By Mike Cecil
Head of Military Heraldry and Technology
Australian War Memorial

The Australian Army’s field artillery during and after the First World War was primarily horse-drawn 18-pounder quick firing guns. Like most horse drawn equipment, the 18-pdr was equipped with spoked, timber wheels with a metal hub and a thin steel tyre. The wheels were ruggedly constructed and could withstand the low speeds attained by a horse team. However, the First World War also heralded the era of mechanized warfare, with the increasing us of lorries and motor cars for every conceivable application. But the post-war peace also brought financial constraint to the Australian Armed forces, with little money available for the procurement of more modern equipment.

By the early 1930s, small numbers of lorries had also been purchased. But towing the 18-pdr guns and ammunition limbers on their cart wheels severely restricted the top speed to no more than 6 miles per hour. Greater speeds risked serious damage to the wheels and axles of both the gun and limber. The alternatives seemed to be either to carry the gun and limber on a heavy lorry, or to equip all guns and limbers with pneumatic rubber tyres. Either method appeared too expensive for the financial stringency of the time.

It was at this point that Major E A Wilton, DSO, began experiments with trailers designed to carry the gun and limber. An experimental model was built during 1931, and demonstrated to the Mechanical Warfare Committee, who liked the concept and authorized further work. By February 1932, both the original Mk1 experimental trailer with solid rubber wheels, and a second Mk2 model with pneumatic tyres were ready for field testing.  Road tests were conducted between Melbourne and Seymour, with the Mk2 trailer attaining speeds of up to 50 miles per hour for short distances. Further tests were conducted between Melbourne and Portsea during March, with equal success.

Major Wilton’s untimely death early in 1932 caused only a brief pause in development, which was continued by Captain E M Dollery MC, the Chief Inspector of Transport. With the concept proved, there was increasing demand for the two trailers for use during artillery field camps within 3 Division. However, the original Mk1 trailer was showing signs of fatigue, so it was withdrawn from service. Further development work continued during 1933, with a significantly improved Mk3 version being completed in June. Unlike the Mk1 and 2 models, the Mk3 was designed to carry only the field gun, with the contents of the limber to be carried in the towing vehicle. The new trailer was demonstrated to the Mechanical Warfare Committee at Fishermans Bend, Port Melbourne, on 13 February 1934. The improved Mk3 Wilton trailer was given the official Defence Department registration number X-96.

Up to this point, the various trailers had been cobbled together in Army Workshops using available components, but with at least two more required for the modernization plan for the Army, a contract was given to the engineering company of Malcolm Moore Pty Ltd. Working closely with Defence, they built two trailers, officially designated ‘Transporters, 2-wheeled, Field Artillery, Local Pattern, Number 1’, but more commonly referred to as ‘Fordson’ trailers after their towing tractor. The two trailers, the first of which was delivered in March, and the second in May 1936, were given the Defence registrations X-250 and X-251 respectively.

With the beginning of the Second World War, the practice of providing artillery transporter trailers for weapons designed to be horse drawn was discontinued in favour of equipping the guns and limber wagons with replacement axles and their own pneumatic tyres. It was these ‘pneumaticised’ artillery pieces with which Australia first went to war in 1939. Nevertheless, the ‘Vector’, ‘Wilton’ and ‘Fordson’ artillery transporter trailers represent a significant shift toward the mechanization of the Army and development of related doctrine during the inter-war period.