Arbroath parade

Alf Small of Broughty Ferry emails: “Regarding the feature on the Arbroath VJ day parade, the aircraft being towed by the Fordson tractor is a Supermarine Seafire Mark XV. It is likely to be from 803 Squadron which left Arbroath (HMS Condor) on September 23 1945 for Nutt’s Corner.

“Regarding the picture with the small tug with the big crate and the lorry in front, as Condor was opened in 1940 as a Deck Landing Training (DLT) School, it is likely to have been a tug used to train seamen on moving aircraft around the flight decks of aircraft carriers.

“It is interesting to see that someone has painted ‘A BIG LOAD’ on the side of the crate. If you look at the lorry in front of the tug there is an aircraft twin-bladed propellor with the tip of one blade resting on the cab of the lorry.

“If you turn the picture upside down I think the load on the lorry is an aircraft engine in its nacelle. You can see six exhaust pipes projecting from it behind the person’s head and there are two ‘lumps’ on it which I think are intakes.”

Coupar Angus reader Ross Yeaman adds: “The wartime Fordson tractor, featured in one of the photographs, is quite unusual compared to the usual agricultural model of the time. This particular tractor has been stretched to accommodate the Brockhouse Torque Converter adjoining the gearbox.

“This allowed the smooth towing of aircraft without jerking.

“Incidentally, the two Bedford lorries have the utility flat-nosed bonnets, normal during the Second World War.”