A TOUGH ENGINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 33, 7 August 1943, Page 8

A TOUGH ENGINE

N.Z. TRUCK'S RECORD

(N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.)

* CAIRO, August 4. As mechanics in crowded base workshops swung a crane over a New Zealand three-ton truck this week two New Zealand drivers watched the end to the story of an engine that had taken them 25,512 miles through five countries in less than two years. Its performance is believed to be a record for the distance that one driving team has taken one truck on a single engine in the Middle East. It may also be, a Middle East record of mileage for one three-tonner engine. In the hurried formation of a new transport company the two drivers met for the first time in the cab of their truck. One, "Scotty," so-called for no better reason than that he is Irish, liked handling the engine. His associate disliked maintenance but could drive anywhere indefinitely. So, in October, 1941, they agreed that each would look to his separate department, a contract over which they have never found reason for serious argument. Since that day their truck has travelled through Cairo's jumble of traffic across the Western Desert into the fire of battle, into Cyrenaica, Syria, and Palestine, then back through Egypt and the intervening countries to Tunisia. On the return journey to Egypt, the engine began to show signs of wear and, limping badly, finally ended its 21 months' war service in the Nile delta.