Reading that link, I would say it is a mis-interpretation by the author. Here I have copied the relevant part:
Now if you take away the author's interpretation of that, here is the actual line from the Mechanization board report:
Quote:
A clue to the origin of the curious "beetle shape of the guy ant, and other quads, is contained in the Mechanization Board report for 1939 which states:
"To permit decontamination, an all metal body to the Chief Superintendent of Design's was fitted, involving an increase of weight of 17cwts"
Thus, the characteristic shape of these vehicles was born of the need to be able to wash down the vehicles to rid them of chemical contamination......
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"To permit decontamination, an all metal body to the Chief Superintendent of Design's was fitted, involving an increase of weight of 17cwts"
My un-learned view of that line was that they previously had wood in the Chief Superintendent's design of the body, or that the Chief Superintendent of Design has changed the design to get rid of the wood. Note that in the photo of an early Guy Ant on the previous page, the body was made of wood. Wood, being porous, does not lend itself well to decontamination, so they instead changed the design to all metal, which made the bodies heavier.
The author of that book, I believe, has made a mistake in his interpretation, and that interpretation has been blindly repeated and accepted for fact. Using the word "thus" in his leap does not make it fact.