https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...89a24c26-1.jpg
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The sand colored jeeps have their numbers in both Latin and Arabic. :eek:
Bonus indeed. Thanks! Period? Location?
Meter(?)-gauge tramlines, very long, straight tree-lined avenue, orientation SW-NE, trees at left in flower, French flags, GIs in casual mode = Tunis? 1943? May? Avenue Louis Braille, about 3 pm?
Sorry, can't say which day!
But I'll continue guessing: it's after the victory parade on 20th May 1943. Troops dispersing, no longer all going in the same direction, watchers on balcony turning away (time for an aperitif?).
Of course, I may be wrong.
Even stranger: It actually looks like Greek lower-case script. Zeta-omicron gamma omicron tau omicron.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom in N.J.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...70b800wi-1.jpg
Bob
yes tunis
And very early. Neither jeep has a gas can carrier and I believe the back jeep is a script Willys MB quite possibly a slat grill. The paint is a field or depot modification. Jeeps of both persuasions rolled off the line as lusterless olive drab. USA numbers were lusterless blue drab. No "S" in the USA number on the rear jeep so it isn't radio suppressed which is another early indicator but late enough for combat wheels. These jeeps are early 1942 so I'd guess mid to late 1942.
"These jeeps are early 1942 so I'd guess mid to late 1942."
I respectfully disagree. If the place is Tunis then it cannot be 1942. Earliest possible period is May 1943. (BTW I would welcome other analytical comment of my interpretation of place, date, time etc.) Dates of change of manufacturing details and fittings provide no more than earliest possible dates. I am not doubting your estimate of the date of production, but these vehicles had been in the field in North Africa for some time already when the photo was taken.
It is the same factor as in the eternal discussions about "correct" rifles etc. A manufacturing change can take a long time to work through into the field, and items already on the battlefield will hardly be pulled out of combat just for the sake of updating to a new factory standard. "Sorry guys, you'll all have to stop fighting for a day or two while we upgrade your equipment" - how likely is that?.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Chadwick
Life magazine photo ought to make pinning things down a bit easier...
http://www.tunisiadailyphoto.com/?p=612
Apparently photo by a Hart Preston. Different street than you mentioned, no?
Aw c'mon JM! Right town, right period, street has the same orientation (SW-NE) so right time of day, right time of year. I was going by the tramlines. OK, maybe they've changed since then ...so who has a map of the Tunis tramway network in 1943? - you can't have everything.
I thought the source document might have a caption. Didn't know it would spark such a lively discussion.Very interesting.
Patrick, good job :thup: I don't think you could have placed the time any better since it was dead on ;) You are so right about the length of time it may take equipment to make it to the field. This very fact was a source of discussion about jeeps being at Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941. as has been depicted in every single movie on the subject. There may have been a few but they would have been Willys MAs and Ford GPs but no standardized MB/GPWs would have been there as they hadn't come off line at that point.
I do however, stand by my actual assessments of the jeeps in this photo in regards to their age ;)
"I do however, stand by my actual assessments of the jeeps in this photo in regards to their age ;)"
Of course! I expressly stated in my previous post that I did not doubt your assessment. But if we start off a discussion about inappropriate equipment on films, then there will be no end to it.
For me, one of the worst examples in recent years was in the newer film of Pearl Harbor - a row of steeply raked destroyer or frigate bows engulfed in flames that is so memorable that you can't help noticing that a) the shot is repeated several times, and b) the steeply raked bows were out of style for WW2 ships, and appear to be from the Knox* class frigates - built from 1965 onwards and a whole generation too late for the film.
*Or Brooke/Garcia?
See
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06QuyDEKFNo
about 1min 38 sec in from the start.
Perhaps someone else could identify them better than I can?
P.S. I found the considerably older "Tora, Tora" much more convincing.
Oh yeah! The modern Pearl Harbor movie is horrible and just to add one more from the not so recent past, "In Harms Way" The absolute worst of the worst I've ever had the displeasure of watching.
Re: Pearl Harbor film
Good heavens! I just took another look at the film clip and used the pause button. The dropped-down after deck looks like a Spruance class destroyer (in mothballs when the film was made) - launched in the 1970s.
So much for historical accuracy!
In truth, the movie Pearl Harbor had more in common with Titanyuck (Titanic) and Twister than with reality. As is often the case in Hollyweird, it was simply an epic love story, made epic by having loads of olive drab and haze gray stuff going BOOM! in the background while the star-crossed romance thrashed in the foreground.
Bob
That part ruined Pearl Harbor...that romance should have been on the cutting room floor. We didn't need that either.
I thought TORA TORA TORA was good. Saw it in the cinema (remember them?) when it came out.
But while we're discussing films, sorry - off topic I know, I was very disappointed in the new film Fury, it could have been so, so much better.
Anyway, getting back to the topic, definitely Arabic numbers and, no rifle rack on the windshield, to confirm Bill's earlier observation. Nowhere to stow your M1!
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...0Numbers-1.jpg