During 1940 a large number of NIRTB vehicles were "impressed by military authorities" (which is what is written on their fleet records cards of the NIRTB) and simply disappeared. Is there anyway I can find what became of these vehicles, what their military identities were and what happened to them after the War. None were returned to the NIRTB.
A number of photos are emerging which are showing that British buses were taken into Europe by the BEF and abandoned with everything else after Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk was completed. My own research is trying to find 62 buses which were impressed from the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board in early 1940 and were never heard of again. At the end of the War, unlike most vehicles, they were not returned to their owners nor sold on to dealers or other operators. So far I haven't found any with the BEF, but until recently there have been no photos of British buses shown. If you have any photos of buses (either British or not) used by the BEF, can you please post them.
While not used by the BEF, the two buses shown here may be relevant: Generator Bus - Chief Signals Officer Six Command Signals, Lisburn HQ, County Antrim They each have a very large generator and are presumably providing power for Signals equipment, or perhaps the entire base. Cheers David
Thanks David, I am aware of these two vehicles and believe I may have identified them - I am not sure which unit had converted those for use as mobile generators.