Volunteer Defence Corps (Australia) - transport

[Matt Austin]

Morning, folks,

On behalf of a friend, I'm trying to establish whether the VDC had dedicated transport. There aren't many photos, and the assumption arms to be that private vehicles were used. This may be due to watching too much Dad's Army!

So, did the VDC use any vehicles in particular? What trucks would have been used?

Cheers,
Matt

[Mike Kelly]

There was a home movie , filmed by a chap who was in the VDC , they were using a 1938 or 39 Ford truck , and a 2 pounder gun being towed by the Ford .

I cannot recall the exact details of where I saw the movie, but it has stuck in my memory .

Might be worth doing a search in the AWM archives ...home movies

A school teacher at Boronia Tech. was in the VDC at Queenscliff in Vic. , he was 15 and he told me they had a Lewis gun . The CO was ex WW1 officer, just like dads army he said !

He was sprung watching the ships come through the heads and hauled in front of a policeman ..they said he was a spy ! He was reading the morse lamps from the ships..his name was Jack Smith , easy to remember

[lynx42]

Hi Matt, The Australian war Memorial published a series of books during and after WWII. One was called "On Guard - with the Volunteer Defence Force", in 1944.

I am attaching some photos from that book for you.

As you will see, most of the vehicles pictured are privately owned.

The cover.



In this photo most are private, but there is a military 1940 Chev ute second from the top at the top of the photo.



Dads Army at work.



The rego on this one is private NSW rego.



and a bit of fun.



My grandfather was OIC of the Western District VDC based at Hamilton, Victoria, and received a service medal for WWII to add to his WWI medals.

Regards Rick.

[Matt Austin]

Thank you very much, Mike and Rick, your assistance is appreciated.

Cheers,
Matt