Hello all,
I’m sorry that this is in English, but your English is probably better than Google’s Italian.
I'm wondering if anyone has any photos or records for the Italian Stalwart. Or perhaps you can suggest a source of information?
About me
40 years ago I was in the British Royal Engineers, in Germany. I was driving, and teaching others to drive the Alvis Stalwart 6x6 High Mobility Load Carrier (HMLC).
In 2013 I joined the HMLC group on Facebook, and have helped admin the group for some years.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/alvi...stalwart.group
During Lockdown 1 of Covid in 2020, I was put on Furlough to stay home. I do not own a Stalwart, but started to gather all the British army Workshop and User manuals. These manuals have been declassified by the Ministry Of Defence (MOD), and are free to down load. This was done to help keep the remaining Stalwarts out of the breaker yards. It’s taken me 3 years, but I now have all the Workshop manuals, and most of the User manuals.
I then set up a cheap webpage, to freely share these manuals outside of Facebook.
https://sites.google.com/view/alvis-...-files-manuals
At the same time that I started gathering manuals, I also started researching the Stalwart’s history and story.
I got fed up with correcting the incorrect information on Wikipedia, and their editors deleting my corrections because they wouldn’t read the manuals. So I created new web pages for the Stalwart, to record its history. This also expanded to cover the Bedford trucks, the BV202, and British army field cooking equipment.
https://sites.google.com/view/alvis-stalwart-hmlc-files
About the Alvis Stalwart
The website goes into great depth, but to give the main moments
- 1959 the first Stalwart is ready and trialled by MOD.
- 1960 the first swimming Stalwart is ready for trials.
- 1962 Sweden buys its first Stalwarts.
- 1963 Britain receives its first Stalwarts. Germany and Italy buy their first Stalwarts
- 1966 the mark 2 Stalwart is produced.
- 1969 the crane loader version is produced.
- 1971 the last Stalwart is made.
- 1985 Sweden takes their last stalwarts out of service.
- 1993 Britain takes their stalwarts and many other petrol engine vehicles out of service.
British army had roughly 1056 Stalwarts. The following countries also purchased Stalwarts
- 4 – Austria.
- 2 – France.
- 3 – Germany.
- 1 – Italy.
- 26 to 28 – Sweden.
- 1 – Thailand.
- 1 is also thought to have been sold to Canada, but still researching that.
Italy
Italy bought an Alvis Stalwart 6x6 amphibious truck from Great Britain. We know from the Times newspaper that it had been bought by December 1963. It was purchased to help in the event of river flooding and disaster relief.
I'm wondering if anyone has any photos or records for the Italian Stalwart. Or perhaps you can suggest a source of information?
I have already been in touch with Storia Militare, who have been most helpful and passed me on other information.
With thanks to Colonel Cappellano I can confirm that;
- One of these amphibious trucks has been purchased and tested by the Italian Army.
- The Stalwart was initially in charge of the Reggimento Lagunari “Serenissima”, an infantry regiment located in the Venice area and specialized in amphibious operations in lagoon, lake and river environment.
- After some test with the regiment, it has been transferred to the Engineers' Corps school in Piacenza for other test.
- Unfortunately it was not considered suitable for both uses, as troop carrier for the “Lagunari” and/or support vehicle for the Engineers' Corps.
- Moreover, any interest has been demonstrated in this vehicle by the “San Marco” Battallion (at that time, today is a brigade), the naval infantry unit of the Italian Navy.
So if you do have, or know any old soldiers who might have any photos or records for the Italian Stalwart, then I would love to hear from you. Or perhaps you can suggest an Italian source of information?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Many thanks for your help,
Mark
Segnalibri