Fords in Aethiopia

[Kuno]

Attached a pcture of two Fords in the property of Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia. The picture was taken in late 1935 when these two trucks were on the way to the northern front. Loaded is a workshop trailer which was maintained by a young Swiss who took part the campaign under a contract for to train the locals in electromeachanical works. As an assistance he got then three captured Italian tankdrivers. A fascinating story written by the man was published later on in a book with many of his phtographs...

[Kuno]

Any idea; who (which country) delivered the trucks to Ethiopia? The US? (I do only know that the US were supplying Ford-Trucks to the Italian army in Ethiopia)

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

...Ford Motor Company, Alexandria, Egypt!

I have found that in Autumn 1940 exchange control permission was given to purchase 337 non-specialist Fords from the Alexandria plant for the War office in the Mid-East, payable in US$. In addition, 184 3-ton tenders were purchased for the RAF towards their requirement of about 300 tenders. This was partly paid by $ in New York and partly by Egyptian £. This brings me on to a question: a tender was presumably a crash tender? I only know of WOT1 tenders...I wonder if Dearborn ordered Dagenham to supply Alexandria or does anyone know of any 3-ton RAF US Ford tenders?