C8AX production

[Rob Beale]

These last two posts help fill the gaps in written accounts as only pics can do!

The pics of C8AX ambulances prove that they were landed on the Solomon Islands captured by 3 NZ Division.
Until now I had only seen a pic of ambulances on Guadalcanal which in 1943 was the forward base from where the amphibious assaults were mounted.
The war histories of the army medical units state they removed the red crosses as the Japanese would target them!

The line up of vehicles going to Korea with K Force is interesting as one contingent with 163 Battery RNZA was aboard an old inter-island ferry named Wahine which ran aground on an island to the north of Australia in 1950.
All the men were rescued by a tanker nearby but all the vehicles and 25 pdrs went down with the ship.
A gunner was decorated for diving into the holds to disable the guns a point of honour as the guns are their colours!

(Another inter-island ferry called Wahine foundered in Wellington Harbour in 1968 with serious loss of life)

Rob