A few civilian trucks were bought from the US in the early part of the
war during desperate supply shortages. Almost all were used in either
the middle-east or far-east campaign's. However having said that...do
not confuse the British Ford Sussex and other British manufactured Ford
civilian trucks that had similar US counterparts at the time......or for
that matter rely on any captions under pictures from the notorious
'National Geographic'.
Most common types used were Mack's and white's as tank and aircraft
transporters in 4x2 and 6x4 configs' up until about 1942, with many
eventually being converted back to cargo use. The small 15 cwt civilian
Ford trucks used in North Africa were assambled in Britain from US
parts. The British also used some US trucks originally supplied on
contract to the French. The British-Commonwealth troops used adapted US
civilian trucks as well as building them in their own factories.
After 'Dunkirk', it has been documented that there were only three tank
transporter units left in Britain. It was this that instigated the
hurried purchase of the Diamond T units which eventually proved so
successful.
When studying WW2 photo's it must be remembered that most troops from
Chinese or Indian, to French, Belgian, South African and even Polish
often wore similar uniforms, helmets and kit. And as all photo's were
classified, captions were at best guesswork, and generaly propoganda
designed for confusion to the enemy !
regards
Colin Brookes
Invicta Military Vehicle Preservation Society (IMPS)
colb@xtra.co.nz
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