Scammell Pioneer R100 and SV/2S (BEF Service of specific vehicle?)

Hello,

I've just spent a happy hour going through some of the threads on here and finding lots of very interesting photos of Scammell Pioneers. Quite an amazing collection of information and photos on this site.

Last year I fulfilled a promise I made to myself as a little kid and bought a Scammell Pioneer R100 which also came with a Pioneer SV/2S. The gun tractor is in running condition but will still need a lot of restoration work. The bit that has really intrigued me is that the gun tractor is 1938. I would like to track down the history of it. The bit that particularly intrigues me is whether it went over with the BEF or if it stayed at home

The details I have so far are:

1938 R100 Gun Tractor and had the military number H3810150, chassis no. 2505 and was rebuilt by REME (B136?) December 1950, reg 12RD69 (assigned after the war),

I would be very interested in any leads on tracing it's history and also any pointers on the regiments that would have been using them at that time.

Best regards
Ed

 

Hello Ed and welcome to the Forum

please post any photos you have


regards
Clive

 

A very interesting question but one that is difficult to answer with certainty. I looked at this some years ago but not recently. I will see what I can find in my box files. I did not have a computer then.

Two immediate thoughts.
1. Pioneer tractors were slow to produce and there were not nearly enough of them to fill the establishment tables of Heavy Regiments RA. It is therefore extremely likely that they all went overseas with the BEF.
2. There were only three Heavy Regiments in the BEF. Nos1, 3 and 51 with a fourth ready to go in June. 6" gun batteries had priority.

Mike

 

Thank you for the welcome and the information. I will post some photos of my two tonight.

I've started working out he contract and chassis number records for the Pioneers. There were just over 200 Pioneer R100's built and delivered to the army by the end of 1938. By the end of 1939 the total was probably around 3-400 although most towards the end of the year. The last order for R100's was in 1942 and it looks like they had a high wartime survival rate. By 1949 there were about 600 registered with the army out of a total of just under 1000 made.

I've seen on some of the BEF threads that there are a number of photos of 1937/1938 manufactured Pioneer R100's abandoned during retreat. I did wonder that as the German's used a lot of them whether any returned to Allied ownership later in the war?

Thanks
Ed

 

Thank you. I was only after the gun tractor but the owner wanted to get rid of both together. It was an easy decision! Helped by having a girlfriend who was more than happy for me to get them.

Cheers
Ed

 

As promised photos.

The SV2/S:


The R100:


Both photos were taken when they arrived last year.

Regards
Ed

 

Very nice. They should keep you busy and out of mischief for a while.

Mike

 

I suspect Rich Payne or Jan maybe able to tell if they were with the BEF. If they were I'll have the diary within a week or two of IDing the unit, assuming that I don't have it already.

By the way-Hello

 

It's been a while since I've been on here and thought it was time to give a bit of an update. I have not managed to do much restoration work but I have managed to get a set of tracks and a few bits. I have not found out any more history but I have managed to research some of the vehicles features. Helped greatly by a christmas present - a copy of British Military Vehicles in Wehrmach Service. A book I can highly recommend for anyone interested in either early WWII british vehicles or british vehicles in german service. The germans had a very high opinion of a lot of the british vehicles.

I would still like to find out if my Scammell went over as part of the BEF or what division it served in.

Regards
Ed

 

Let me know if they did