Universal carrier

[David Ellery]

Hi Geoff,
The Carriers mentioned were most probably New Zealand built LP2,s. Jeffrey Plowman in his excellent series "Kiwi Armour. Armoured Fighting Vehicles of NZ" mentions LP2 carriers which were built for supply to the Eastern Group Supply Council " never took delivery of any carriers from the batch of 650 manufactured for them. Instead 23 were supplied to the United States forces in the Pacific in May 1943 and a further 10 were purchased by them in June for the Free French Forces"

Also the First US Marine Division was supplied with LP2 carriers when they were based here in NZ 1942, Jeff goes on to say " four LP2 carriers were borrowed by the Second US Marine Division in December 1942 for trials with the Scout Car Company of 2 Tank Battalion. Those in command had decided that the Scout cars were not appropriate for fighting in the Pacific Islands, so a trade was arranged with the NZ Army in which they got the scout cars and the Marines got the carriers"

Jeff goes onto say that more carriers were requested by the US forces, but not spare parts. " Four were shipped to the Solomons where they were used to carry stores from the beaches"
Might throw a bit more light on the USMC and carriers in the Islands, Cheers David..