Ken Roberts and the first Land Rovers.

Midway through 1948 the first two Land Rovers for delivery to the British Army in the Middle East were on their way to 591 (GHQ Car) Company, Royal Army Service Corps, at Fayid in the Suez Canal Zone. They had been carefully unloaded from a cargo ship at Port Said and were being carried along the last fifty miles of their journey in two Leyland ten-tonners supplied by 223 (Heavy Transport) Company RASC, also in the Fayid area.

The role of 591 Company was to supply from its huge working stock the majority of staff cars and drivers required by other Army units in the Canal Zone. Some cars were supplied on a permanent loan basis, others on a daily or weekly basis. With one exception, the cars were serviced, maintained and driven by 591 Company personnel, the exception being the Commander-in-Chief's Rolls Royce of 1936 vintage, which was shipped back to the Derby works every two years for any necessary repairs. Army personnel were limited to inflating its tyres, topping up the fuel and lubricants and checking that the clock was right.

Most of the other cars were Austins, Humbers, Chevrolets and Chryslers, all painted in drab olive green. At the other end of the spectrum, the Rolls Royce, a 1940 Cadillac Imperial and several Humber Pullmans and Super Snipes still retained their original glossy black coachwork.

Cross-country stock included Humber 4 x 4 f'ield cars, Australian-built Chevrolets and Willys Jeeps. Also accommodated with 591 Company were several dozen Ford and Dodge TCVs (Troop Carrying Vehicles) fitted with wooden bench seats and canvas tilt covers. These operated along the one hundred-odd miles of the Canal roads, serving the many Army units and the Egyptian towns and villages with their various attractions for the British servicemen.

The TCVs operated with Army drivers and carried "conductors" supplied by the German prisoner-of-war fraternity. After the POWs had been repatriated, the TCVs became part of the Canal Army Bus Service (CABS).

Yet another variety on the strength of the Company were a matching pair of Leyland diesel 33-seater coaches of early 1930s vintage.

Awaiting the Land Rover delivery at Fayid, two drivers had been allocated to each and would be exclusively responsible for the operational driving during the initial three-month evaluation period. The only other person authorised to drive the two Land Rovers would be the vehicle mechanic (VM) allocated to test (including road test), examine and report on the performance of the new vehicles.

Having drawn the short straw, I was the VM. My normal duties at that time involved the periodic examination of vehicles, similar to today's MOT test but without the benefit of rolling roads, beam setters, electronic brake testers and emission control gadgets (not that emission was uppermost in the thoughts of the Army at that time - just carburettor efficiency).

The initial inspection followed the pattern usually applied to new or extensively refitted vehicles. Minor modifications were listed in compliance with Command Inspectorate of Motor Transport (CIMT) Standing Orders. The radiator and engine oil caps would need to be attached to the bodywork by multi-strand metal wire in such a manner that they could be removed and replaced while remaining attached to the vehicle.

The fuel cap would likewise require workshop treatment, using half inch link metal chain instead of wire.

Other CIMT Standing Orders involved removing and throwing away the cooling system thermostat (ours was not to reason why) and fitting a low wattage bulb to illuminate the white-painted rear face of the rear axle differential casing. The latter requirement allowed vehicles in convoy to move safely at night without showing red lights, a throwback to the war in Europe which had been more or less settled some three years previously.

Army drivers were, however, still fetching and carrying from our almost completely abandoned bases in Palestine, and it was Army custom and practice for all vehicles with fold-down windscreen to have a suitable length of 2 x 2 inch angle iron bolted or welded vertically from the front bumper as protection against wires stretched across the road or track at neck level.

Being of the right hand drive variety, each Land Rover would need to have an additional wing mirror fitted. The final item on the list of work required to be carried out by workshops was to the effect that that a complete paint job would be necessary because factory pea-green did not have any place in the Army's camouflage system.

Whereas journeys by run-of-the-mill vehicles were usually authorised on the work ticket by a senior NCO, Land Rover journeys now had to have an officer's signature. In addition to routine security precautions, the Land Rovers had to be locked inside the main workshop building every night. On the road the driver carried a written instruction signed by the Commanding Officer, no less, that he was not to let any unauthorised person, regardless of rank, drive the vehicle.

At the inspection bays it was my job to carry out a full examination at three-week intervals, without waiting for the normal mileage or time interval inspection to become due. After six weeks and again after twelve weeks I was required to drain off the lubricating oil from the engine, gearbox, transfer box and rear axle into separate containers, seal them up and get them over to No 8 Mobile Petrol Laboratory (8 MPL) which had been parked inside the perimeter fence of the camp for this particular purpose.

8 MPL consisted of a Fordson 6 x 4 lorry fitted out with all kinds of equipment for testing and analysing fuels and lubricants. It was staffed by two or three NCOs and we presumed that they would be keeping track of the Land Rover oils for such things as viscosity, acidity and, perhaps, metal particles.

Within a week of being "taken on strength" at 591 Company, both Land Rovers were put into service and were given a mixed reception by the rest of the lads, depending on whether they had the privilege of riding in one or had to be content with using the seven-year-old Jeeps for either official or nefarious journeys. Despite the fact that the two new additions did not bear the maker's logo front or rear, everyone knew very quickly what they were.

Debates, discussions, even arguments broke out on whether or not the Land Rover would eventually replace the Jeep as the Army's light workhorse. All opinions in these first few days and weeks had to be based on theory because no actual head-to-head contests were staged - at least, not on 591 Company's patch of sand to the best of my knowledge.

It seemed to be generally accepted that the Jeep, by virtue of its relatively powerful engine, would outperform the Land Rover in any activity requiring traction and pulling power. Also in the Jeeps favour was its left hand drive format, which made it a lot easier to handle on roads used by the Egyptian public.

Probably fifty percent of British Army vehicles in the Middle East at that time were right hand drive. The proportion was increasing all the time as more and more of the Army's ex-American, ex-German and ex-Italian vehicles were consigned to the scrapyard at Tel-el-Kebir, which must have been one of the largest scrapyards in British occupation by the time the armed forces left in the 1950s.

Although the two types of vehicle could carry approximately equal payloads, the Land Rover offered more load space than the Jeep. What really counted in the minds of many users, particularly the more fastidious officer types, was the Land Rover's doors, which greatly reduced the dishevelment and discomfort encountered during a high wind or sandstorm. On the subject of comfort, the driver's seating arrangement in the Land Rover was superior to that of the Jeep with the increase (real or imagined) in personal safety by not having to drive along sat on a tank of petrol. Besides which, the Land Rover was fitted with a more efficient handbrake system locking the two rear wheels, whereas the Jeep employed a band of brake-lining material which was designed to grip the outer circumference of a drum forming part of the primary propshaft. Anyone driving away without first releasing the umbrella-handle type handbrake lever stood a better than even chance of starting a fire right beside the petrol tank on which he was sitting.

One big advantage enjoyed by the Land Rover (also enjoyed by VMs and electricians alike) was the electrical, ignition and lighting systems all being powered by 12 volts. Until the arrival of the Land Rovers on the scene, only lorries, trucks and buses were equipped with 12 volt systems. Of all the passenger-carrying vehicles at 591 Company, the select few in this respect were the Rolls Royce, the Cadillac and a few of the Humbers; all the U.S., Canadian and Australian staff cars managed with 6 volt systems.

Before long, Jeeps were being modified to 12 volt, with various scrapped lorries being cannibalised for their batteries, dynamos, headlights and other odds and ends. Whether or not these alterations ever met with the approval of CIMT will never be known.