"Loyd Carriers and 6 Pdrs" Topic

More nitty-gritty detail required. In 1944 the preferred vehicle to pull the 6 pdr anti-tank gun was the Loyd Carrier. I have read that each detachment in an infantry battalion had one gun and two Carriers, one to tow and one to carry the detachment. Is this so? Can anyone recommend a source to verify this?

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I have read that each detachment in an infantry battalion had one gun and two Carriers, one to tow and one to carry the detachment.

There were two carriers per gun, but the first carrier would both tow the gun and transport most of the detachment. The second carrier would transport mainly ammunition and other supplies/equipment (including side-shields for the ATG and a Bren gun).

For a pretty good source, see the British TOEs on this website:

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For practical gaming purposes, you could represent the detachments with a single carrier per gun, as the second one probably would not have much practical effect in game.

Great sources boys. That's the answer I needed. Thanks.

As for the ammo distribution between the two carriers, the website that I referred to mentions one source that suggested four ammo boxes (six rounds each) in the gun-tower, and ten more boxes in the second vehicle. Not having seen a Loyd carrier live, I have no idea how crowded it would get with five men and four ammo boxes aboard.

I would presume that if there is extra space left on the second vehicle after the official load, it might get packed with all sorts of supplies and equipment that do not have much direct combat use, but that the crew might find useful (cooking supplies, food, tea, tarps, French wine etc.). Besides, it would provide a spare gun-tower in case the primary one becomes disabled for some reason (this might be of some interest for campaign games).

One issue that is not normally catered in many rules is the allocation of a 2" mortar and Bren gun to the British anti-tank crews. The mortar in this case was mainly intended for launching illumination or smoke rounds, and not really for lobbing HE shells, but the Bren gun would help a lot in defending the gun against enemy infantry (though the gun itself was provided with a limited number of HE shells, up to 25 % of ammo allocation). Though I have no idea as to how many Bren magazines a gun detachment would normally pack (infantry sections had around 25).