Further tales of the FWD Model B truck– this month in British Army service
In mid-1915 the British War Department (WD) received its first delivery of 40 trucks from the Four Wheel Drive Auto Company (FWD) of Clintonville, Wisconsin. This delivery was the first instalment of a larger order of 288 trucks and once the WD had calculated their anticipated requirement as 80 trucks a month further deliveries soon arrived.
The purchase and despatch of these trucks was arranged through the well-established American exporting Company of Gaston, Williams and Wigmore. This organisation, apparently very proud of their involvement in this transaction, fitted a large metal plaque to the front of each truck bearing their name but this was soon replaced with a more discreet enamel badge on the inside of the scuttle.
Painted light grey, without bodies but carrying a large wooden crate within which was a set of tools, lamps, the seat cushion and some spare parts, the trucks were driven on to a train in Clintonville and taken to the American East coast for loading onto ships.
During this journey some of the trucks were found to have been sabotaged by German sympathisers with abrasives added to the engine and gearbox and b…
