Re: [MV] AEC ACV

Colin Brookes (colb@xtra.co.nz)
Fri, 20 Feb 1998 12:40:15 +1200

In message <00163104639728@onaustralia.com.au>, Rod Diery
<rod@rocketship.com> writes
>Hi everyone, A friend of mine here in Western Australia has a WW2 AEC
>Armoured Command Vehicle (ACV) and we are trying to find out a little more
>information about it. Apparently the British soldiers used to call it a
>"Dorchester" presumably because it's size reminded of them of that famous
>hotel.
>
>My friend's Dorchester is one of six which were acquired by the Australian
>Army during WW2.
>
>Can anyone of you British military vehicle experts tell me how many of
>these were made and used and if any other survivors are known to exist.
>
>Thanks
>
>Rod Diery
>Kulin, Western Australia
>rod@rocketship.com
>Visit the Canadian Military Pattern vehicles page at
>http://users.bigpond.com/ROD_DIERY/cmp.html

Hi Rod,

The 'Dorchester', is the 4x4 AEC used by the Signals. Several other
versions of the same basic vehicle were used by the Engineers and as
APC, these were not called the Dorchester. And neither of which I have
ever seen. As for the Dorchester, as a Royal Signals ACV (high power
generaly referred to by us as an HCV). I have probably only seen around
5 or 6 different vehicles in total ever. This always struck me as very
odd, because a large section of my training was devoted to these
vehicles which seemed totaly out of context to the number in existance.
I know that 2 along with 2 QL HPCV's plus 2 QL LPCV's were landed on
DDAY1 and in full operation before PM (Monty had his own special setup
and to my knowledge didn't use ACV's HP or LP). The main use of them
was for High Power secure (through 'Cypher Queens') Comcam (Commonwealth
Communication System), links with Cheltenham or Field Command Control.

regards

Colin Brookes
(for those who understand, I wore the 'Flying Arsehole' insignia on my
upper arm during my early years of service).

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