War Dept. numbers

[Colin Macgregor Stevens]

Sadly the Canadian records are not available. The Canadian Government destroyed the vehicle record cards years ago (ref. the late Peter J. Ford's research).

I have been researching in this field for 20 years and have only found bits and pieces of info. There MAY be major info buried in the National Archives in Ottawa but I do not have access to these.

The 4,200,000 to 4,299,999 block of WD numbers was one of several batches of War Department (i.e. British) numbers assigned to Canadian Army overseas. Unfortunately, unlike the British allocations, we have no breakdown of how the numbers were allocated by the Canadian Army.

C = Canadian issue.

L = Lorry

Unfortunately we have no idea as the the maker or the model. If by chance a vehicle with a similar WD number was found (in historic photos or in a collection) that would indicate a likely (but not guaranteed ID) of the type of vehicle involved in the accident.

British vehicles taken on strength by First Canadian Army would usually have a C prefix added to the WD number, though there are exceptions. When a vehicle from Canadian Army was transferred to the British Army, the C prefix was usually deleted. Examples include an HUA and a WLU (Willys slat grill jeep made on contract CDLV 242). Remember that there were a number of British (and American, Dutch, etc. ) formations under First Canadian Army and that a number of Canadian formations served under British command. The odd batches were 1 Canadian Parachute Battalion which was under the British 6 Airborne Division.