THE MOTOR INDUSTRY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21852, 24 October 1945, Page 8

THE MOTOR INDUSTRY

FINE WAR RECORD A VERY SECRET WEAPON One of the secrets of the war we are not to be told about yet was the device used to batter down the fortifications of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, states the London Daily Telegraph. Some reference to it is made in “Drive for Freedom,” in which Mr, Charles Graves tells the story of the very great contribution made by the British motor manufacturing industry to .the war effort. It was no secret, he says, that nothing was allowed .to be put on paper, and the arrangements were made orally between Whitehall and a certain motor firm. “The managing director was asked whether he could produce a weapon giving a certain effect in a certain length of time.” He took half-a-dozen of his best mechanics down to a dugout below his office, and there lor a fortnight, cut off from their families and friends, they worked successfully on the prototype. Rommel is quoted for compliments to British motor vehicles: "Reconnaissance Order, Para. 3. For this reconnaissance, as indeed for every desert reconnaissance, only captured English trucks are to be employed, since German trucks stick in the sand too often,” and again: “Regimental Daily Orders, No. 15. Para 3 (a). All captured motor transport to .the fighting companies; (b) all German trucks to transport.” Another fact greatly to the industry’s credit is that within four months of Dunkirk every wheeled vehicle we lost in France had been replaced.