[David_Hayward (RIP)]

A feature of many of the files are the various Cabinet funding submissions for the purchase of munitions / vehicles which includes large A3 sized tables itemising each individual vehicle type to be purchased, the number required, their unit cost and total cost. An example of this is the fitting out of 1 Aust Corps to go to the Middle East in 1940. The attached table contains a complete breakdown of vehicles for each Division and Corps troops. Although the tables were optimistic and were regularly amended due to things such as British changes to unit Wes, with they subsequent changes to vehicle requirements they do give a good example of the financial focus of the Government

Forgive me for highlighting Shane's wording but this information must be discussed and thrashed out. The reason is because it goes to the very core of British orders for DND-pattern and MCP trucks from June 1940. As you all know the Canadian National Archive show that whereas production started in Windsor and then Oshawa for British contracts starting with S/M 2002, in early September 1940, the British put enormous pressure on Ottawa for priority over Canadian orders including Canadian orders for British assembly.

On the face of it priority was required post-Dunkirk because so many thousands of British-supplied vehicles were lost. However I have never been 1000% satisfied that this was the case because of British indiffeerence at highest echelons to Canadian supply. I have never got my teeth around this sudden volte-face until now. I have to say it is thanks to MLU that we found cast iron evidence of WD-numbered CMPs [sorry, although they were 'DND-pattern' officially I cannot use that term!] in Australia. They proved through their census numbers to have been in the early S/M 20XX Demand [Contracts] i.e. 2002- to 2005 that comprised thousands of CMPs. And yet how come they ended up in Australia? We now know the answer, namely that they were issued to the AIF in the Mid-East, along with the NZEF and Indian Army in either very late 1940 or early 1941..I favour the latter as S/M 2002 C15 Fords were being assembled in Alexandria in January 1941. We also know that the British War Office through the Ministry of Supply purchased Canadian-owned CMPs that had been assembled in England for the Canadian 1 or 2 Divisions. They then got shipped off to the Mid-east, as did I believe did some Canadian-order CMPs that were diverted from England to the Mid-east with payment made in London.

The reason for the priority requests and also stepping up of production in Windsor & Oshawa in September 1940 was because Churchill had stamped on the War Cabinet and thus the whole of Whitehall: War Office, Ministry of Supply, Treasury, et al, even whilst the Battle of Britain was raging that the Mid-east was to be be given priority. At least initially, as at the same time the British records show that there was a demand to increase vehicle production and acquisition from North America for the 'Z+27' programme which was for the number of divisions that would be required by December 1941 and then spring 1942 for the invasion of the Continent. Of course the Greek campaign intervened as we know. Anyhow, as part of the 'Z+27' there was a realisation that supply from North America was required and that included from the USA. As you all know after the CMP Contracts there were a series of acqusitions for US off-the-shelf trucks that were also shipped to the Mid-east, and then various diverted French contracts for Chevrolet and GMC trucks although the latter seem to have remained in the UK.

As to possibly the last WD-numbered trucks that were supplied to the AIF, etc. I am suggesting Demand S/M 2037 which was for 4 x 2 and 4 x 4 3-ton Chevrolets and Fords. The turning-point may have been the next Demand placed, S/M 2104 ..S/M 2104 was submitted 2 JULY 1941 to Canada and comprised 10,000 3-ton Lorries 'similar to S/M 2019 Ford and Chevrolet' with 10.50 x 20 General Purpose tyres, CKD for assembly in India and South Africa. However the detsinations must have changed subsequently:

150 UNITS DESTINED FOR SINGAPORE
145 FOR AUSTRALIA
CUMULATIVE PRODUCTION AT 30 JUNE 1942: 9,641 [FOR EGYPT]
9,695 BY OCTOBER 1942

We know that S/M 2127 [#12 Cab 60S] was for Australia, with local Holden assembly and by then the numbers would have been locally-applied.

I maintain that the WD-style numbering was for 'ownership' indications originally and then for sprare parts identification subsequently. I have been contemplating whether as I think I said before that the WD census numbers were applied and remained until the question of 'payment' was resolved, which must have been from sometime in 1941. I would like to know if there is any evidence of Australian # 11 and #12 Cabs being allocated new Australian census numbers at some stage but the fact that some clearly retained their numbers into demob suggests that the numbers were permanent in some cases. I take the attitude at the moment that the Mid-east Commonwealth forces received British-owned trucks and armoured vehicles on the basis that the question of payment/transfer of title would be resolved subsequently.