[Richard Farrant]

Just to put this one to bed......, I was looking through some old vintage commercial vehicle magazines and found a letter in one which gives the final word on 4x4 K2 ambulance saga. It was written by David Beckett, who I know is a MV enthusiast, because a friend of mine, bought his Austin K6 Gantry some years ago.

The story goes that in November 1957, he was in the RASC and posted to 1 Coy RASC at Medienene Bks in Tripoli. On arrival he noticed a K2 ambulance parked by the guardroom with "Katy" painted on the front. After a while he thought it strange that it never moved. One night he was duty corporal at the guardroom, so enquired about the K2, to be told it was owned by a film company who were making a film in the desert. There were in fact, two Katies, the other one was in the REME workshops being modified to 4x4. The next day, David visited the Workshops to find the ambulance modification completed. The REME's first thoughts were to use a K5 front axle, but that was not possible due to differing axle ratios, and it was too large. After a bit of thinking they used the transfer box, front and rear axles from.........wait for it...a Canadian Ford Gun Tractor.