AWM images - Jeep semi-trailer image

[Mike Cecil]

To update the image a little, this is 25 Air Stores Park, RAAF, vehicle (25 ASP, which can be seen on the side of the hood/bonnet and on the end of one of the stacked boxes). The unit moved to Labuan Island in late June 1945, operating there until disbanded on 19 November 1945.

The unit had previously been located on Noemfoor Island from June 1944 until moving to Morotai Island in April 1945. If, as the caption states, the jeep was acquired on Noemfoor Island, then it had been with the unit since prior to April 1945.

The construction of the trailer is interesting, as it appears to use the rear section of a jeep chassis, chopped off just in front of the forward spring mount of the rear springs. The pivot point on the towing tractor jeep seems to be above the pintle hook position, rather than over the rear axle.

The RAAF evidently found the conversion useful, as an official conversion was drafted in 1947/1948 with the 5th wheel pivot mounted above the line of the rear axle, the trailer having a drop-down gooseneck design. I suspect the RAAF were the only service to officially adopt a jeep single-axle semi-trailer conversion, but how many were actually converted is not known to me. It is certainly one of the more unusual jeeps.

Mike