T-16 Vehicle Identification / History

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Neil Ashley
I would imagine that any vehicle shipped to the Swiss was probably from unissued stocks.

Certainly most if not all the surviving T16's in the UK saw no war-time service. I am assuming that the British Army would not have bothered rebuilding T16's post war?

In 1951 Switzerland selected the T16 as their first armoured infantry vehicle. A total of 302 were bought from the "manufacturer in England" [sic - more likely a surplus vehicle dealer] for a unit price of 7.400 Swiss Francs. The T16 or Pz Begl Fz UC (which stands for Panzer-Begleitfahrzeug Universal Carrier) was in service from 1953 until 1963.

Do you recon Britain still had unissued T16 stocks in 1951? I can imagine they had first had a few good years of service in the British Army before being declared surplus. We do know there were a number of modifications carried out on the Swiss T16s, but I have no information whether these were carried out in conjuntion with a rebuild, and if this was carried out in the UK or in Switserland.

H.