M4A1 Handcart
As we reenact American Airborne I came across a piece of equipment they used and decided I wanted one, that piece of equipment was a M3A4 Handcart, at the time I figured it would be the cheapest and simplest military vehicle (of sorts) to own, I considered making one or importing one but to my surprise one day one appeared on trademe, so I bid and won it back in 2011.
I was told the one I was purchasing had been used to move grass clippings, at one point it was used at the Omaka airshow but I have no idea how it made its way to New Zealand, I would suspect it was left behind when the yanks had camps here during WW2. I could tell from the photos that some parts such as the draw bar was home made along with a few other minor issues.
On it’s arrival I took a few photos and started my hunt for info and parts, on posting images on a US collectors forum a guy name Craig Johnson made contact, Craig is an expert of Handcarts, he runs a website dedicated to them and keeps a data base of serial numbers and locations of all known handcarts.
The first message I received from Craig was an offer to buy my cart, turns out mine was an M4A1 not that standard M3A4, mine being made by Rock Island Arsenal in 1940, made from aluminum, His data base only contains 3 serial numbers for M4A1’s (including mine) turns out they are very rear and were specifically made to carry the M1917 Water Cooled machine gun, as the move during WW2 was move towards the Air cooled 1919 the M4A1 cart wasn’t really required so the data plates got either removed or over struck to M3A4 making the M4A1 a rear item.
As I decided it was something I wanted to keep and restore I proceeded to strip, repaint and acquire the parts I needed to restore it back to it’s original configuration, as I figured I would never own a M1917 I never purchased the brackets required for carting the M1917.
The opportunity arrived for me to purchase a replica (non functioning) M1917A1, with a bit of hunting and the help of Darryl in Dunedin I picked up a cradle, I managed to get a tripod from the US and a few other bits and bob’s from ebay, I decided it was time to locate some brackets, with luck someone of the G503.com forums had some for sale, finally I had the chance to complete my project, 6 years in the making and I’m very please with the result, surely the only on you will ever see in New Zealand.
Some more information about handcarts can be found here
http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=2479
