I’ve frequently been amazed at the images he can locate based on someone’s general request, or just on his own initiative in response to a given thread.
He initially located the photo on a Chinese site, but some of the original large source images were missing, so he located all of these – and more – on a Russian site. This includes a good number of images that are new – to “Western” eyes.
http://www.smallscaleafvforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3573
This is the photo proving the Whippet was backed onto the barge – note that it’s still wearing British markings and has no armament.
While not new, and perhaps the best known photo of the Japanese Whippets, this image shows the Whippets in a combined exercise.
The Japanese have replaced the Hotchkiss guns with their own Type 3 Heavy Machine Guns, and have also hinged the previously fixed driver’s plate – no doubt improving non-combat vision as well as ventilation. Additional protection (for people) has also been added to the exhaust.
There is debate as to whether 4 or 6 Whippets were sold. Here is an image of three on a “parade ground” with some of the Japanese FT-17s.
This last image, one of the new ones, appears to show another combined exercise (note all the planes), with soldiers apparently attending to a fallen comrade – possibly from the heat of a Japanese summer.
You can see that the front of the cab has been modified with a horizontally angled plate. This is not seen in the "combined exercise" column photo showing the hinged driver's plate, so this was clearly done as a separate and later mod - undoubtedly to give the driver a better sightline to the left.
My thanks to Frenchy for helping prove my “backwards” barge theory, and locating a treasure-trove of previously unknown images.
