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History


For a general description of Morris Commercial in Military vehicles click here.

In 1937 the British army was looking for new trucks to replace their old trucks, mainly Morris CDSW's and Light dragons.
They made up a specification for a four wheel drive vichilcle with winch and a short wheelbase.
2 companies replied, at first Guy with a small truck calles the ANT and Morris commercial with the C8.

Morris Commercial delivered the first C8 Quads in October 1939 and it stayed in production untill 1945.
The Chassis and Engine were also used as a base for the C8 4x4 GS truck which was developed in 1943 and came into production in februari 1944.

The Quad was used the pull the 18 and 25 pounders and 4.5 inch howitzers and was manned by a driver and 5 passengers.
It was capable in transporting 32 cases of ammunition apart from all other materials.

Morris commercial build 5 versions on the C* chassis, 3 quad versions, 1 GS and a airlanding version.

FAT Mark1, 200 build with a full metal cabin and sloped back.



FAT Mark 2 / Mark3, 4000 build of which the first 3000 with a full metal body and a less sloped back. the last 1000 had a canvas roof.
The Mark 3 has the option to switch of 4 wheel drive at and has smaller wheels.



FAT Mark 5, 6000 build with a more box like cabin and a full canvas roof.



Also a significant difference in the Mk2 and Mk 3 are the number of doors, the Mk2 had 2 large doors and the Mk3 4.

C8 4x4 GS was build on the same chassis and the nose was the same as the quads.
But the back was completely different, it had a truck body for General Service.
It was driven on all wheels. This truck was also build with a radio or office body, watertank and compressor.
This track became available in larger numbers after the war and was used untill the 1950s.



C8/AT Mk3 was used for towing the 17pdr Anti Tank gun
These were basicly conversions of the standard C8 FAT that were made for the airborne by removing the canvas roof, supports, sides, doors, tail board and tool boxes.
By doing this the weight reduced to approx. 4.5 tonnes so it could be transported with its 17pdr gun, ammunition and crew in a Hamilcar Glider.
These we put into action during Operation Market garden but the proved to be unreliable during this operation and were withdrawn from service afterwards.



Underneath are original factory pictures of the different GS types that were made somewhere in 1944.


















 
 



Copyright Sjoerd van de Wal- Krebs 23-06-2017