Talking to my grandfather last week about his RAF service - he joined up as general duties ‘for the duration’ and got about a bit, but after he was demobbed in '46, he couldn’t stand the civvi life and re-enlisted after 3 months as a regular airman, joining No2 MT section. I asked him a bit about the vehicles he drove, and he mentioned one or two (which I hadn’t heard of, and can’t recall now, unfortunately), but made most of his time driving ‘Yankee Bravo’s’.
I don’t know if it was a tractor unit, trailer, both, or a rigid - but I would be interested to see a few pics, or hear anyone’s experience of these vehicles. I do know that amongst his jobs was clearing all the airbases as they wound-down after the war - taking huge piles of old webbing from RAF Spitalgate (Grantham) to HMP Strangeways to be unpicked for mailbags, and travelling round picking-up tonnes of bombs and transporting them (at nightime only) down to Essex to be disposed of safely (probably washed-out in the sea!).
Cheers,
Shandy
EDIT -I should add, he only did 3 years before leaving in '49.
Hmm - I will take tht as a 'No, never 'eard of ‘em’ then!
Shandy123:
Hmm - I will take tht as a 'No, never 'eard of ‘em’ then!
Only thing I can think of is that “Yankee Bravo” is the phonetic alphabet for “YB”. was there a lorry with a model number YB? Somebody might know Shandy.
Chris
Chris Webb:
Shandy123:
Hmm - I will take tht as a 'No, never 'eard of ‘em’ then!
Only thing I can think of is that “Yankee Bravo” is the phonetic alphabet for “YB”. was there a lorry with a model number YB? Somebody might know Shandy.
Chris
hi chris,
i wondered about that? there was a bedford ob,think it’s a bus?
regards andrew.
Austin K3/YB, i think its 3tonne GVW. thought i’d seen it in one of my old books, however as you can see this one is only a model
A long shot but reading a document (cant find it now) Yankee Bravo Y B could have been Yankee Trucks driven by British service personnel.
The for mentioned document indicated American and British service personnel moving equipment around the country more so munitions to Essex for disposal after the war …
Hiya…just had a scout around and found out a model of matador was known as a ya/yb and later a yc
these was 4x4 and carried about 4 tons if i’am correct. After reading what you say i think the AEC
would fit in…it dose say the production stopped in 1921 but 10,00 was supplied to the army.
John
doubtful,aec matador was 4x4 gun tractor and heavy towing etc, got a flatout speed of about 28 i think.
for that kind of work i would have thought a GS (general service ) vehicle would have been a lot more suitable , and they built shed loads more of them.
tonyj105:
doubtful,aec matador was 4x4 gun tractor and heavy towing etc, got a flatout speed of about 28 i think.
for that kind of work i would have thought a GS (general service ) vehicle would have been a lot more suitable , and they built shed loads more of them.
Did you read up on the AEC site ■■?
Well - some interesting possibilities there, Gents - thank you.