South African Fords

[William Marshall]

The Artillery used some crawlers to pull the 60pdr field guns. These were imported from the USA. The following types wee used:

a. Caterpillar "Thirty" petrol.
b. Caterpillar R2.
c. Caterpillar R4 petrol.
d. Caterpillar D4 Diesel.
e. Caterpillar D6 Diesel
I have found 98 serial numbers in my reaseach so far. A number of the R4's were shipped to East Africa for service during the campaign there.

The 6X4 lorries were a locally produced vehicle. The chassis being imported from Canada and the body being locally produced by the Ford Co in Port Elizabeth. They were called a Warford. (War = WW2 and Ford = Ford Co). It is unclear how many were produced but it seems to be quite a large number, going by the serials and U numbers.

Regards

William Marshall
SA Colours & Markings