CMP 15-cwt truck at Poste Weygand

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Hanno,

Are you sure that Fort Weygrand is in Algeria?

I think this photo was taken in Syria, and that it probably shows one of the very earliest CMP trucks delivered into the Middle East.

It has the ME Command number plate with the Arabic numerals.

I also have the same photograph in a book called "Britain at War, The Army" printed in 1942, which on page 243 which has a caption saying "A Fort is Free Again".

"A British sentry guarding the entrance to Fort Weygrand, captured in the allied advance into Syria. The Fort is named after the French general, who was recalled from Syria to take command in France when the Germans broke though."

I think it is far more likely that the photo was taken in 1941 when Pith helmets were still widely used in the Middle East rather than in Algeria which was not reached until 1942-43, and then by British 1st Army personnel who by and large wore European style uniforms with Battle Dress topped by berets, side caps or tin helmets, and not with pre-war solar topees.

Regards

Nick Balmer