2 Pounder Carrier discovered and recovered

[Keith Webb]

Luke Drysdale of Yea in Victoria has recently recovered this carrier hull in restorable condition from a property near Strath Creek.

Luke would like some information to assist with research and restoration.

I've asked Luke to look for the hull number... which leads me to ask where to find it on a 2 pounder.



Lots more pics here.

[phoenix]

That is a rare beastie. WHat is there looks to be in good condition as well!

[Ryan]

Yep, I'm jealous.

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Keith
WHAT AN ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS FIND!!
That hull looks in superb condition. When you consider that only 200 were made, to locate this one is a miracle. This makes about 19 that I can account for. They were numbered #6000 - #6200 and manufactured by the Metropolitan Gas Company (Metgas), Victoria around October 1942 under Contract No. CCV.102. I believe that a number should exist on the flat part of one of the front towing hitches, offside I think. It may only be a three digit number with the number 6 being added to the front of the other three numbers. However I stand to be corrected on this information as my knowledge of these machines is very limited. Three of my associates here each own one so I need to get to them to expand my knowledge base.
Send my congratulations to Luke and please keep us posted on his progress, or get him to join MLU.
Bob

[Keith Webb]

I was pretty impressed too...

Here's another pic

[ron]

Great find,
Looks like I will have to come down to Victoria and start scratching around, well done I will follow the restoration with much interest
Regards,
Ron,

[Jared Archibald]

G'day,
an excellent find - another hull surfaces after many hard years of service.

There were two brass plates affixed to this model carrier. The first was the ID plate. This was fastened to the flat triangular plate above the dashboard/control panel. This area can still be seen on Luke's hull. It stated “CARRIER. A.T. 2-PDR // AUSTRALIA // SERIAL No.6xxx”. The second was the builders plate and this was affixed to the bulkhead directly behind the drivers head. This stated “MADE BY THE METROPOLITAN GAS Co. // MELBOURNE”. This bulkhead has been oxyed out of Luke's hull.

However, the hull humber/serial number was stamped in large numerals (half inch high) on the centre front towing eye. It is stamped on the angled part welded to the glacis plate, not on the horizontal part of the eye. As Bob mentioned earlier, the serial numbers started at 6000 and 200 were produced. I don’t know if the first ten were stamped with one numeral (ie. 1) or were stamped 01, but from 10 onwards only the last two digits of the serial were stamped. For example, a hull stamped with 25 indicates a serial number of 6025. A three figure stamped number just needs a 6 placed at the front of it ie. 142 is actually serial number 6142. I look forward to finding out the ID of this new hull.

A couple of points also:- sitting on the left hand rear of the hull in the photos is one of the fold-up crew seats. Keep hold of it. On top of the engine compartment is a fan shroud. It appears large enough to be the original. If it is, the fan hole will be offset to one side and there is a depression in one part of it (as in the radiator lower tank) for clearance for the driveshaft.

This hull is a great start to what will be a very interesting project. Is Luke going to join MLU? If he has more questions, post them on the forum and between us all we should be able to answer them.

Jared

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Jared
Thanks for that information. I confirmed this today with the owner of two 2pdrs re. the towing eye number.
Bob

[Ian Pullen]

Keith,
feel free to pass my e-mail and phone number to Luke. I will be able to help out.

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by Ian Pullen
Keith,
feel free to pass my e-mail and phone number to Luke. I will be able to help out.

No probs, Ian

I've left a message on his home number to call me.

Great discovery, isn't it?

Keith

[Plushy]

Some people have all the luck ! Excellent Find i look forward to seeing some restoration photos in the future .

[Pedr]

So I went down to the workshop the other night, with wirebrush in hand. Spent some time brushing the attaching plate for the front tow hook....

....NO BLOODY NUMBER????

So now what do you think that we should do???

We already have a number for the carrier....6194. This is a proven number as the original I.D. plates are still on the hull...but it definately doesn't have any stampings.

This is the second Metgas hull that I am aware of that isn't marked. My LP2A hull, 5071 isn't stamped anywhere either. Once again....any ideas anyone??

Pedr

[ron]

Hi Pedr,
It seems that there are a few of these most interesting machines living in South australia, what do you think of the idea that you and your other friends who have these carriers start a photo thread of them so that we can all enjoy looking at them and maybe the other owners in other areas and states may wish to post pics of their respective machines I feel that this could only be good for our hobby and may also be benificial for the two pounder owners,as who knows there may be parts out there that some of us may have to suit these vehicles its just a thought,
Regards,
Ron,

[ron]

Pedr,
There is no need for locations just pics, that way owners privacy is maintained
Ron,

[sapper740]

What's that adjective the Brits like to use? Cracking? Cracking great find there Keith! Here's a couple of pics I have on my hard drive of a AT UC.

[sapper740]

Originally posted by sapper740
What's that adjective the Brits like to use? Cracking? Cracking great find there Keith! Here's a couple of pics I have on my hard drive of a AT UC.

[Graeme Stephens]

So did 'we / anyone' ever find out the serial number of Luke's A/T carrier ?
Curious owner of 6079 G7s

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Originally Posted by G7s

So did 'we / anyone' ever find out the serial number of Luke's A/T carrier ?
Curious owner of 6079 G7s

Do you have a name, mate? We'd prefer that you use it - MLU is a friendly place, not somewhere you have to hide...

Jif

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi Graeme - I have both your Carriers on my database but have no images. PM me for Email address and perhaps you can send some images.
Bob

[colin jones]

Hi Graeme, the hull number of Lukes carrier is 6002 and it now resides in Adelaide along side some other wonderfull carriers and another a/t number 6019. both are waiting patiently for full restorations which will happen in due course. I will post pics as and when progress begins.
regards
Colin Jones.

[Graeme Stephens]

Thankyou Colin for that information, that's very friendly of you.
The middle tow lug on '6002' does it have a '2' 0r '02'
I take it that ID plate was missing from above the inst. panel

Hopefully I have attached a picture of my '79' tow lug, also, notice the field modification some ww2 driver has carried out after slipping while getting in.

Graeme 7s

[Pedr]

Evening folks.

Spent the evening with Colin Jones last night talking carriers and stuff. I can enfatically state that 6002 is numbered simply " 2 ".

Thusly, a conversation started with regard to the actual physical number of the carrier.

It was argued that 6002 was infact the third carrier off the production line as it is believed that they commenced the numbering from 6000.

My belief is that it was the second off the line - hence the number 2, and that as a result the 2pdr AT carriers started at 6001 being the first number.

What is the general opinion?

Pedr

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi all - read below

RFS/OE
Armoured Fighting Vehicles Divn. Salmon Street, Fisherman’s Bend.
16th March, 1942.

MEMORANDUM:
REGISTRATION ARMY MECHANICAL VEHICLES. MECH. CIRCULAR 307

Serial and registration numbers for the armoured fighting vehicle production
programme, have been allotted as follows:-

CARRIERS 2 - PDR. ANTI - TANK (AUST.)

Metropolitan Gas Co., Melbourne, have been allotted Serial Numbers 6001 6200 against Order No. CCV. 102, including one (1) number for the pilot model.

etc.etc

Inspector General
of Munitions.
cc. D. of Mech.

However there appears to be a slight conflict. According to Mike Cecil in one of his publications, the numbering started at 6000. I'm not sure what "including one (1) number for the pilot" means.

Bob

[moderator's note: bmp file deleted, jpg file provided below]

[Roddy de Normann]

Bob -

Any chance of a better scan - can not read your paperwork

Roddy

[zemsi]

Originally Posted by Roddy1011

Bob -

Any chance of a better scan - can not read your paperwork

... can't read it too. Bob, you should save the image as jpg or png etc. If you dont' have a programm use irfanview.com

[Lynn Eades]

Yes please Bob, a better one.
Cheers.

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Hi all - sorry about that. I realised afterwards that the image was in Tiff and then of course I had to find the original. Hopefully this will work.
Bob

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Bob Moseley

Hi all - sorry about that. I realised afterwards that the image was in Tiff and then of course I had to find the original. Hopefully this will work.
Bob

Perhaps you can next make it about 4 times the size.

[Lynn Eades]

It looks pretty clear to me that the first of them was #6001.
One would assume that this would have been the number of the pilot model.
Lynn.

[colin jones]

That means I have number 2 off the production line and probably the oldest known attack carrier still left.
Colin.