MKI rifle and MG stowage

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by Nigel
I've tried fitting all sorts of .303 cartons, boxes, radio boxes etc into this bracket but nothing fits properly. The fact that there is only one strap indicates one box or one piece of equipment. I go with a snug fitting box because the hole underneath would allow for pushing it up perhaps! On a MkI* carrier you have stowage for every piece of equipment that it was designed to carry, well almost, certainly on the weapons side of things. Except that is for the Boys. You have a magazine holder on the front to the left of the firing slot but nothing else. Is there a Boys Ammo box or carton for the .55 which would fit there? The Boys mag ammo box is too big.

The Aust Carriers used the same mounting place for Bren Mag boxes as for the Boyes Mag boxes. If you look at Bob Moseley's stowage daigram above you will see 1 Bren Mag box on the left of the pic with a leather strap fitted to the lower footman loop. This is the position for the Boyes Mag box, the upper footman loop is for 2 Bren Mag boxes.

Originally posted by rob love
The manual calls the bracket a "BRACKET ASSEMBLY, AERIAL MAST SECTIONS CLAMP". Was there a box which contained
some kind of couplers or unions for the antenna sections? Since the antenna is stored on the top of the engine cover, it wouldn't be unreasonable to keep an accessory of the antenna in that location.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on the 11 set. I was going to try and get one for my carrier, but I think I'm just going to settle for the 19 set instead.

I have a carrying case for the "F" section antenna rods used with the 19 Set, which has little loops and clips along it's length. Could there have been a similar case clamped on this bracket for the 11 Set "D" aerial sections, or was this case mounted on the engine cover?