Just had a look, anything Dunkirk can be ruled out, also the Royal Northumbrian Fuseliers post Dunkirk, can be ruled out, they all got new bikes in the middle of 1940, and C numbers started with C418**** so too early yet.
The Airborne training that was done with B4's could be a possibility, there are some pictures of these, and some show numbers like C4385511 but also C4592992 so that is the contract after that of Dave's.
Then there is C4385758 and has markings of the Northampton Regiment, 4th battalion. and another on in that range (C438575?)in training in Ireland with the Royal Warwickshire regt. in 1941
Canadian, Czech, Polish and Australian units had earlier contracts, so would not use those markings. the only FFI marked bike was from the contract after, but if marked so, you would be very popular in Normandy!!
Anyway, let me know what you decide on, and I can email a sample picture, of markings, if available.
I would also ask Rik, if he has anything in the ledgers for this contract, but fear they are not there.
This is all just a presumption, based on existing pictures, and there might be many more other units using B4's at the time.
There are no B4 frames as high as this in the surviving few ledger pages. Neither are there any B4 spare engines (plenty of 16H though with AS prefixes).
The census number referred to C4112324 would have originally been allocated to Frame / Engine S1066 but the 'AS' spare engine sequence had nothing to do with this. The B4 spare engines that I've seen seem to consistently have numbers in the low thousands.
S3370 relates to contract C7576 which comprised 600 box bodies and 541 standard..fortunately, the records do show that the standard bodies were S2876 - S3416. The last 20 were allocated C4427053 - C4427072 and if I calculate back from S3395 / C4386026, I arrive at C4386001 for S3370.
As Lex says, we really on a few chance photographs to arrive at allocations. It's clear that there were a number in Northern Ireland and there is no evidence of Canadian allocations from this contract.
They were presumably being used for training in a reconnaissance rôle, perhaps at a time when Carriers and armoured cars were being kept where the threat of invasion was greatest.
Thanks for the information Rob, Lex, and Rik, I will relay this info to Dad and will let you know what we decide on. Any photos would be welcome, my email is bwalters112@gmail.com
