Another Indian Pattern odd job: "C291QH 4x4 FAT for Royal Engineers"

[Hanno Spoelstra]

In David Hayward's lists of S/M (Supply Mechanical) contracts, S/M 2256 is listed with 480 examples of C291QH chassis exported to India. These were labelled as "4 x 4 F.A.T. for Royal Engineers", and until now there wasn't a clear picture of what this vehicle looked like. Just earlier on, I stumbled upon an old thread and found the answer was right here under my nose on MLU.

C291QH is mentioned in a "FORD ARMOURED VEHICLES Chassis Instruction Book" which lists a "Modified G.T. Chassis 4x4 C291QH":

Ford C291QH chassis.jpg

Now, the C291QH is listed in an Instruction Book for Armoured General Purpose Vehicles together with it's sister chassis C291QR. As the latter was used for the Indian Pattern Wheeled Armoured Carrier, I think it is logical to deduce the latter chassis was used for the Indian Pattern 4x4 Armoured Truck - see the scan from Bart Vanderveen's book Historic Military Vehicle Directory:

Indian Pattern 4x4 Armoured Truck_resized 2.jpg Indian Pattern 4x4 Armoured Truck_resized.jpg

The Indian Pattern 4x4 Armoured Truck has a low nose, necessitating a low-mounted radiator. If you take a close look at the C291QH chassis, one will note the radiator is mounted lower in the chassis, like in this C19QHF chassis:

ND-103.jpg ND-105.jpg

According to the manual it has a single 12-1/4 gallon tank plus an auxiliary tank of unknown size to be installed when the hull was fitted.

H.