Two of the best known British vehicles of World War Two are seen restored and running in West Yorkshire
When Britain went to war with Germany in 1939, the country was not as well prepared for battle as history would lead us to believe. Certainly, as far as its military vehicles were concerned, the United Kingdom found itself requisitioning a whole host of civilian trucks, light vehicles and motorcycles and adapting them for military service.
Drawing on existing projects, the War Office also commissioned and tested wheeled vehicles throughout the 1930s at the Mechanical Warfare Experimental Establishment (MWEE) at Farnborough, which, during the war, would become The Wheeled Vehicles Experimental Establishment (WVEE), moving to Chertsey in 1943.
Both the vehicles featured here began life as commercial trucks and were subjected to military testing and modification, the innovative Scammell Pioneer having undergone close scrutiny during its development throughout the 1920s and ‘30s.
However, the Bedford ‘O’ Series civilian trucks had only just been introduced in 1939 after a company revamp of their civilian offering and were rapidly requisitioned for military use on the outbreak of war on September 1 1939. …
