THE LATIL PART ONE
Although Latil built trucks in all shapes and sizes, mention their name and the first image that comes to mind is a short-wheel-base, stubby tractor with large tyres and a ground-anchor, sticking up to attention on the back.
This is a description of the infamous Latil H14 winching tractor which earned itself a phenomenal reputation for unsticking the stuck!
The founder of the celebrated, French firm of Latil was Auguste Joseph Frédéric Georges Latil, known as ‘Georges’, who was born to a large family on the 3rd of June 1878 in Marseille. His father Charles was in the legal profession as a notaire but Georges became an engineer. He retired in 1939 after being badly affected, emotionally, by the death of his wife. He lived out his life in a small ‘mas’ near Nice and died on the 12th of May 1961, aged 83, having been awarded France’s highest honour, La Légion d’Honneur.
He started his business in 1898 in Marseille. He had perfected an articulated joint for the transmission system which would allow a vehicle to be both driven and
