From: International Movie Services (ims@telus.net)
Date: Sat Jul 02 2005 - 09:56:42 PDT
The M75s in Woodland are part of a remarkable chain of circumstances! In
1979 I was assigned by 4 Brigade as Umpire C/S 21A to shadow the recce
squadron attached to the Belgian Army for the Reforger excercises. I was
surprised to see that the Belgians were still operating large amounts of WW2
vehicles and Armour, but their APCs were all M75s! These were so fast on the
highway that I could barely keep up with my crew in an M38A1 and M100
trailer. Once they went cross-country there was no contest! We clocked them
at 45-50MPH on hardstand and they were'nt much slower in the mud.
In the fall of 1984 I had my Mercedes 450SLC converted to North American
specs by the AFRC facility in Mannheim, before I returned from Europe and
shipped to the Pacific Northwest. The closest the Army would deliver the car
was to the Port Of Portland, Oregon, where it finally arrived in the spring
of 1985. I went down to clear the car through Customs and there was a RO-RO
vessel discharging 50 plus Belgian M75s. Most ran, those that didn't were
towed off by those that did. All had been demilled by cutting slits in the
armour plate and on various hatch hinges, but they still looked pretty good
for their age. I took a number of photos which I still have somewhere in the
archives and left with the Merc to get a sppeding ticket within the first 45
minutes back in the land of 55mph.
They made the news in tthe "Oregonian" newspaper with a photo of a local
entreprenuer who "in partnership with Madill Equipment of Nanaimo British
Columbia were to convert them to medium duty skidders and track-drills". The
vehicles were moved to a storage yard in Woodland and Madill flew down from
B.C. to inspect them and clinch the purchase from the owner, South Eastern
Equipment of, I think, Atlanta? He was one of those "bold" pilots who flew
his own aircraft, and attempted the trip on a wet, foggy morning. He missed
the airport and thundered on in to a local hillside, thus ending the
conversion plans for the M75s!
They sat for many years with a non-negotiable $16,000.00 pricetag, the owner
of the yard where South Eastern had arranged storage used to shove them
atound with a D8 Cat, wiping off most of the external fittings and in the
case of several vehicles snapping off idlers and bogie wheels. One winter
the Columbia overflowed and the yard flooded to a depth of five feet,
filling the engine compartments and hulls with silt and debris. The yard
owner, who in fact always represented himself as the actual owner of the
vehicles went through some sort of an identity crisis, changed his name and
sex and started entertaining as a transvestite in gay bars in Portland. He
got into a legal squabble with the County about the state of his yard, which
had become an eyesore, so he took his D8 with the ripper attachment and
returned several hundred yards of the County access road to it's natural
state. When he got out of prison he lost title to his yard in the lawsuit
for the destroyed road so he notified South Eastern that they would have to
move or scrap the 50 APCs! This is when they went on the market for a fast
$2K each. I took a group south with an M816 wrecker and a couple of support
vehicles where we spent a miserable week in the mud and rain surveying all
50 vehicles for condition and restorable viability. We wrote reports up on
every vehicle and painted our numbers on each hull in dayglo orange paint so
that we could quickly differentiate between them. We selected what we
considered were the ten best from which we shipped out six for restoration,
while local collectors took the next four. Some other enthusiasts from as
far afield as Texas and Idaho also took some while the balance were
(illegally) sold for cash to a wealthy gentleman in South Texas by Lonnie
the transvestite! I'm not sure if South Eastern ever got their money for
those M75s, I rather think that they had tired of the whole exercise and
just walked away. There were in the end two residue quality vehicles left in
the yard, plus one chassis that had had all it's armour cut-away. I
retrieved these after purchasing them from South Eastern, one is now in
Everson, Washington in storage awaiting a new home, the chassis is in my
yard like an enormous planter, while the third vehicle was lost to a
well-intentioned but severely "bent" collector in Duvall, Washington. We
have one M75 already running beautifully, it's still as fast as I
remembered! One more has gone to an enthisiast and list member in Manitoba.
The saga isn't over yet, but I hope that most of the excitement is!
Now you know--the rest of the story!
Per Ardua Ad Astra!!
Ian D. Newby, Maj. (ret)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve" <FLYNN1955@webtv.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2005 7:09 AM
Subject: [MV] Shermans and such as construction vehicles....
> Well if you saw the drill rig perhaps you visited the Sherman Register/
> G104 site?Yarders are in use everyday ,built on Sherman chassis's or
> components.High speed artillery tractors(you look'm up,M4-5-6 etc)were
> also favorite.I started on this list years ago excited about 50 M75's in
> Woodland Washington.That was what they were destined to become,logging
> equipment.The Industry took a dive and finally they sold for $2,000 a
> piece...saved! Madhill is a manufacturer,based in Canada and Washington
> St.which rebuilt and carried out the conversions.Seco is and was the
> buyer and seller of a lot of equipment .I might have just part of the
> story....let the rest get filled in as it is a good topic.
>
> Steve
> WC51
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Oct 28 2005 - 23:22:15 PDT