Queen Mary transporter
Mons Bell “…During the war my parents lived in the flat over the shop (then Wm. Dove the butchers, currently Prelude ladies fashion boutique) and they had five air-force chaps billeted with them from Combe Bank at Sundridge whose job was collecting remains of friendly and enemy aircraft that had crashed around the area. They stored the crashed remains in a big hangar behind Dibgate farm at Sundridge where the old airfield used to be. They would drive what were called ‘Queen Marys’ – long transport trucks that could carry a whole plane, and they were pretty difficult to get down some of the narrow back-lanes…” ‘Queen Mary’ recovery trucks were purpose-built semitrailers manufactured by Taskers of Andover. The RAF bought many of these between 1940 and 1955 for aircraft recovery and they were normally attached to a Bedford RL tractor, as shown here. The trailer had very low floor and ground clearance and was supported by a single axle with wheels outboard of the load area for stability. The maximum load was 5 tons evenly distributed. The name is presumed to derive from RMS Queen Mary, referring to the extreme length of the vehicle.
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