Post war British jeeps

[fatalbert]

Hi all,I have been wondering about post war jeep use by the British.i watched exodus the other day ,now I know it was made in 1960 ,but they had desert coloured jeeps and trucks,so ......

1,did we still use jeeps in post war Palestine

2,were they painted in desert colours

And

3,when did we stop using jeeps

Cheers guys........Neil

Edited August 10, 2014 by fatalbert

[Dave Fleming]

I found this pic of a (presumably) air-portable jeep in service at Suez

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205212446

And here is one in Palestine

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205208140

Edited August 10, 2014 by Dave Fleming

[fatalbert]

Thanks for that Dave ,the Palestine one is interesting as it seems to be in olive drab.

[Killingholme]

There's a good discussion on postwar jeeps here

http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?24502-Jeep-24-YH-46/page3

Will

[Chris Grove]

Hi everyone

Jeeps at Suez were almost relics. They had virtually been replaced by Champs and Landrovers. However, since they had to be dropped from the dropping beam on Hastings aircraft (the dropping beams were also relics) and they were only designed for jeeps, a few Jeeps were dug out, painted yellow (with white H) and dropped in with 3 Para, some with 106mm recoilless rifles. They were rapidly replaced with more modern transport once this started coming ashore.

Jeeps were common in Palestine and also in Malaya, as well as in UK and BAOR up to the early 1950s.

Chris

[Dave Fleming]

Thanks Chris, that's interesting.

[fatalbert]

Thanks for the replies everyone

[sloegin57]

Thanks for the replies everyone

Hang about - not finished yet Niel. This thread has brought back memories

Scanned these from an old copy of Flight from 1955. Shows HRH The Duke of Edinburgh inspecting a Hastings at Colerne with underslung loads :-

It rang a bell because back in the sixties when I was on Malta Communications and Target Towing Squadron, we had to do the same after the Government disbanded the Shack Squadrons in the Middle East without realising that the ASR facility had also been taken away. Shacks on det from St Mawgan covered the western Med, 70 Sqdn (Hastings) covered the eastern Med and MC&TTS covered the middle bit - with one Valetta, initially VX539 and later VW856 :-

I have no idea who made the beams for the Hastings but we were convinced that British Railways made ours out of spare girders - they were heavy - to say the least.

HTH

Dennis

Edited August 15, 2014 by sloegin57

[bobgpw]

My GPW was demobbed in 1955 according to the logbook. It may have been stored for a while but who knows!

Not a desert scheme, but mine was painted Bronze Green over Olive Drab before the civvie colours. By then, most had been through several rebuilds, the rear axle on mine appears to have been originally painted USMC green.

Bob

[fatalbert]

good greif,the drag on those under slung loads must have been horrendous,excellent pics,thanks for sharing.

[Chris Grove]

Hi Obsessed Member

Lovely pic of a jeep on the dropping beam of a Hastings. But what do you (or anyone) reckon is on the other end of the beam? Could be the American 75 mm Pack Howitzer (judging from the holes along the trail) which was certainly used by the airborne, but it only has one wheel each side, so maybe a limber as well??

I seem to remember that the dropping beams were designed for the Halifax (same maker as the Hastings), but I would reckon it more likely that the Hastings dropping beams were developed from the Halifax ones. I would think that not many of the Hastings ones were made, as in 1955, most of UK's heavy drop was done from USAF C119s; hence the panic when we needed to do our own thing at Suez!

Chris