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LVT found buried in the UK


Mikel2

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1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

They might want to clear it up with the MOD, seeing as they probably still own it...

The US (under lend lease) may want it back.

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1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

I think there was an option that if we wanted to keep something we could buy it from them. That would be really amusing if that came into play. :D

In US dollar equivalents from 1944 translated directly (not with inflation) in Pounds Stirling today.  I mean you may be able to buy it yourself! 

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The article says they recovered a tank.  So where is the tank then?  Must be well camouflaged, I see an LVT-4 Water Buffalo... 🤨🙄

Nice to see the vehicle (and potential subsequent ones) recovered.  I just hope it ends up somewhere that can/will look after it rather than allow it to rust away which happens pretty quickly if left exposed to the elements.

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11 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

I think there was an option that if we wanted to keep something we could buy it from them. That would be really amusing if that came into play. :D

In part, that was what the post-war loan was for.  retained equipment was paid for at ten percent of it's original cost.

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13 hours ago, R011 said:

This is the loan that supposedly crippled the UK's economy for a generation.

The British were very keen on delivering military equipment to Denmark and other formerly occupied countries in Europe once they were liberated. It was seen as an integral part of British policy to have the liberated countries contribute to the occupation of Germany and to make them more dependent on Britain for military equipment as both a foreign policy goal and an economic goal.

In 1945, the Danish Army was looking very much forward to recieving US made Jeeps as their light utility vehicle, but once the UK was presented with the bill from the US, the jeeps were replaced with British made Austins - the "Tilly" - resulting in some very long faces in the Danish Army.......

That started a long journey towards getting Jeeps for Danish Army, that didn't end until 1950 with NATO and MDAP.

Edited by cbo
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Much of the equipment of the Canadian Army Overseas, five divisions plus, ended up in Belgian and Dutch hands right after the war as it wasn't worth it to bring it back home given the Army was being drastically reduced back to its peacetime strength of one very spread out regular brigade group.

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That makes sense. I remember in a 1980's edition of Wheels and Tracks there was a selection of Grizzly's (and I think Priests?) that were surplused out of the Portugese Army (they had been in reserve for years). Weapons collectors were ecstatic.

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AFAIK, the Grizzlies were not deployed overseas during the war.  Not many were made and we had enough Shermans from British stocks.  I suspect they were exported post war after we had reequipped with M4A2E8 and Centurions.

Edited to add:  Some quick checking shows that 55 Grizzly gun tanks, 40 Grizzly APCs and some Sextons were sent to Portugal as part of a NATO Military Aid package.

Edited by R011
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On 5/3/2021 at 4:02 PM, Stuart Galbraith said:

Although to be fair to the Americans, they very nicely bought some Centurions for Denmark, so we all kinda won out of that one.

Somehow you cant imagine DOD procurement being that unpoliticised these days.

Well, the Americans were acommodating when it fit their purpose and Denmark was part of NATO. Until then, they were not particularily cooperative. Not unlike the British in the 1945-1949 timeframe. Which is of course perfectly OK, as long as one recognizes the amount of self-interest involved when those two great nations dealt with the world :) .

As for the Centurion procurement not being political, I guess that depends on what you mean by "political". After all, the US wanted Centurions ASAP, so the NATO partners and others sympathetic to the West could help save us all from Communism. The British wanted to drag out the production and delivery of Centurions for as long as possible, so they could keep their factories running at a steady pace, not compromising other sectors. AFAIK, the British won the argument and the Centurions arrived over a period of 6 years.

It appears to have been a sweet deal for the British, not only getting US MDAP-dollars for the purchase and keep a US-funded production line running at the pace the British wanted, but also being able to sell the Danish Army a never ending issue of upgrade kits 😄.

I'm sure the US would've like to have that deal for themselves, if not Korea and increasing needs elsewhere had overwhelmed US tank production  combined with their new allies being less than amused when offered the same type of Sherman-upgrade that the US Army had rejected in 1942 (the M4A3E4) 😄

 

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