[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I am now checking my papers from a duty filing cabinet but here's the balance for you for the moment:

The initial suggestion for the re-allocation of the Bombay deliveries was because the W.O. hurriedly changed priority in August 1940 for the Middle East to be supplied, with vehicles being issued to the Indian Army in Egypt. However the evidence now shows that the Australian Infantry Force [A.I.F.] in Egypt were issued with trucks and lorries from these earliest British orders in addition to the British and Indian forces. Confirmation of the delivery in January 1941 of the ‘Egypt’ deliveries appears to come from a M. of S. note of 31 January 1941 stating that the War Office had decided to establish four unit plants in the Middle East for assembly of vehicles purchased ‘in America’ {sic} and shipped direct to the Middle East; further that vehicles were already being delivered and the provision of assembly plants was a matter of urgency. Permission was sought to spend £75,000 or $300,000 for five 1 or 2-ton revolving caterpillar-type cranes, trailers for the cranes, petrol-engined battery-charging plant, petrol-engined air compressor plant, sets of hand tools and 9 5-ton platform lorries and spare parts multiplied by four for each plant