Excerpt from Osprey’s: Universal Carrier 1936-48 The ‘Bren Gun Carrier’ Story
“It is regarded with sentimental affection to those who used it and yet it is still referred to by everyone, quite incorrectly, as the Bren Gun Carrier.”
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It is indeed!
It’s somewhat akin to the terms for the Land Rover; in my time (yeah, alright, the Jurassic) we either referred to them as “wagons” which covers just about anything including MBTs, or, generically “Lannies”, never, ever “Landys” which is what civilians tend to call them not least in conversation with the aforementioned Jurassic era beasts.
As an aside - and here your eyes will glaze over - when referring to long-carriage typewriters (which existed folks in order that those mind-boggling establishment type documents could be produced back in the steam age), we tended to refer to such machines as “LWB - Long Wheel Base” as in, “Who the effin’ hell has got the Long Wheel Base typewriter? The Colonel wants these effin’ establishment tables typed up by close of play”.
Not for the faint-hearted, being an Army Clerk that is(!)
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I’ve just been prompted by my own memories: in my first posting I discovered just such a machine which still included the SS-sign as one of the keys.
I’ve always wondered how these vehicles ever got past field trials – seemingly from the WW1 mentality of sending regiments across open ground to secure a bunch of machine gun positions? I suspect they were “regarded with sentimental affection” only by those who survived – all the rest, cut down by fire from any weapon worth the name, never got a chance to report their dissatisfaction.
I’m not exactly an expert on them either 
Especially T16s and Windsors, I can never keep straight. Both have four roadwheels instead of three, and one has the two bogies pointing the same way while the other has them mirrored, but I always have to look up which is which. (/me quickly does so Turns out the T16 has them mirrored, and the Windsor has a greater gap between them.)
That would be a Universal Carrier with Bundesgrenzschutz troops? Or are they very early Bundeswehr? And what is the machine gun mounted in it? It doesn’t quite look like an MG 42, but I can’t make much else of it from this somewhat poor photo.
Quite likely, but it’s problematic for modellers and enthousiasts to do so, for the reason I mentioned earlier: confusion with what exact vehicle is actually meant.
I’m pretty sure that the one shown is in Bundeswehr use; I’m fairly certain that the BGS didn’t use them. They did use M8 arnoured cars and their own designed-for-purpose APCs but not Carriers.
Albeit a poor quality pic, the sharper edged camouflage of the early Bw uniforms is shown I feel - the BGS one being a little more soft-edged; lastly the apparent gaiters and short boot - the BGS pretty much exclusively used a high boot. This perhaps is all pretty thin evidence I admit.
However, here’s another Carrier - an experimental one bristling with SS10 missiles; the specific Bw registration plate is shown. I almost feel another Bw project coming on - not the missile variant I hasten to add!
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Further to my last, more on the SS10-armed Carrier, also a primer on the early anti-tank, wire-guided missiles in this Bundeswehr training film:
Panzerabwehrrakete SS10 2/2 (youtube.com)
See the Carrier at 3.46; enjoy!
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Hi Jakko,
early Bundeswehr experimented with various Spittertarn pattern.
https://www.forum-historicum.de/tarnmuster-der-deutschen-armee.html
The were replaced by Steingrau/Oliv tone since they resembled to much Waffen-SS.
The gun is probably a BAR, Bundeswehr infantry weapons are provided by US Army…
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Thanks Brian, good find, I am afraid I have to add one more model to the collection.
Oh dear! I feel another modelling tangent coming on!
A Bundeswehr carrier and almost an opposite number of the East German Barracked Police.
One or the other - or even both - would look remarkably different on the display tables that’s for sure.
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A real challenge will be building the superstructure in scale thickness. 
I know, but it’s rare to see photos of them. They’re much more often seen on BSG troops.
Now you mention it: it probably is an M1918A2 BAR, yes. You can just see the front part of the stock.
Right Chaps, a quick mention of BGS/Bundeswehr camo pattern; they are different:
BGS:
Early Bundeswehr:
Early Bundeswehr type - different pattern:
The Bundeswehr images are out there but you do have to hunt them down:
And some Bundesgrenzschutz:
I attempted both in 1:35; Early Bundeswehr (in the background of this woefully out of focus pic):
And more recently the BGS:
I now cannot get the idea out of my head of a Carrier with early Bundeswehr; thanks a lot Hermann(!)
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Guys I know this is completely off topic but finally heading home today from a show at the weekend and popped into the Royal Logistic Corp museum.
Saw this and thought I’d share.
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Well, not necessarily that much off topic; all redolent of the deadly serious Cold War. I travelled to Berlin in February 1980 on the BMT, and what an experience! Severe security the whole trip; excellent service and outstanding food en route - all silver service. Through the marshalling yards at Magdeburg when all I could see was a sea of T-62s, BMPs , 2S1s, and so on, masses of them, all rotating through the GSFG.
The change as we crossed into East Germany of locomotives from West German to East German, the ceremonial exchange on the platform and checking of documentation between the Brit guard and the Soviets (the East Germans being deliberately ignored as at the time, they were not recognised politically) - see below. Despite that, it was their patrols and dogs checking the underside of the whole train.
As I worked in the Intelligence Branch of HQ BAOR at the time (which is why I was visiting Berlin in the first place - for several briefings) I was also aware of a covert operation on said train which involved filming of, well, for a start, the Magdeburg marshalling yards(!)
All hugely evocative Luciano, and back then, oh so real! God, I was so switched on back then too, dare I say it. Sigh
“Take a look at me now” - as the Phil Collins song has it - actually - better not(!)
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Very interesting Brian and they did have a copy of the menu on display although I neglected to take a photo of said menu. Of course I came away needing a 1/72 Eager Beaver and a snowmobile/ski-doo!
The day before (this is definitely off topic) I spent walking around Beaulieu National motor museum and the ground, abbey ruins etc. very enjoyable, I’ll need to post some photos up on Automodeller.
You ´re welcome Brian. I look forward to see the result. I think I will stick with the NVA counterpart, Munitionsschlepper Edith.
Hah! As it happens I know Beaulieu very well; I used to work nearby when I was PA to a former member of Dire Straits, so it all turned into my stomping ground as it were.
I think Flightpath used to do an Eager beaver but it looked ferociously complicated to me.
Well Tim, it may well be that due to this:
and the ghastly rate of casualties, that the great and the good decided that something like this, should replace that particular methodology:
which would explain a lot perhaps.
But the vehicle proved hugely useful; it could recce, it could retrieve casualties, it could get the ammo and the rations to the front, under fire. Being tracked it could get to places denied to other vehicles. It was, for its time, quite fast, manouevreable and although open-topped, provided some protection. The British Army still hasn’t a vehicle with its innate ability. Which reminds me:
Some years ago, a very enterprising Sapper officer came across an article called “I loved my Carrier” expanding on all of the above, centered on bitter WW2 experience. Said officer, then I believe serving at the School of Infantry, managed to get permission to utilise a CVR(T) - duly modified - to trial in the carrier mode. I think he must have used a flat-bed Stormer. Anyway, it was tested on various exercises, ration and ammo replen, carrying the blokes’ Bergens and so on, and so forth. These tests were meticulously undertaken, and equally thoroughly reported in the British Army Review, the Army’s very professional in-house journal.
And there the initiative stayed. And I feel that says a lot about the British Army - sadly.
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