Little known today, the Garford Motor Truck Company supplied a variety of trucks, and one unique armoured car, to the various armies of the Triple Entente. Tim Gosling profiles their rise to success
Like many other early commercial vehicle manufacturers, the origins of the Garford Motor Truck Company started with the construction of automobiles. Like many of their competitors, although they went on to supply several thousand vehicles to the British and United States militaries throughout World War One, this contribution has since been largely forgotten over time.
However, what Garford is mostly remembered for is supplying the Russian Tzarist regime with heavy truck chassis, which were converted into armoured cars by the engineering company Putilov. Just 48 of these massive “Garford-Putilov” armoured cars were constructed and, despite having very poor offroad capability, their heavy armour and
armament gave them several military successes and interesting military careers with many nations.
