19-Set Vario/Aerial Base Mounting Plate

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Hello Tim. Yes that could be one and the same clip, though not totally certain at this point. Does the bottom of your plate have the same identification stencilled on it as Patrick's and the one here in Winnipeg?

So far, we seem to be aware of two variations on this item, these two in Canada are one and a second one Chris has ID'd from WFTW. If they are an evolution from one to the other in some way, or two distinctly different plates intended for differing specific usages, we are not yet certain.

It does not help at the moment I am without a working scanner. In Bill Gregg's 'Canadian Military Vehicle Profile Series'. Profile No. 5 for the Carrier, Universal, No.2 MkII*, there is a Ford of Canada photograph (U.C.W. 68) showing a plate installation along the same lines, mounted on top of a Mk II 19-Set. This plate has no folded edges front and rear and seems to be equipped with carry straps similar to those found on the larger Carriers No. 23. Quite different from the ZA-10465 ones here in Canada, but Chris will have to look at the Gregg photo to determine if this version matches what is in WFTW, or is yet another variation.

Interestingly, there is a Canadian Army publication dated October 1944, that provides comprehensive coverage of all the 19-Set equipment in use at that time. This plate is not listed at all, nor any other like it for that matter. Yet two show up postwar in Canada, one out of Minto Armoury here in Winnipeg and I am not certain of the history of Patricks down East.

The ZA-10465 plate might be late/post war. Not sure where the ZA Number would place it time wise. There is a photo in one of my books somewhere of an MB/GPW with a 19-Set in a back corner and one of these plate setups is installed on top of the set. Haven't been able to retrace the damn book yet to see if that photo will help clarify, or muddy, the waters further.

David

I had some success looking for "Round Wire Circlip" although most hits were for "snap rings". There are a couple of variations, supposedly used for shafts, and one of them is a dead ringer for the type used on the WS19 ancillaries.

If the "October 1944" publication is EMER Tels FZ256/3, it's a "Parts Identification List" and is nowhere near an exhaustive list, I'm afraid.

The stores codes (VAOS numbers) were issued in sequence as items were added "by Army Orders" as far as I'm aware. The early ones are an exception to this, since the original VAOS was simply an alphabetical list until they realised numbers would be much more efficient from a catalogue and ordering point of view and numbered the existing stores vocabularies sometime between 1938 and 1940. (That's why some very odd items (WW1 spark transmitters and early WW2 sets like the WS1 and WS11 have close stores numbers.)

WS19 MK.1 had stores code ZA.3155.
Satchel, Signals had stores code ZA.6292 despite being introduced 1n 1938.

WS19 Mk.II has stores code ZA.10178
WS19 MK.III has stores code ZA.10479

That would imply that the plate in question (ZA.10465) was introduced around the time the WS19 MK.III was being designed (developed during 1942, when the number would be allocated, issued in early 1943). It may well be a "general purpose" plate that replaced a variety of specific use items to reduce the number of individual stores items that needed to be carried.

It does not help matters that some items were allocated new numbers at various times!

Aha! Carrier, Set, No.25 is ZA.10463 so that plate would have been introduced at the same time, probably specifically for use with this carrier as it has the rectangular cut-out at the left-hand end to clear the end of the set retaining strap. An earlier plate would not need the notch as the clamping straps remained below the top of the set.

By the end of WW2 the numbering system had reached somewhere in the region of 30,000 (WS62) and was heading towards 50,000 in the 1950s when the NATO Stock Number took over. (The VAOS "Section" has survived as the "Domestic Management Code" or DMC to give storekeepers a clue as the where to look for stuff, so you now see Z1/nnnn-nn-nnn-nnnn (etc.) on items.)

Chris.