Hi everyone! My name is Alexander Strehl and I live in Stockholm, Sweden and just found this forum. Trying to find out any information possible about a 1942 Willys MB Canadian Slat Grill jeep that I've found in a barn here in Sweden in the summer of 2019 and just started restoring. We carefully began looking for any military markings on the jeep and what we found is amazing. This jeep belonged to 4th Armoured Division, 23rd Field Regiment (SP), Signal section. Any help in deciphering what the S6 marking on the jeep means would be highly appreciated. Also, trying to find any trace, history or even photos of the jeep in any war diaries of the 23rd would be like a dream. The jeep will be restored to it's original condition w/o destroying any of it's original patina and the same identical markings will be restored as well. According to the WWII jeep forums online, no one has ever seen a Canadian Slat Grill in this condition or with the markings intact. We are convinced that this jeep took part in the whole campaign of the 23rd from July 1944 until May 5, 1945. Vehicle WD is CM1165051. Pls see attached photos. My email is astrehl@me.com
Artillery units applied letters to guns and vehicles to identify the function of each vehicle. There were a lot of 15 cwt trucks. There is an example for an SP battery on post #2 and #3 of this thread. Field Battery - Self Propelled Post #4 gives the establishment and organisation of a field regiment and the 1945 establishment amendments for an SP regiment. This lists various vehicles within the regiment that have a survey function, Regimental vehicles used different letters from the batteries. "Z" is the CO. Two vehicles are identified as "GS" In the 1980s in my battery the battery survey vehicles were S1 and S2. So my guess is that your jeep is one of the 4 seat car 4 x 4 - maybe the one in bold and underlined by me. von poop posted the information, and may be able to tell you the source and whether the vehicles numbered .1- 5 should have the letter S in front of the number
Thanks for your reply. Would a jeep belonging to the Signal section really have a Medical Officer, batman driver?
This jeep belonged to "F" Troop, No. 2 Squadron, 4th Canadian (Armoured) Divisional Signals as denoted by the combination of the 4th Div formation sign and the white over blue 76 unit sign. The Signals vehicles were part of Regimental HQ (red over blue tactical sign) and had identifiers starting with "S" as per this table. "F" Troop was assigned to support 23 Field Regiment. In total, the troop had three Car, 5-cwt. One for the Troop Commander, one for a Despatch Rider and one for a Line jeep. Armoured_Divisional_Signals_WE_II_213_1_-_page_10 Extract by Pronto91 posted Feb 19, 2020 at 6:32 AM They may have been numbered in order and, if that is the case, S6 would refer to the Troop Commanders vehicle (the sixth vehicle in the list) but that is just a guess. I will look through the War Diary of 4th Canadian (Armoured) Divisional Signals to see if there is a record of the CM number but that is a long shot.
Very interesting and exciting info! See attached screenshot, is that the same troop as you are referring to?
Roughly yes. What you posted appears to be a convoy grouping (how they traveled, not the full organization) for the Regimental HQ group which would include portions of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals troop attached to the unit. By the usage of "Royal Signals", what you posted is British though and not Canadian which likely differed somewhat. The equivalent document can likely be found somewhere in the war diary of the 23rd Field Regiment. Although officially part of the Divisional Signals unit, the troop operated in the Field Regiment so detailed info would more likely be in the 23rd's WD and not 4 Div Sigs' WD.
Got it! Thanks for clarifying. Really appreciate your input and effort on this. Let me know if you have a link to the War Diary of 4th Canadian (Armoured) Divisional Signals. I'm a total novice on how to navigate through the war diaries, so any help is more than welcome.
Here is the link to the start of the 4th Divisional Signals at Heritage Canadiana: War diaries : T-21342 - Héritage It continues on the next reel at: War diaries : T-21343 - Héritage Unfortunately it ends on the last reel at June 30th, 1942. They have not posted any further signal war diaries.
From the thread on 23rd (SP) Field Regiment: For 4 Divisional Signals, you can see December 1944 to December 1945 here: 4 Div Sigs WD at LAC
I HAVE FOUND MY JEEP (S6)! This is beyond amazing. Pls see attached screen shots. Is there any way to find additional war diaries for 4th Div Sigs? Wow! I'm sooo excited!
I wonder if this signals unit's war diary has been digitized yet on the Library and Archives Canada website. It would be worth looking.
Only 13 months are available from Library and Archives Canada at the list provided in post #11. Dryan 67 provided links to the WDs up until June 1942 at Heritage Canadiana in post #9. These are actually Library and Archives microfilmed copies which have been digitized and are available online. Those are all currently available online so the gap is July 1942 to November 1944.
Exactly. Would you know if the gap is due to that they haven’t been digitized yet or that they are missing?
They are not missing, just not digitized online. Copies are available for physical viewing in Ottawa.
Update: They are not missing (mostly, I didn't see 1939/12 to 1940/06), just not digitized online. Copies are available for physical viewing in Ottawa. 1939/08-1939/11 1940/07-1941/01 1941/02-1942/08 1942/09-1943/08 1943/09-1944/11 Even one entry specific to "F" troop. F Troop 1943/04-1943/05