Hello all, my Grandfather served in the 1st battalion the Buffs for the duration of the war. His trade was Driver / Mechanic class 3. Like many others, he wouldn't talk about his experiences but thanks to online resources and the battalion war diary, I've found out a huge amount, but can anybody tell me what sort of vehicle he would have been responsible for driving and maintaining? Any help greatly appreciated and photo's would be invaluable. His rank was sergeant. Cheers
I don't know how far you've got with your vehicle research, but the Trux resource on this site gives a good idea of the quantities and classes of vehicles operated by an infantry battalion. Infantry Battalion Makes and models varied with period and theatre. If you wish to avoid generalisations and there are no mentions of types or serial numbers in the battalion war diaries then the diaries of the REME units can be helpful as they tended to mention where vehicles for repair originated. Any photos captioned to the battalion in the IWM archives might include a vehicle and they have put a lot on-line recently, not at a very high resolution but they are a good starting point.
Thanks, I will head there and take a look. Just after posting this I got hold of the battalion war diary. I think in passing vehicles mentioned are by weight rather than the model, 2.5ct for example, but I'll have to go through it again and make accurate notes. One thing I am sure of is that they used a version of the Universal Carrier - It's a start. Appreciate your reply Andy
Andy, given a serial number, beginning 'Z' or 'L' for instance, we can work back and identify make and model. All standard infantry battalions had a 'Carrier Platoon'....Early on that would have been a 'Bren', later a 'Universal'...Again, with the 'T' number we can ascertain manufacturer etc.
Thanks Rich, I'll see what I can find, if anything, in the war diary. I was looking at some Anzio footage last night and did see a number of vehicles with a number pre fixed with a 'T'
The records of specific vehicles in a unit very rarely survive photographic records are best. Each unit had a theoretical allocation based on weight capacity and role. As there were different manufacturers with different models and developments it is hard to generalise. Attempts were made to keep vehicles in a unit to the same model for spares however this was not always possible. The Trux link is excellent for the theoretical organisation.
Infantry Battalion vehicles were normally not too exotic. You'll have a mix of cars, trucks and lorries, which as noted would be referred to by type rather than manufacturer. Trucks were normally 15-cwt while lorries started as 30-cwt but became standardised as 3-ton. Driver mechanics were mostly, but not entirely, the drivers for carriers. Spe driver mechanics could be found on the WE for certain wheeled vehicles, which were normally handled by Drivers, IC. Gary
Ok thanks for that, It's certainly the case for Italy and I would guess for North Africa Any idea how long a course was and where it took place at all? Andy
