Introduction

The following is the introduction on this book from Tankograd Publishing;
At the start of the Great War in 1914, the British Army had just 80 trucks and 20 cars in service. These had been augmented by a further 59,490 motor trucks and 33,800 cars and ambulances by the end of the war in 1918. This policy of motorisation made the British Army the most mechanised of all the belligerent nations.
This book is the first-ever publication granting a comprehensive overview of military trucks used by the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Flying Corps in World War One. It covers British-built subsidy, purpose-built and impressed general service trucks with famous manufacturers’ names ranging from AEC to Wolseley. It also shows non-British-built trucks in service with the British Armed Forces, of which the majority were of American origin. Additional chapters cover workshop trucks, tankers, gun trucks, steam wagons, traction engines and tractors.
Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Great War 1914-2014

Contents

• Preface by author
• Introduction
• Motorization of the British Army up to 1914
• Driving for the Army Service Corps
• Commercial Truck manufacturers used by the British forces 1914-1918
• Truck equipment and toolkits
• British built general service cargo truck
  • AEC
  • Albion
  • Austin
  • Belsize
  • British Berna
  • British Quad
  • Commer
  • Crossley
  • Daimler
  • Dennis
  • Halley
  • Hallford
  • Karrier
  • Lacre
  • Leyland
  • LGOC
  • Maudslay
  • McCurd
  • Napier
  • Pagefield
  • Star
  • Straker-Squire
  • Thornycroft
  • Wolsley

• Non-British Built General service cargo trucks
  • Berna
  • Clyesdale
  • Fiat
  • Ford
  • FWD
  • Garford
  • Kelly Springfield
  • Lancia
  • Locomobile
  • Mors
  • Packard
  • Peerless
  • Pierce Arrow
  • Saurer
  • Seabrook-Standard
  • SPA
  • White
  • Willys

• Workshop trucks
• Tanker trucks
• Gun trucks
• Steam wagons, traction engines, tractors
• Numbers, names, and markings

Review

This book from Tankograd Publishing is a hardback book with a limited print run 0f 999 copies. The text in the book is in English only and includes 15 pages of dedicated text. The pictures in the book are of course all in black and white and number some 396; most of these images have never been available in print before. The images are a good size and spread over 200 pages.

The images in the book are in incredible condition for their age, being very sharp in focus and great reference detail. All of the pictures are or are nearly 100 years old and provide reference on vehicles that are large number of us have properly never heard of, in addition to being great reference for the vehicles they are also great reference for the uniforms of the day and the general appearance of the soldiers also. One aspect that does score highly is the very detailed text descriptions that accompany each picture.

When you look at the vehicles that the soldier of the day relied upon you cannot help but realise how far we have come in 100 years. Solid rubber tyres are great as regards not getting a puncture, but are not exactly comfortable or for that matter light in weight. I also dread to think how cold you got driving the trucks exposed to the weather in all seasons.

Conclusion

There is not really anything more I could wish for from this book as it screams quality from start to finish. I did find a single spelling error in the book on the contents page where it says ‘Foces’ instead of ‘Forces’, but I am not going to hold that against it. The pictures are of an incredibly high standard and make this book well worth owning regardless of your interests. Tim Gosling the author has done a great job with this title and Tankograd Publishing should be commended for publishing this book at this time. This book being a limited print run is a get it now item as you will kick yourself later when it is not available.