PRESSED ” INTO ACTION: The “Tilly was a Real Trooper

At the outbreak of war in 1939, the British Army was desperately short of vehicles for liaison roles that it resorted to “impressing” into service almost 4,300 civilian-owned cars. Orders for some 3,800 further vehicles were placed directly with manufacturers, such as Morris, Austin, and Standard, before the end of the year.

At the start of 1940, the Army added 2,300 more cars to its fleet of civilian vehicles that had grown to 26,000, a figure that included thousands of private cars, some that the Government bought outright. This was in addition to 7,000 motorcycles and 14,000 trucks.

And in June 1940, the War Department placed orders for a further 12,660 cars to replace the almost 8,000 lost during the Dunkirk evacuation that year

TILLYS GO INTO SERVICE

Several types of vehicles, including the Hillman Ten, Morris Ten and Standard Twelve, were used with only a few modifications to adapt them to military service. For example, there was an open-backed, pick-up-style truck with a canvas top for carrying light cargo loads.

The Austin Ten had slightly larger cylinders fitted to increase the engine capacity to 1,237cc, while the Morris Ten had the SU