Royal Signals WC54

[Matchless]

I have long hankered after a WC54 as the perfect vehicle to haul my British WW2 motorcycles in, and to camp from. But it would have to have a British identity and not have ambulance markings. After some enquiries on the HMVF forum, I was pointed in the direction of a book "The Secret Wireless War" by Geoff Pidgeon and to cut to the chase, the top secret Ultra folk instigated mobile units manned by Royal Signals people (mainly) to deal with the high level hush hush radio traffic on the battlefields post Normandy. And while operating in the American sectors, the British teams used WC54s with US markings to be very inconspicuous. Only outward sign was lack of red crosses and a special unit designation on the bumpers. The interior was stripped out and a radio table and bench installed. The ariel was a freestanding 32 foot one....no whip ariel. So its pretty easy to put together a replica and IJM Restorations in Yorkshire are in the middle of a complete refurb on a battered ex-'Fury' film set vehicle for me as an ideal basis for the re-creation. Like most well used WC54s there is hardly a straight panel and the roof seams were ragged, so IJM have really stripped it back and made new panels where necessary. I gather they are about to do another WC54 roof refurb for another customer......tricky job with the insulation to deal with! Hopefully my outfit will be doing the show rounds next year.