24 Reserve Motor Transport Company RASC Vehicle Numbers

I,m currently going through the War Diaries for this unit and its successor 347 GT (later Inf Div) Coy, units that my Father served with through to Oct 45..

The unit was formed in Swindon on the 12th Sept 1940 (Dad joining on the 18th) before it moved North to Pudsey on the 14th Oct for training. Attached to the diary entry for Oct is the movement order for the move and the final two pages detail the vehicles involved in the main move (not the advance party which had moved on the 4th Oct). I thought that the list may be of interest to someone and so have attached copies below along with a couple of photos from Dads collection one of which shows 2 identifiable 3 ton lorries that appear on the list under "C Section". Dad is the chap in the background under the bonnet of L239337.

Vehicles noted in the diary as received prior to the move were -:
27/09/40 - 2 Motorcycles and 6 3 ton Bedford lorries on loan
28/09/40 - 25 3 ton Austin lorries, 8 Austin light cars and 52 Triumph motorcycles
02/10/40 - 20 3 ton vehicles, 1 workshop and 1 stores lorry
03/10/40 - 1 breakdown lorry



Regards,

David.

 

Wonderful stuff. Thanks for posting. I'm glad to see that he wasn't smoking whilst working on the carburretor !

The Triumph motorcycles were 350cc side-valve Model 3SW from contract C7162, delivered 3000 to Slough and 2000 to Feltham (both RASC depots) The contract Date was June 1940 but at this stage, deliveries quite often commenced before the paperwork was sorted.

 

Rich, Thanks for the response, he was far too sensible a chap to be caught smoking where he shouldn't. In later life he used to disappear off to the garden shed for a crafty fag thinking that mum,s all seeing eye wouldn't catch him, little did he know....

The information on the Triumphs is very much appreciated as I don't have access to this sort of detail. The Company seems to have had all Triumphs up to just after receiving their mobilisation order on the 28th July 1942 when there seems to have been a flurry of vehicles in and out of the unit. The 1942 diary records that they received 50 Aerial 350 C.C.M. machines on the 13th Sept 1942, presumably these would be the machines that they took to North Africa with them on the 7th Jan 1943.

David.