FWD SU-COE Medium Artillery Tractor

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
"Prime Mover" means it's intended use was artillery towing.
The British used the FWD SU-COE as a medium artillery tractor for the 5.5-inch Gun.

Hanno,
I think that it is questionable that the Prime Mover is the Medium Artillery Tractor. The displayed publication on Oliver's message just says SU. If you go to Bart's original bible, on page 68, he lists the SU (G638) amongst a number of other makes of 5-6 ton trucks with short ballast bodies to tow semi-trailers. I would class a prime mover as a vehicle to tow semi or drawbar trailers. Further on, on page 83, the SU-COE MAT is shown less body and alongside is steel bodied cargo and if you look at the description it lists one role as "truck-tractor", which does sound a little like a prime mover.
There were also about 1300 FWD 4x4 tractors supplied to the British with Dominion 6 ton 2 wheel GS semi trailers, under contract SM/CA2420, maybe David has more info on this?

Richard