Waterproofing of vehicles

While reading the War Diaries for the 1/6th Queens
Royal West Regt during May 44 and their preparations
leading up to D-Day I read with admiration the work
needed to waterproof their vehicles and the time it
took to do such a task. They started on the 10th May
and finished on the 23rd May, 13 days in total starting
with cleaning the engines prior to waterproofing and
the final issuing of the certificates by the REME. I
then looked at notes written by Lt D Wallace of the
109th LAA Royal Artillery on the waterproofing of
“B” Vehicles and then could understand why, I
Then looked at some footage of how far out they dropped
Some of these vehicles off when landing on the beaches.
I am amazed that some of these vehicles actually ran
Afterwards, there’s 16 pages on this subject and
The offer to copy them stands as for the other notes
I have from Lt D Wallace, Enjoy.

 

Just found this on the REME museum site which
I found interesting...1% now thats good going.

Among many important World War 2 successes was the design and testing of waterproofing kits for all types of vehicles, guns, radars and other equipment used in landing operations which involved wading from the ramps of landing craft to a beach. The vehicle waterproofing for D Day in 1944, much of it carried out by REME tradesmen, was so successful that less than 1% of the vehicles landed suffered a waterproofing failure.

 

Kieron, next time you're in WH Smiths take a look at Classic Military Vehicle, it often has pics or references to this. The Americans did the same, of course...

 

Hi Kieron
I read your notes with interest, since I have been researching the 16 Veh Coy RAOC, who spent a great deal of time waterproofing vehicles, would the notes have been generic & the same information distributed to each unit?

 

This thread is eleven years old, mate.

 

I have these couple of Instructions so looks like there were standard instructions for each vehicle type so it was consistent across units

 

Hi, many thanks for that, it exactly answers my question.

 

Might be of interest:

 

Hi Dave
many thanks for that, the film offers a great insight into what was done, & the amount of effort required to prepare the vehicles for the landings.

 

I think you probably meant 1/6 Bn Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment. No battalions of the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment fought in North West Europe in 1944 or 45 (though some units which did fight there might have started life as a West Kent battalion). Nor did the West Kents have a 1/6 battalion.
Chris

 

Hi again Kieron could you please email me some PDF copies of your REME instruction cards and notes on Waterproofing...............thanks in anticipation Mike