I am happy that my images get shared anywhere as long as its not for profit, in this case this image also appears on the Imperial War Museum archive, if my image is from the same wartime printing batch as theirs it was not created by them they don't have copyright.
No not for profit. Its not the bikes, but the Bedford. I was going to post it in The Bedford MW Facebook page. I don't think that I have ever seen one. Is that the type, Armadillo?
Cheers,
Dave
EDIT, the details on the IWM photo, called them Bisons.
Bison was the concrete pillbox on a truck chassis, if you google Bedford Armadillo this steel type and the wooden pebble filled versions appear. Was there a wheels and tracks article on them years ago?
Just what I saw on the photo. Should have known, as Bison used to be known for concrete floors. Not too sure about the W&T article, should do though, seen as I have all of them.
That shows how desperate and ill prepared we were....It would have taken a week to get near the fighting with all that concrete on board....and I should think an attempted emergency stop would end in tears...:laughing: ...
It would have given the Germans a good laugh though, as they walked away from it....Ian
I don't think these could ever have been considered a fighting vehicle Ian. Merely a mobile pill box, to compliment the lines of permanent pill boxes already in place......The Germans might still have laughed though! Ron
Well it is a 6 wheel lorry Dave and the concrete pill box and cab are probably not much more that it's payload anyway. Imagine it loaded with the same weight of bricks, would only be 5-6 courses high?
When I worked on building sites as a skinny 9 stone yoof in the 60's, Invariably the lorry from "London Bricks" would turn up on site just as we were about to knock off and already knackered. They all had to be manhandle off and always had a hampering layer of straw between each course.........Thems were the days!:angry: Ron
It looks like a prop from a Monty Python movie .:grinning:
Emblem on truck could be a scorpion ?
WNG : central speedo, rubbers on tank, gearlever and footrests, a early model.
VMCC Founder Titch Allen was involved with one of these Bedford mobile pillboxes in his DR days, it was probably in one of his MCS articles where he relates how awful they were, I think he lost control of one on a hill and ended up in a field.