One interesting fact with the carrier was that the Germans were also very impressed with the suspension and drive etc and created a new half track design by removing the hull section from captured carriers and mated it to an existing German lorry to create a whole new vehicle. It was so successful that when they ran out of captured carriers they reverse engineered them and built their own version of the track and suspension to keep the production going!
1 second ago A very good little video, so please keep them coming. The Unversal Carrier was a workhorse of the Commonwealth armies in WWII and beyond and Canada was a vital contributor to that success. You're all doing a great job, so congratulations to you all. Bravo! Cheers and be well.
Its also played a part in Philippine military history too. In 1941, prior to the invasion of the Philippines, a British cargo ship diverted to Manila and offloaded nearly 50 units (which was supposed to be used by British and Commonwealth units in Hong Kong) and were used by the USAFFE 's Provisional Tank Group, as recon units alongside the group's M3 Stuart tanks.
When I was young and living in Sundridge, Ontario our local ski hill just SW of the village had a rope tow to the top of the hill. The rope tow was powered by a retired Bren gun carrier. I remember seeing the Ford Flat head V8 engine that powered the rope tow. It was really something to see sitting inside wooden building built to house it. Thanks for sharing the video. I am working on a former CNR steam locomotive #6060 to have it restored. No doubt the national railways would have been instrumental in bringing parts to the Ford plant to build these carriers then transporting them to ports on our coasts to ship them all over the world.
Will you ever get to restoring the Grizzly firefly or the ram to running condition. Considering the rarity they would be an excellent addition to the collection
I had hoped to find out something about the vehicle but after all the yap,yap,yap, the only thing mentioned was that it steered by warping the tracks, or locking one side for sharper turns and who would have guessed that!!!
I would like to apologise to the Ontario Tank museum, being a brit we do tend to forget there are museums other than the one in bovington, naturally we tend to see more of their content, im sure the world knows we love our stuff, universal carrier of course being british, i think id like to see what other museums have in their collections for a bit, im sure you have some interesting stories to tell about your vehicles, consider me subscribed!
They did say "Commonwealth" . Although I am British, I understand when, such as Canadians hear "British", feel excluded I know the Universal Carrier is a British design, don't forget it was built in many places in the Commonwealth Also Canada built American as well as British designs (due to where they are). Also, as an aircraft enthusiast. Thank you for 2014 when VERA came over and gave us the sight of 2 Lancasters in the air over Britain
THE U.S. FORD T-16 Carrier was an offshoot of the Ford of Canada Universal. While general layout and appearance is very similar, in actual fact it is a completely different machine. 19,191 Lend Leased to Britain page 10 Hyperwar Lend Lease shipments Ordnance--General Supplies
