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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

surviving wagons, limbers & carts


Muerrisch

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Please do any intact specimens of the commoner wagons and carts survive, and are there good quality illustrations of them?

I ask because although I have the 3 parts of ASC training with nice line drawings/ plans, I would like to see photos.

The relevant ones [infantry] ......... excuse my ignorance if I get some wrong.

are:

Wagon GS Mk X

wagon limbered

cart small arms ammuntion

cart, water tank

cooker, travelling

maltese cart and perhaps

cart, forage.

I have lovely photos of a Furphy water cart [Oz] but have never seen the real deals otherwise. My Australian friend says that a Furphy is still a term for gossip/ rumour picked up round the water cart!

Please does anyone have photos that, if I asked nicely, I could use in a little project?

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David

The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Living History Group owns a Cart, Water Tank (currently being restored but 85% complete) and it's Chairman owns a General Service Wagon - images can be found on the Group website - www.thequeensown.com - under the Project Aquarius banner for the Cart, Water Tank and for the GS Wagon under the Galleries - you are welcome to use any that you wish - If you require bespoke photographs then please email me.

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If my memory serves me correctly there are some wagons etc outside the Hooge Crater Museum. I don't have photos but another member might.

Chester

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Please do any intact specimens of the commoner wagons and carts survive, and are there good quality illustrations of them?

I ask because although I have the 3 parts of ASC training with nice line drawings/ plans, I would like to see photos.

The relevant ones [infantry] ......... excuse my ignorance if I get some wrong.

are:

Wagon GS Mk X

wagon limbered

cart small arms ammuntion

cart, water tank

cooker, travelling

maltese cart and perhaps

cart, forage.

I have lovely photos of a Furphy water cart [Oz] but have never seen the real deals otherwise. My Australian friend says that a Furphy is still a term for gossip/ rumour picked up round the water cart!

Please does anyone have photos that, if I asked nicely, I could use in a little project?

Grumpy,

Here is a restored Water Cart.

Regards,

LF

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I apologize if I am taking this in a slightly different direction, but apart from purpose built war wagons and carts, were they constructed any differently than standard farm or commercial wagons ?. By that I mean lighter and or stronger body, wider wheels for mud etc ?

khaki

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Grumpy,

Here is a Regimental Medical Officer's horse-drawn Maltese Cart, one for each battalion as per 1915 regs.

The veil on the horse's eyes is to help keep the flies off.

Plus a Mk.I Light Ambulance Wagon, note 2 pairs of stretcher handles sticking out of the back board.

Regards,

LF

C/o S. Chambers - Uniforms and Equipment of the British Army WW1

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The GS wagon above is at IWM Duxford and missing the seat (despite someone offering to supply one for it!). X2 GS Wagons outside Hooge Crater museum as mentioned. There was another water cart on eBay about a year ago (at a guess) but very far gone. Not aware of any surviving GS limbers or field kitchens, Richard Fisher on here has one portion of a machine gun cart - and the Great War Society has a replica of the man-hauled Lewis gun cart

There is an original Lewis gun cart at Hendon but civilianised, it's a civilian cart in a blitz display!

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I recall that one of our Pals, IanW, I think, took and posted a series of magnificent photographs of the restored GS wagon, drawn by a team from the King's Troop RHA, that carried the last coffin from Pheasant Wood on the day of the dedication of the new Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery.

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Thanks again for all the above: considering the passage of time, and the rough life the wagons and carts lived, perhaps we should not be surprised at how little has survived. Deeply regrettable, though.

I have rediscovered Smith's Shire booklet on my shelves .............. very compact and not at all bad, with a few decent images. Copyrighted, of course.

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There's a GS wagon in Aldershot Army Museum. I think I have a picture somewhere...

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Someone mentioned they haven't seen the British equivalent of the 'goulash cannon' - here is the Great War Society's replica. Like the water cart, they are not 1/1 scale and are actually 3/4 - at the time these were built there was great difficulty in finding suitable wheels, and so they were scaled to match, and it also helps with transportation (just able to fit in the back of a Luton lorry, along with bell tents etc etc!)

http://thegreatwarsocietyhospital.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/b2.jpg

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Someone mentioned they haven't seen the British equivalent of the 'goulash cannon' - here is the Great War Society's replica. Like the water cart, they are not 1/1 scale and are actually 3/4 - at the time these were built there was great difficulty in finding suitable wheels, and so they were scaled to match, and it also helps with transportation (just able to fit in the back of a Luton lorry, along with bell tents etc etc!)

http://thegreatwarsocietyhospital.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/b2.jpg

Many thanks, a great photograph. Pity they could not get 3/4 scale blokes to pose with it, and a small dog, and a pony .............. a 3/4 pint mug ........

Come to think of it I am 3/4 size vertically, but 1 and 1/3 horizontally.

Oh Well!

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Come to think of it think there is an ambulance wagon in the Army Medical Services museum at Aldershot too. The one used at Fromelles was restored by Nigel Bristow and think it usually resides at the Royal Logistic Corps Museum

There was a grey painted GS wagon used in a Second Boer War re-enactment at the English Heritage Festival of History, Kelmarsh in 2009

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Pity they could not get 3/4 scale blokes to pose with it, and a small dog, and a pony ..............

Not least as many re-enactors seem to be 1.5x compared to actual men of the period (and, in some more 'prosperous' examples, of average men today)....

Cheers,

GT.

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  • 1 year later...

I have attached photos of,

1) Ambulance wagon; used in WWI, presumably British or French

2) A field cooker (HOMS, 1916; Spanish). Possibly similar to the British version, included to give some idea of size and layout.

Photos taken in Oct. 2014 in the Museum of Science, Granada, Spain.

Regards,

JMBpost-104832-0-00625900-1426363215_thumb.post-104832-0-27847000-1426363236_thumb.post-104832-0-72238400-1426363249_thumb.


post-104832-0-01445800-1426363363_thumb.post-104832-0-38932600-1426363380_thumb.

More photos.......

JMB

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post-104832-0-87496600-1426363562_thumb.post-104832-0-51059400-1426363578_thumb.Final photos.....


Last one !!

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I took this photo in the Canadian War Museum of a GS Wagon.

Anne

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