Classic Military Vehicle – September 2019

words and pictures Louise Limb

While neither Phil Meadows nor his 1956

Hotchkiss can claim to have been at D-Day, they

both look the part but he can at least play the

bagpipes in a tribute to legendary piper Bill Millin

Brougham Hall MVT Show Events

This K2 ambulance landed

at Gold beach and is cared

for by (left to right) Majors

Alan and Linda Taberner

who met while serving as

nurses in Iraq, now joined

by Jamie Cameron

Jon Newbould’s

lovely Canadian Mil-

itary Pattern (CMP)

Chevrolet Wrecker

standing proud

Chris Hallam’s 90% complete Bren Gun Carrier now resides near Penrith

Battlefront

Find out more about Brougham Hall here

https://preview.tinyurl.com/yyw2akf9

See what South Cumbria and North Lancs

MVT get up to here

https://preview.tinyurl.com/y6sa4zqt

W

ith a spotlight on the 80th anniversary

of the Women’s Land Army and the

stunning backdrop of Brougham Hall,

near Penrith, military vehicle enthusiasts were in

for a packed weekend.

Ahead of the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day

landings, a varied range of World War Two-era

trucks arrived. These ranged from a bevy

of beautiful Chevrolets to a tracked Univer-

sal Carrier and an Austin K2, one of three

ambulances preparing to return to Gold beach

where it landed on June 6, 1944 thanks to

Battlefront

B

visit, with Susie’s un-restored 1942 Fordson

Model N tractor the centrepiece of her Land

Girls display.

This year, the Fordson had to take a back seat

to the real star of the show, Zandra Armstrong,

now 93 and an original Land Girl.

Zandra, then 16, lied about her age and did

her training in North Wales. She was posted to

Lazonby, Penrith where she later met her hus-

band and has remained in the area ever since.

If Brougham Hall looks like the perfect setting

for a World War Two event, it also played a

genuinely important part in the war. The Canal

Defence light tank was developed here in total

secrecy - its dummy turret featuring a search-

light and coloured lights to disorient the enemy.

A memorial to the men who served here is set in

the perimeter wall. On refl ection, maybe you

need a whole weekend at this event rather than

one day.

World War Two

era military vehicle

owners and living history

re-enactors celebrate

under May sunshine

at Cumbria’s luscious

Brougham Hall

fi nancial help from Queen Alexandra’s Royal

Nursing Association.

The fi rst collaboration between Brougham

Hall, the Northern World War Two Associa-

tion and members of the South Cumbria and

North Lancs MVT was in 2016, when the MVT

was invited to help the hall establish a 1940s

event. MVT regulars, Boyan Holmes and Susie

Newbould who together run the Women’s Land

Army re-enactment group, helped set up the

fi rst event.

Three years later it is ideally sized for a day

RAF offi cers check they are as parade-smart as

their Hillman staff car

Land Girls drove the Fordson Model N, issued

at fi rst painted orange or blue, then later in less

conspicuous green or grey