SOUTH AFRICAN ARMOURED CAR PRODUCTION IN WORLD WAR II

Abstract

In the years immediately preceding the outbreak of World War II, the government of the Union of South Africa was already beginning to consider the mechanisation of its small field army. Early in 1937 the Ford Motor Company's factory at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, obtained drawings from their Calladian offices, showing details of an experimental armoured car built for the Department of Defence in Ottawa, and based on the adaptation of a Crossley armoured car to a Ford chassis. The South African War Supplies Board was very interested in this project and approached the Ford Company at Port Elizabeth which had indicated that it would consider undertaking manufacture of a similar vehicle.