[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I was reading late last night Bart Vanderveen's article on the 1943 German Ford COE 4 x 4 chassis. I have no idea whether the wartime COE 4 x 4 that they produced used a copy of the M-H transfer case...not having seen a M-H casing close-up save that Bart claims that the Ford had nothing to do with M-H!

The Romanian factory was a subsidiary of the British company as you know. The Ford Motor Company Limited and probably Henry Ford and Son Limited of Cork, Eire were with Ford Werke AG subsidiaries of the Ford Motor Company of Dearborn. All other Ford companies were subsidiaries of Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited. I have just found that in 1938-9 Ford of Britain offered both 8-cwt and 30-cwt chassis converted to 4 x 4 with M-H components. Given that Dagenham supplied the Romanian factory with US-style vehicles, the Romanian trucks could have been exported from Dagenham. However it is equally likely that they and the Hungarian operation were supplied by Koln. The reason I suggest this is that the Romanian 1940 models that had been ordered were not able to be delivered from Dagenham and so were taken on by the Ministry of Supply. This would have left a gap for the German arm of the empire to step in. Bart suggested that Koln produced their last 4 x 4 in 1956, and used the same type of front wheel drive as the wartime COE Koln product! Bart says that the Hungarian operation assembled a 4 x 4 version of the German Ford with M-H technology with normal control and soft-top cab.

Opel supplied the Hungarian Army with Opel cars and trucks for instance, although Yugoslavia received direct Chevrolet military truck exports in 1940 from the US and not from Opel.

I would like to know whether the Fordson 4 x 4 drivetrain owed anything to M-H, and whether Dagenham licence-built transfer cases etc.