1938

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I am just wading through, word by word, the 1938 War Department Mechanization Report. It makes very interesting reading. Those regular members who have read past threads that referred to the WD's belief up to then of 4x2 and for cross-country/FAT work 6x4, chassis, will be interested to note that the WD finally got it right that year..and they accepted that 4x4 was up to and sometimes superior to 6x4. Of course the DND in Ottawa were slightly behind the latest WD thinking and so we had the dead-end Chevrolet- and Ford-Scammell FATs, plus 4x2 Chevrolet 15-cwt G/S trucks. Then the 1940 Model Ford 15-cwt 4x2 G/S trucks. It would be late 1939 when the requirement for M-H all-wheel drive was put forward by Stan Ellis then in the UK, and of course the rest is history.

1938...The Year They Got It Right.

Thank goodness.

And of course by 1940 the Dutch and Belgian Armies and the NEI had M-H-equipped and DAF-Trado -equipped trucks, as well as imported GMC 4x4 chassis. On the Continent our future allies had the system sussed from 1935!