Although I myself was born during ‘The bulge’ after WW2 I was told a bit about what happened, and I was thinking perhaps there may still be a few who were alive, who’s families were involved in Road Haulage, that could remember & others like me who were curious and asked their father’s & grandfathers.
My grandfather W.H Williams started our business up in 1919 after returning from World War 1 with ‘The Graturities’ he had been paid. In 1939 he had seven wagons I remember our 'A licence no was A2295. which must have come in during 1930s. There was 1934 Morris Commercial Removal van which my dad told me was quite large, particularly when loaded with a ‘Tailboard load’ 5 Bedford 2 tonners not unlike the one on the photograph which was not one of our originals & 30cwt Bedford. All the Bedfords were 1936-1938. The Morris Commercial was requisitioned immediately at the beginning of hostilities but we kept all the Bedfords as we were deemed to be carrying out essential work and only my father & 1 other driver was called up as again older drivers who would were considered too old for the initial intake got exemption as the net enlarged as we were exempt because of essential work. I believe my grandfather employed 7 drivers & 7 van boys during the war. I am not sure if any of the van boys were called up when they reached 18.
During the war we delivered mostly food. Groceries for Broughs & Thompsons (Two companies that had grocery shops dotted round the Spennymoor area) and all meat to every Butchers throughout Spnnymoor Ferryhill, Sedgefield area & Bishop Auckland. Butchers had been stopped slaughtering their own during the war & it was all centrally slaughtered at Stockton & Newcastle (I believe) & strickly allocated. We also did some work out of the munitions factory in Spennymoor. The work we did was considered essential which avoided any of our vehicles been taken by the army & also some of our work force avoided going into the army. I do know we did some removals as I was told we moved a musician who worked for Billy Cotton (The Billy Cotton Band show) Entertainment had been stopped & he was moving back with his family from London to be safe & as we were unloading his removal he got a telegram telling him to return to London as the Government had changed their policy & were re introducing Entertainment as they realised it kept up the countries hopes & morale.However I expect not that many families moved & new furniture would be in very short supply (If any at all) So all the furniture we delivered before the war would have ended until after it ended.
The Bedfords must have been quite remarkable vehicles as dad said although 2 tonners they usually were carrying 4 ton plus and I have very faint recollections of one or possibly two of them as they lasted right throughout the war the last one in use until it was replaced in 1952. Spare parts were non available and we were fortunate in that my Grandfather had employed my Great uncle Jim (My grandmother’s brother0 in 1926 who stayed with us until about 1975 and he was very good at adapting, & making parts to keep them on the road.
All Hire and Reward hauliers came under the control of the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) which was organised into regions and areas, with each area having a Transport Commissioner. All hauliers retained control of their own businesses but all resources were pooled so that every available vehicle and driver was utilised to the maximum. Empty mileage running was reduced to a minimum and it was supposedly quite a lucrative period for hauliers. Own account operators also came under the scope of the MoWT, for example, when the London Docks flour mills were destroyed during the blitz Ranks and Spillers hauled flour to London from their mills in other parts of the country and they were back loaded with all kinds of loads from London to wherever they had set out from.
The larger commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Leyland, AEC, and Foden were put onto military production and all civilian production was stopped. If there was a need for additional civilian lorries then manufacture was sanctioned by the MoWT and additional lorries were allocated to hauliers by the MoWT. Such as ERF and Atkinson, very small concerns before 1939, increased production substantially with most of the lorries they produced going to civilian operators. Both fitted AEC engines as Gardner was fully committed to military and naval production.
One contribution to the war effort by hauliers that has hardly been recorded was the requistioning of civilian lorries and drivers to form a transport detachment in France after D-Day in June 1944. They supported the supply chain for the Army all the way up through France, Holland, and into Germany. Arguably these men were the very first British into Europe drivers.
gingerfold:
All Hire and Reward hauliers came under the control of the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) which was organised into regions and areas, with each area having a Transport Commissioner. All hauliers retained control of their own businesses but all resources were pooled so that every available vehicle and driver was utilised to the maximum. Empty mileage running was reduced to a minimum and it was supposedly quite a lucrative period for hauliers. Own account operators also came under the scope of the MoWT, for example, when the London Docks flour mills were destroyed during the blitz Ranks and Spillers hauled flour to London from their mills in other parts of the country and they were back loaded with all kinds of loads from London to wherever they had set out from.
The larger commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Leyland, AEC, and Foden were put onto military production and all civilian production was stopped. If there was a need for additional civilian lorries then manufacture was sanctioned by the MoWT and additional lorries were allocated to hauliers by the MoWT. Such as ERF and Atkinson, very small concerns before 1939, increased production substantially with most of the lorries they produced going to civilian operators. Both fitted AEC engines as Gardner was fully committed to military and naval production.
One contribution to the war effort by hauliers that has hardly been recorded was the requistioning of civilian lorries and drivers to form a transport detachment in France after D-Day in June 1944. They supported the supply chain for the Army all the way up through France, Holland, and into Germany. Arguably these men were the very first British into Europe drivers.
Most enlightening, Gingerfold. It would be interesting to develop that post June '44 theme to show us more of how that international road transport system developed. Robert
Probably the most famous transport system used during the war especially after D-day 1944 was the Red Ball Express, a convoy of allied vehicles wearing a red ball sign would operate day and night on routes also marked with the red ball. These routes were closed to civilian traffic so the military had full use and vehicles rarely stopped unless through a breakdown but it was very well organised as expected from the military then. It operated almost 6,000 vehicles carried over 12,000 Tons a day for over 80 days and ran until the French Ports were finally re-opened. Drivers were mainly Black Americans with usually two drivers to every truck, quite a fantastic exercise in transportation, organisation and control. Some pics below. Franky.
Frankydobo:
Probably the most famous transport system used during the war especially after D-day 1944 was the Red Ball Express, a convoy of allied vehicles wearing a red ball sign would operate day and night on routes also marked with the red ball. These routes were closed to civilian traffic so the military had full use and vehicles rarely stopped unless through a breakdown but it was very well organised as expected from the military then. It operated almost 6,000 vehicles carried over 12,000 Tons a day for over 80 days and ran until the French Ports were finally re-opened. Drivers were mainly Black Americans with usually two drivers to every truck, quite a fantastic exercise in transportation, organisation and control. Some pics below. Franky.
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This was another interesting part of the logistics operations at the end of the war at least.My father spent a considerable part of his service time running between Villach and Trieste and Pola in what shortly later became Yugoslavia hauling armoured vehicles and equipment out of the Italian campaign theatre at the end of the war.In addition to being part of the operation of shipping some of it out again to Palestine.
He was then demobbed in Villach and repatriated using the Villach - UK road route.While it’s only now having read the topic that I’ve found this other reference to it.
While also telling me second hand about my grandfather’s job as a driver before and during the early 1940’s and dying shortly before retirement,in that road transport was mostly regarded as a second class local transport service with rail transport having a far greater role than it in later decades including WW2.With the 1970’s and to a lesser extent the 80’s probably being the heyday of the UK road transport industry.
At the start of ww2 my Grandad took his Bedford to Liverpool docks surrendered it for the war effort,then he became sergent major and towards the end of ww2 was training new recruits to shoot ,he saw action in France ,whist my great uncle had a Bedford mobile workshop in North Africa and never saw a bullet ,after the war they both set up in haulage agian and lime spreading and had quite a few lorries and spreaders .
My old chap was spared war service as he was involved in hauling livestock and fresh foodstuffs to London & Birmingham. However, he joined the local Civil Defence Corps and got to drive a Canadian Ford lorry around the local lanes on Sunday mornings. After hostilities his CD-issue greatcoat went into service as sound-deadening equipment on his Thorneycroft and much later served a similar purpose on both the BMC and the S-type Bedford that I drove.
Well these three ERFs, Owned by my Great Uncle Isaac Smiles were taken for the War Effort , They only about 10 months old when the war started in 1939, Sadley they never came back But two of his Sons Bob & Fred saw them in France, Regards Larry.
From what little I have seen in print about the detachment of civilian lorries and drivers in France post-D-Day, then they were mainly 6 and 8-wheeler “heavies”. The only article I ever read about it was in an early post-war edition of the AEC Gazette, AEC’s own in-house publication. From what I recall there where over 40 AEC Mammoth Major eight-wheelers and their drivers requisitioned. Sadly I have no longer got a copy of the article.
Another wartime innovation was the increase in overall vehicle lengths and weights to allow eight-wheelers to pull a drawbar trailer from 1942. Prior to then only four wheelers and six wheeler rigids were allowed to pull a trailer. Total GVW for an eight-wheeler and trailer became 30 tons.
An former driver at Henry Cooke’s mill at Milnthorpe, Dudley Allen, who worked part time for us after he retired used to tell a tale or two about his antics during WW11 when he drove for R O Hodgson a Milnthorpe haulier and quarry owner. One tale was about a regular job he did delivering loads of turnips down to East Lancashire, and there was this police sergeant who would occasionally stop motors to check them , well this particular day Dud had on board, bagged up, on top of the load of turnips an old Tup he was delivering to a Butcher in East Lancs. Well, bugger me, he gets pulled by this sergeant ! "What have on the lorry to-day “Milnthorpe” ? “usual load of turnips Sarg” says Dud. THEN there is "bah! bah! from over the side boards !! “Aye OK” says Sarg "carry on then but drop me off a few Turnip chops next week then " !!! Cheers Bewick.
I wasn’t born until 1949 but my dad Hughie Robinson drove all through ww2. He worked for a firm called T w Annable based in shepshed Leicestershire. he drove a six wheel Atkinson flatbed with a a gardiner engine. his work basically as far as I can make out would be called tramping today. He did lots of work for MOD and his work took him into heavily bombed areas particularly Coventry and Birmingham he worked lots of hours without the horrible restrictions modern drivers have to put up with . I think he made very good money for the time .After the war the new socialist government nationalised this company BRS taking over I think the shepshed depot was immediately closed. My father then took a job with the whitwick granite company where he stayed until retirement in 1977 he died aged 88 in 2002.
My dad drove for bullhead quarry all through the war . His younger brother worked there but was in the territorials and was called up and went to France with the BEF and got out through Dunkirk . Dad as a married man with a family took his brother’s job ’ They were carting tarmac to the new airfields in Lincolnshire , must have been long days with Fodens with a top speed of 28 mph . I was born in 1942 ( I don’t know how he found the time )and he went on in the job until 1947 when Uncle was demobbed and Dad left so he could come back into his old job . a little aside , Uncle was in the water for 36 hours at Dunkirk and got double pneumonia , in hospital for 3 months and only just pulled through , when he was discharged our caring War Office sent him to North Africa ( good for his chest they said ). Dave
