nov 41, Idea declined by the Inventions Board Eastern Comd as the BGC is too light and would be overloaded.
At this point in time, only the Aust LP1 BGC had been produced and was in limited service.

4 to 18 May 42, TPR J. White writes a letter through his chain of command, ref fitting a 3" mortar to a 2 wheeled trailer to allow for better mobility and use of the mortar. In these letters he/they acknowledge that 3" mortars are fitted to BGC.
5 Jun 42, letter declining the 2 wheeled trailer mortar carrier. The Director of Mechanization states that:
Mortar carriers have been received from overseas,
Local made model now being produced.

4 May 42, another letter states that 3" mortars currently being fitted to BGC.

TPR White was posted to 2nd Aust Armoured Brigade, Rec Sqn, AIF at the time of his letters.

Will post pics soon as internet playing up...?

[Keith Webb]

Good work Darrin, nothing like going to the original sources. Look forward to seeing whatever photos you have.

[Darrin Wright]

For some reason when the page loaded the 'manage attachments' button would not load. some of the other icons were MIA as well.

Hopefully these pics will be of use to some, I have high res 3Mb pics of all the pages and letters, so they are readable.
Have had to compress them for this site.

[Darrin Wright]

On the weekend I managed to install the first vision cover and glass.
Glued the glass in with an adhesive.

Discovered that the main bolts that sandwich the sections/items together are all different lengths and are all individually drilled and pinned. This makes it interesting when trying to re-assemble and match them back up.