I've read James Taylor's article in CMV about the FC 101's purchased for the Rapier battery, and also checked the entries in REMLR re the chassis numbers, and so on. The general consensus is that 50 entered service in the Australian Army.
Both James' article and the REMLR site state that the two trials vehicles (ARNs 29170 & 29171) were returned to the UK.
The registrations listed are:
29170 to 29171: qty 2
29405 to 29426: qty 22
30238 to 30263: qty 26
Total is 50, but two were returned to the UK, leaving 48.
So here is my confusion: ARNs 29170 & 29171, are shown as having been purchased by the Aust Govt under CD 48610121, same as all the other 101s, yet these were the two that were reportedly the trials vehs that were returned to the UK. They are also shown as having been delivered/taken on charge at 41 Supply Battalion, South Australia, on 14 November 1977, when the ARNs were allocated. The other two groups arrived at 41 Supply Battalion on 5/12/1977 and 20/2/1978, respectively. 14 November 1977 seems like a very late date to be starting trials, and anyway, I should think the trials would have been held in Victoria, at T&PW Monegeeta, anyway - so why were they delivered and taken on charge in South Australia, rather than at 31 Supply Battalion or 3BOD in Victoria??
Richard, help me here: how do we know that 29170 and 29171 were the trials vehicles? Do we have anything definitive as to when and where the trials were held?
Is it possible that the two 'missing' chassis numbers are actually 29170 and 29171, the ARNs re-assigned to Aust contract vehicles after the trials vehs were sent back to the UK??
I've not looked in any depth at the FC101 in the Aust Army (other than the very sorry one I have an image of after a head-on prang), but there were some statements in James' article that sparked my curiosity because they just didn't seem to fit the timeline.
Mike