Due to photobucket not always displaying them I guess I'd better upload the photo's again, now with the dates gleaned from the NARA captions that weren't available back in 2007, and a picture of the tender lost in the Deenethorpe Village crash.
Destroyed tender, 5th December 1943:
Chevron off-road tread on front tyres.
65792AC, 28th December 1943:
RAF 10xxxx number on side of bonnet, top of wing mirror bracket level with top of bonnet, road-going tread on front tyres.
65797AC, 29th July 1944:
RAF xxxxxx number on side of bonnet, top of wing mirror bracket level with bottom of windscreen, different road-going tread on front tyres.
I wonder whether we're looking at three entirely different Fordsons here.
Certainly the first two can't be the same one, unless the 450th Sub Depot had one heck of a good panel-beater. :wink:
New information from the US Air Force Historical Research Agency seems to indicate the 2095th Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon was established around the 10th April 1944, presumably at Deenethorpe. This seems quite late, and I wonder whether 04-10-44 is a transcription error somewhere.
The "8 ☆ 2095 EFF" marking is correct for the 2095th Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon at Deenethorpe, although some fire-fighting units within the 8AF marked their vehicles with the full "EFFP 2xxx" initials.
Support units attached to the Army Air Forces had "Aviation" as a suffix, so in the case of the fire cover at AAF Station 141 Bodney would likely have been officially titled 2039th Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon (Aviation), although Engineer Aviation Fire Fighting Platoon may well have been used by some units informally.
The US Army Corps of Engineers assumed the responsibility for fire fighting in the US Army on December 4th 1941, creating the first Army Engineer Fire Fighting Detachment (EFFD) on July 1st 1942.
By the end of August 1943 these were retitled Engineer Fire Fighting Platoons under Table of Organization and Equipment 5-337 "Engineer Service Organization" issued in May 1943, which established the personnel as 1 officer and 28 enlisted men.
The Table of Organization and Equipment 5-500 "Engineer Service Organization" of 31st July 1943 caused one T/4 Mechanic, Automobile to be replaced with an E-2 fire fighter.
An amended TO&E 5-500 was issued 26 July 1944, with minor changes in personnel numbers and vehicle allotment.
All the best,
PB