CMP Cab Style Identification

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by DarrenCollins

How could you possibly see a number with the sun flare Tony. You are a true Magician. Here is a better pic of the solo cab showing numbers.

The "Spare" or solo cab is certainly an Army cab, not Air Force, and it is neither chassis 193 or 194. The ARN is not entirely legible to me (no magician after all ) but it is 6238x. If I was to hazard a guess I would say the last digit looks more like a 3 or a 4. Anyway, ARNs 62380 to 62389 are all Chev C15 (4x2) AALMG trucks with chassis numbers 2842100361 to ...370. Another clue pointing to it being 62383 is that that truck was disposed of to the Post-Master General's Dept, which would explain the post office red interior of the cab. Note that there is no opening in the cab floor for a Transfer Case lever.

The outline of the square was the location of the Divisional Sign. This would have identified the parent body of the Unit that "owned" the vehicle in service. As you can see it's quite illegible, but the white bar across the top indicates a Corps or Army (meaning an organisational level, not "The Army") unit, rather that a battalion or regiment. Is there a similar square on the RH side with any detail showing? The RH side would have shown the Arm of Service and identified a specific unit.

I've flipped the pic to read it better.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by DarrenCollins

And Now for the tricky one ("4 410 194"):

http://www.astromech.com.au/RAAFcab.jpg

Can only see maybe 3 numbers there..

The numbers painted under the bonnet were an aide to any mechanics servicing the vehicle and would display the model number and year of the vehicle, and sometimes the make of truck. So we would expect to see something like "CVT 8444 1942" or "8421 1942". These numbers do not identify an individual vehicle, only the type. This was an Army practice, not RAAF, so despite the hint of blue paint, this was most likely an Army truck. Does the spare cab have anything similar under the bonnet?

We are sad, sad individuals here, and would like nothing more to see some other pics of this second truck.

[DarrenCollins]

I'll get onto that Tony =)

This first Pic shows the Army Number 996-01

Number.jpg
http://www.astromech.com.au/Number.jpg

This angled pic show the truck with the Number just readable on the roof above the drivers door

frontnside.jpg
http://www.astromech.com.au/frontnside.jpg

Side View from Back

Side.jpg
http://www.astromech.com.au/Side.jpg

Lastly this is my second Blitz I'm debating its future

trucktwo.jpg
http://www.astromech.com.au/trucktwo.jpg

The Cab on its own was part of the package.

[Ken Smith]

That is interesting my C15 ARN 62400 chassis # 2842100380 with registration painted on 16 after Darren's ARN 62384 chassis # 2842100365, has a solid roof with a hatch. There is a notation in the ARNs halfway between mine and Darren's where the whole description is written in full which possibly means there was a change about then, maybe. They are both AALMG equipped though.
Ken

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by DarrenCollins

I'll get onto that Tony =)

This first Pic shows the Army Number 996-01

That number is not in a format used by the Australian Army, or the RAAF. I do not recognise the number.

It is clearly properly signwritten, so is part of a fleet of well presented vehicles, but whose? That shade of blue was seen on trucks operated by the civil construction company Transfield, but their ex-mil fleet were more typically 6x6 GMC and Studebaker trucks. There was another fleet of pale blue vehicles associated with the Woomera area, but not yet identified who.

Good news is the tray is the original tray, but with a few minor modifications.

[Mike Cecil]

A few comments about items in this thread:

Dave Buckle: the number 61176 over three coloured bars on the bonnet is not an ARN, but the Unit Serial Number. The ID of the unit and the explanation of the three colour-coded bars system is explained in my book 'Australian Army Units and Unit Serials of the Second World War,' available from Virtual bookworm (unless some other Forum member has a copy handy?) Not a marking that usually survives.

The Holden body plates: there was one mounted on the front shell, called the Front End by Holdens, and this is visible stamped on the plate next to the Model line on the 44 10193 plate. There was a second plate adjacent but attached to the main cab body with the cab body production number. This second plate was sometimes (?) attached to the cab frame vertical face below the windscreen on the passenger side, above his footwell. A third Holden tag was attached to the rear sill of the rear body, with the body type stamped onto it (eg GS, Office, etc). The one eaten away was probably made of Zinc sheet.

The '44' in the stamping would normally indicate a 1944 pattern Holden body. These had the demountable steel frame/canvas doors and a strap across the bottom edge of the doorframe, but the cab pictured appears to be a sunshine cab with solid steel doors. Production of Sunshine cabs had been discontinued by 1944, so I'm at a loss to know why 44 pattern cab plates are fitted. Sunshine cabs were originally designed for use on 15 cwt Battery Staff vehicles, though the type has been observed on other CMP chassis/wheelbases/body types.

996-01 on the doors of a pale blue/grey painted truck is similar to the colour, style and identification used by the Electric Power Transmission Company (EPT) who were big users of ex-military equipment including Diamond-T, GMC, Studebaker and CMPs.

The underbonnet nomenclature came into use on new-production vehicles in mid-1942, and was also supposed to be painted onto all vehicles then in Aust Army service (but wasn't). It was for correctly identifying the make and model for parts ordering and for correctly completing census returns.

The sign with the 2-inch wide white bar across the top is an early war (1940-42) unit sign where the formation was indicated by the white bar, and the unit sign would be the area below that. For example, 1 Aust Corps Petrol Park in November 1940 was a white 54 unit sign superimposed over the arm of service sign of red/green diagonally divided with a white 2 inch wide bar across the top. No formation sign as such was carried for 1 Aust Corps at that time, the white bar indicating the unit was a Corps unit. HQ's units had a white bar across the bottom of the sign. Lines of Communications units in 1943 also used a white bar across the bottom, along with a territory affiliation letter in black in the middle of the white bar.

A 1 inch wide bar at the top came into use for Corps, Army and HQ units in 1942. A 1 inch wide bar across the bottom came into use for Lines of Communication units, and there are instances of a white 1 inch wide bar across the bottom used by some Corps units during 1943. (Also a grey top bar for some Force units, eg NT Force).

So it will depend upon the width of the bar as to what it may indicate.

Nice collection of CMPs, and very very unusual for a Unit Serial Number and the three colour bars to survive.

Regards

Mike

[DarrenCollins]

I got the vehicles near Blinman near Woomera in South Australia.
Thank you very much for helping me with this issue all.

I really appreciate the time and effort that has gone into these posts.
The information supplied is astounding. I'm definitely in the right place as a new Blitz owner.

[DarrenCollins]

Hi All,
I managed to get the chassis number for my C60L. Here it :

IDnumber.jpg

Would love to hear you thoughts. Did I get it all?

[Tony Smith]

From THIS THREAD:

Originally Posted by DaveBuckle

I have attached pic of chassis number the cab came off in case it has some significance if anyone can interpret where/what that history is - seemed to be a C30A. Think it is: 33443S01115?
Attachment 102875

38443S01144! Yours is the 1144th chassis, probably built the same week as Dave's truck.