You're in the army now
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ahose of you interested in the history of the Bedford truck as a military vehicle can do little better than curl up with your bedtime cocoa and a copy of Bedford to Berlin and Beyond by Robert Coates.
The book concentrates on the "many and vital roles" played by Bedford's three-tanner QL series during World War Two which included conversions to mobile operation rooms, wireless stations, field HQs, fire escape carriers (for the Normandy invasion), fire engines and fuel tankers. A victory parade photograph at the war's end shows a Bedford float proudly proclaiming that 209,096 of its kind fought in theatres of war from Dunkirk to Tunisia to Burma.
The information, says the author in its foreword, has been pieced together from "incomplete and disparate records, museum exhibits, books, anecdotes, old soldiers' and airmen's fond recollections". And some not so fond memories, I imagine, from those who sat crowded in the back during the vehicle's use as a troop carrier.
The book ends with detailed plans of the QL range including cross sections of the axle units from the 1943 drivers' handbook. To whet your appetite further those generous folk at publishers, The Fitzjarnes Press (081681 3363), have donated three copies to giveaway to readers. All you have to do is tell me the names of the two firms that have in recent years owned the Bedford marque. Answers on a postcard by 2 September.
BEDFORD TO BERLIN KB