FWD Model B 3-ton Lorry

[David]

To make up for their drastic shortage of motor transport the British Government purchased huge numbers of motor vehicles from the United States, a total of nearly 18.000 being thus acquired during the war years. First contracts were placed at the end of 1914 and first deliveries of vehicles were made early in 1915 via an American export agency which set up a reception base in Liverpool and a repair depot in Islington to check and service incoming vehicles before handing them over to the British Ministry of Munitions. Only the cab/chassis came from America, the British fitting W.D.-type bodies of their own as required. One of the most important types purchased was the F.W.D. Model B, built by the Four Wheel Drive Co. of Clintonville, Wisconsin, from whence the F.W.D. initials were derived.

As its name implies, this was a four-wheel drive vehicle and very similar to its contemporary the Jeffrey-Quad. Rated as a 3-tonner, the F.W.D. had a Wisconsin four-cylinder petrol engine with a three-speed gearbox and a two­speed transfer gearbox. There was a shaft drive to each axle. On roads the F.W.D. was driven as a normal rear­wheel drive vehicle, but for off road driving an additional gear lever was provided on the chassis side which controlled the low gears and connected up the drive to the front axle. In the British Army the F.W.D. was mainly used as a gun tractor but it also saw service as a supply carrier for heavy or awkward loads. A typical role saw it fitted with a tank for carrying petrol or water. It was used both on the Western front and the Italian front.

The photos show the impressively well-kept F.W.D. Lorry at the Imperial War Museum's facility in Duxford, and have been taken by Knut Erik Hagen.