What were the main points in waterproofing vehicles for D Day (Europe) I belive there was 10.000 tons of Compound 219 used (Manf Shell) and snorkels were manufactured. Where did the expertise come from and where were the key personell trained? Thanks
Some text on waterproofing Bren carriers: "All vehicles had to be waterproofed to get through the sea landing and in the case of the Brengun carriers the procedure was this way. First you built up the sides of the carrier with metal plates about three feet high. The plates were put on all the way around so that instead of having a shape like a trailer that you pull behind a car, the carrier began to look cube shaped. And the plates, the extension plates, which by the way were not armoured like the bottom part of it was, they were welded together with a Bostik waterproofing preparation at the corners. Bearing in mind of course that the intention of this was to keep the water out when you went down into the water when landing, it followed that you had to lift up the exhaust pipe above the level of the waves. So we had a kind of snake like metal framed rubber tubing that ran from the exhaust pipe right up to the top of the new waterproofing metal plates. Once we landed of course all this would be knocked off and we should be back to our normal fighting rig."
A couple of waterproofing instructions, sorry I only have scans of the front and not sure where they are to do the rest Alistair
The last 50-odd pages of WO 229/50 addresses waterproofing and includes the minutes of the tenth(?) meeting of the Waterproofing Committee which, although of poor quality, is worth persevering with. WO 219/2787 contains the minutes for the 20th, 21st and 22nd meetings and WO 233/46 may have more. Doubtless the rest are buried under some innocuous listing.
This thread addresses some of the issues associated with waterproofing from the perspective of a specific vehicle: The Austin K5 again - PREPARING for D-Day! In part, it's a summary of one of the epic threads: Operation Market Garden (The lorry thread)
