[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Hanno and I have dialogued off-piste about the earliest British orders for CMPs. I have had a re-think about the possible origin of any trucks sent to Greece. My first thought is that 3,000 F15s were supplied under Demand Supply-Mechanical (S/M) 2002 for delivery to Egypt. This meant assembly in Ford's plant in Alexandria, which was in fact a private company that had pre-war had the temerity to sell in 'British Egypt' Cologne-built Eiffels, or the two or so bases.

The earliest that any supplies could have reached Alexandria I have worked out over the years is mid-December 1940. The photo in WHEELS & TRACKS of the Alpha pack F15 is dated January 1941 which is to me very likely to have been the earliest that series assembly was undertaken. I have said before that DND records show the very earliest shipments of British-order CMPs as being in lateish September 1940. Production only commenced around beginning of September! There was then a problem of slotting in these enormous quantities of crates in the available commercial shipping ex-Halifax. Without any official evidence so far, and I am sure that it will turn up one day, I am sticking by December '40 as the earliest feasible month for the very first arrival of shipments, assemblies and deliveries. That same month any CMPs issued to the AIF and NZEF in England would have started arriving, possibly ex-Canadian orders acquired by the Ministry of Supply, ready for the forces to be equipped with them in January '41. This could have included some Chevrolets as well as Fords
Looking at the known figures based on DND papers, we know that 3,000 F15s were ordered to be delivered to Alexandria. On top of that were 3200+ C15s but these were officially for English delivery though there would then have been onward shipment to Alexandria of a portion of those, and if they did January '41 is the earliest I suggest that they could have arrived. In fact S/M 2002 provided for 3500 C15s for England, and allowing for some shipping losses and in-transit losses, that still leaves over 200 C15s that were not allocated British Census Numbers. These could just have been ordered to be diverted to Alexandria although I have no evidence so far of any Mid-East theatre numbers on # 11 Cab C15s. Otherwise I can only suggest that 300-odd C15s were lost or damaged in transit. If and it is a big IF the contract record card exists then it may have further information.



My thoughts for discussion are that January 1941 must have been the earliest that any trucks could have been decided to be sent to Greece with any Commonwealth forces. With a huge influx of 15-cwt 4 x 2 trucks, arguably really not suitable for a desert campaign, perhaps they were acceptable to ship across the Med especially given Winston's diktats?

What it boils down to is that if any 15-cwt trucks in Greece were Fords, they could only have come from Egypt. Any Chevrolets could have arguably only come from England, sent to Egypt and then on to Greece.

As to CMP lorries, this gets a bit more complicated but probably the same applied. Has anyone got any evidence of 30-cwts or 3-tonners please? One of the posted photos looks as though it had a 30-cwt at least in the convoy?