Vehicle Data Book: pre-March 1944 edition??

[Alex van de Wetering]

As Bill Gregg wrote in this own "Canada's Fighting Vehicles", the first section of the book is basically a carbon copy of the "Vehicle Data book" of March 1944.

Does anyone know if there every was an earlier edition of the Vehicle Data Book?
As the book is from March 1944 some of the early vehicles have not been included; I hope an earlier edition could give us some more info on the earlier stuff. Was there ever a 1943 edition, maybe?

Alex

[Paul Singleton]

I have these two.

[Paul Singleton]

My book also says that it is a reprint of the vehicle data book from March 1944. Your book has “second edition “ on the cover so mine must be the first edition. The Blueprint for Victory book is about the research and British influence in design and manufacturing of vehicles in preparation for war.

[rob love]

I have an original copy which has the stamp of PJ Montague on the inside cover. The book is dated Dec of 44 on the inside cover. The book makes no mention of superseding previous or earlier editions.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Paul Singleton

My book also says that it is a reprint of the vehicle data book from March 1944. Your book has “second edition “ on the cover so mine must be the first edition. The Blueprint for Victory book is about the research and British influence in design and manufacturing of vehicles in preparation for war.

The first edition has the same cropped and sanitized photos as the original publication. Bill Gregg found the original unedited photos in the archives that were used for the original book, so he printed a second edition with those photos instead, believing that those photos were far more interesting to collectors.

[Ed Storey]

I did not know that there was a bound version of the Vehicle Data Book - Canadian Army Overseas - December 1944 as I have one of the heavy card cover editions.

Vehicle Data Book - Canadian Army Overseas - December 1944 copy.jpg

Judging by publication dates, The Data Book series of manuals appears to predate the Overseas edition by two years. This is just one of the titles from the series.

Data Book - Canadian Military Pattern Vehicles copy.jpg

[rob love]

Nothing as fancy as a bound copy Ed....just a different, more dignified cover. The cover is embossed "Chief Of Staff" on the bottom right corner.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

Judging by publication dates, The Data Book series of manuals appears to predate the Overseas edition by two years. This is just one of the titles from the series.

Data Book Canadian Military Pattern Vehicles is one of this series (see the link for an original which went to Grant Hopkins);

Data Book Tank type vehicles of Canadian manufacture is another (I have a laserprinted copy for sale if anyone is interested);

Are there any other manuals in this series?

data book 1 (2).jpg 16623342101.jpg

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Wow, great to see those original books!

Mike Cecil quoted Bill Gregg on the first version dating back to March 1943:

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Bill Gregg was quite open about the source being that data book. This from his introduction: 'The first part is essentially a photo facsimile of the original Vehicle Data Book issued in March 1943...'

For those looking for a copy, I posted a link to a downloadable pfd-version of the December 1944 edition here:

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Download and read “Canadian Military Headquarters. Vehicle Data Book (Restricted). 1944“ here:
https://wartimecanada.ca/document/se...icle-data-book

Screenshot_2020-04-26 Vehicle Data Book Pt1 pdf.jpg

[Alex van de Wetering]

Guys,

Thanks for your replies.

That's interesting, so given Bill Greggs mention of the "March 1944" book, it could be that there is at least a March 1944 and a December 1944 book and earlier publications in the form of the manual series as posted by Ed.

I will have a look with the link Hanno posted to see if there are differences between the december 1944 issue and Bill Greggs book based on the March 44 edition.


@Ed; I have never seen the manual series. Is that data book in the same style as the March 44 and/or December 44 Data book; one picture and a list of specs? Late 1942 means it would already have 13cab CMPs included?

@Paul; Sorry, my bad...I was after earlier publications of the official Data book, not the actual Gregg book. My copy is indeed the Volume 1, 2nd edition.

Alex

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

@Ed; I have never seen the manual series. Is that data book in the same style as the March 44 and/or December 44 Data book; one picture and a list of specs? Late 1942 means it would already have 13cab CMPs included?

Alex, here is a sample page Ed posted in an earlier thread. It looks like the Data Book Canadian Military Pattern Vehicles contains interesting info re. the C60X Machinery that you've been looking for?

Data Book - Page A10-25 copy.jpg