Herbert Austin had already started developing and producing automobiles at the turn of the century. In the First World War the Austin Motor Company was already producing considerable quantities of armaments and in the 1920s and 1930s Austin rose to become one of the leading British car manufacturers. From 1929 to 1939, the company produced various types of the famous London cabs – and before and during the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of vehicles such as the Austin Tilly and other armaments for the British Army.
The Austin 7 was a stroke of genius and became one of the most commercially successful automobiles in history. In 1929, Austin built several prototypes of a lightweight two-seater scout car for the British Army in collaboration with Mulliner, which were also extensively tested. In contrast to the famous later Scout Cars, however, they were completely unarmored. This vehicle was based on the Austin 7 and was followed by a series which, according to some sources, comprised 158 units (produced from 1929 to 1930). In addition to this 1929 Scout Car, there was a very similar variant, the 1932 Wireless Car. The vehicles were mainly supplied to the artillery, which used them as forward observers.
In 1934 and 1935, 225 vehicles of a newer series of the Austin 7 were produced for the British Army, which had an off-road capability that one would hardly have expected at first glance. Some remained in service until the early years of Second World War and were then sold on the civilian market. There are reports that a few Austin 7s of the Ruby variant were acquired later, remained in service longer and were modified for transportation by Horsa cargo gliders. Half a dozen of these vehicles were at Vickers Aviation in 1943/44, each with a rear-mounted Bren machine gun. It is sometimes claimed that they actually took part in a secret airborne operation in the run-up to the Normandy landings, but to this day there is no evidence to support such a theory. A radio-controlled version of the Austin 10 was also used by the British armed forces in the 1930s. During the Second World War, Austin produced around 120,000 vehicles for the British military, including 4×4, 6×4 and 4×2 trucks, ambulances and more. With the outbreak of war, production for the civilian market was cut back, but not completely discontinued. Civilian models were supplied (slightly modified) to the armed forces, such as the Austin 10 and Austin 8 passenger cars. The Austin 12 was built in small numbers for regional police authorities. The Austin Light Utility Car accounted for the lion’s share of the vehicles mentioned above, with 29,000 vehicles produced. It was developed at the end of 1939 on the basis of the Austin Ten and joined the force in 1940. Before that, however, let’s take a look at Austin’s other wartime activities: In January 1939, Austin had been awarded a government production contract for trucks, a division that had been somewhat neglected by Austin in the 1930s. The three basic types were the K2, K3 and K4 trucks with a load capacity of two, three and five tons respectively. A lighter pickup was added somewhat later. A large number of the K2 were built between 1939 and 1945 – after the Tilly, it was the most frequently built Austin vehicle during the war. Of the Austin K2/Y ambulance version alone, 13,102 were built. This vehicle, called “Katie” by the British soldiers, proved so successful that it was even supplied to the US armed forces in a form of reverse lease and loan. Many Austin K2s went to the fire department as crew cars and auxiliary towing vehicles. After the end of the war, the paramilitary police force in Northern Ireland (Royal Ulster Constabulary) acquired some of them and converted them to suit their needs. https://militaeraktuell.at/saab-erhaelt-auftrag-von-der-nato/ 17,000 Austin K3s were built (from 1939 to 1945), 12,280 K5s (from 1941 to 1945) and 13,000 K6s (6×4 drive formula), most of which went to the Royal Air Force. Production of the K6 was not discontinued until mid-1945 – i.e. only after the end of the war in Europe.
During the Second World War, Austin produced military vehicles as well as aircraft, aircraft engines, components for cargo gliders, hydraulic directional drives, magazines for machine guns, machine pistols and automatic anti-aircraft guns. Shells for artillery guns and anti-tank guns were also manufactured (more than 1.3 million). Probably the most important contribution to the British war effort was Austin’s involvement in the “Shadow Factory Scheme”, which was launched by the Air Ministry in 1936. It was headed by Lord Herbert Austin, Austin’s company boss. The aim was to significantly increase aircraft production in general and, above all, to increase the production rate of the all-important Rolls-Royce-Merlin engine. To this end, new production facilities were built in cooperation between government authorities and industry and existing production facilities in the engineering industry were expanded. Austin’s factory at Longbridge received an extension in the form of the “East Works” at Cofton Hackett, where thousands of aircraft were produced – and thousands more aircraft engines. The first aircraft built here was the Fairey Battle light bomber. During the course of the war, Hurricane fighters and Stirling and Lancaster bombers were also produced at Austin’s factories. As one of Britain’s largest metalworking companies, Austin was also busy producing steel helmets for the British armed forces, with around half a million coming out of its sheet metal presses. Lord Herbert Austin did not live to see the end of the war; he died in Birmingham on May 23, 1941 and was succeeded as company director by Ernest L. Payton. The Second World War also had a significant impact on the rationalization of mass production of vehicles: whereas in 1925 Austin employed 16 people for a week to produce one car, in 1946 only nine workers were needed in the same period.
Based on civilian models, the four major car manufacturers Austin, Morris, Standard and Hillman each developed a model of the Light Utility Car, or “Tilly” for short. All were platform trucks with a two-seater fixed driver’s cab (apart from the Standard Tilly with its over-planned cab) and had the 4×2 drive formula. They were used by the British Army and the British Air Force in very large numbers. The Tillys were also used by the exile troops stationed or garrisoned in Great Britain (Norwegians, Poles, Czechoslovaks, Dutch and Belgians). They were only used to a very limited extent, if at all, by troops from the overseas territories of the Commonwealth (one exception was Australia, where they were called “Utes”. The name goes back to the utility vehicles manufactured by the Ford Motor Company of Australia in Geelong, Australia, from the 1930s onwards. The Canadian Army, for example, had the luxury of only using four-wheel drive vehicles in combat zones (apart from a few super-heavy special vehicles). In this respect, it was only surpassed by the US Army. However, the US Army had already attached great importance to four-wheel drive since the end of the First World War and thus played a pioneering role. Despite the extensive motorization of the British army units, four-wheel drive had not yet become so widespread here. Nor could it later, because the light utility cars were based on standard passenger cars. The Austin Light Utility Car was developed around the turn of 1939/40 under the company name Series G/YG. It was based on the Austin 10HP Saloon four-door. Apart from the flatbed, it differed from the civilian model by a water pump (not present in the civilian version), a different gear ratio, a larger fuel tank and different tires to improve off-road capabilities. The vehicle’s electrical system was also different from the original civilian model. In addition, a spare wheel was mounted on the driver’s cab. The tarpaulin, held by three mirrors, initially had five windows, later three. The window at the front was used to allow a crew member on the loading area to deploy a Bren machine gun over the driver’s cab. The first 250 vehicles were powered by the same 1.125-liter engine as the Austin 10. All later vehicles had a 4-cylinder carburetor engine with a displacement of 1.237 liters, water-cooled, which produced a maximum of 29 hp at 3,600 rpm. The installation of a steel loading platform, which was welded to the frame, gave the vehicle great stability.
The War Office’s first contract with Austin was dated March 18, 1940, and the first vehicles were delivered in April of the same year. It is unclear how many were sent to the BEF; some were left behind in Dunkirk. Presumably Wehrmacht units made a few of them ready to drive and continued to use them. A number of Austin Light Utility Cars were sent to the “2nd BEF”, the British troops remaining in France after Dunkirk. By 1944, around 30,000 vehicles had been produced by the Austin Motor Co in Longbridge near Birmingham. There were still minor changes during production, apart from the simplified tarpaulin and the more powerful engine, these included a modified radiator grille and a steel (instead of the previous wooden) tailgate. In addition, the exhaust was modified, the lighting equipment and indicators changed and devices were fitted to the loading area to accommodate two stretchers for the wounded. Most of the Austin Utility Cars were used by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and the Royal Army Service Corps within the British land forces. The length of the vehicle was 3.96 meters, the width 1.52 meters, the height 1.93 meters and the unladen weight 1,514 kilograms. The official designation was Car, Light Utility, 4×2. The Tillys of the “bomb disposal teams”, which were conspicuously marked with red mudguards and enjoyed the highest reputation among soldiers and the population during the “Battle of Britain” and afterwards, achieved a certain degree of fame. https://militaeraktuell.at/zwei-weitere-sarah-satelliten-gestartet/ The Austin Tilly was used in North Africa, as evidenced by photo documents from Libya and Sudan from 1940/41. Both vehicles bear the distinctive “Caunter” Dreifarb camouflage scheme. However, the Tilly was not used extensively in the desert war, as the road conditions (or rather: non-road conditions) were hardly suitable for this. There is no photographic evidence of the other Light Utility Cars from North Africa, apart from photos showing a Hillman Tilly from GHQ Middle East. There are photographic documents showing Austin Tillys in Tunisia at the end of 1942, but these vehicles bear the livery common in Great Britain at the time and appear to have been brought directly from the mother country to Tunisia, which also speaks against the widespread use of Tillys in the North African desert war (1940 to 1943). Austin Tillys were also used by the British forces in the Sicilian campaign and in the battles on the Italian mainland. No Austin Tillys appear to have been used in the Far East. The Tilly was of particular importance as a driving school vehicle. An Austin Tilly from the No. 1 M.T. Training Center of the Auxiliary Training Service in Camberley (Surrey) was the car in which the then Princess Elizabeth (as “Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor” member of the British armed forces) received her first driving lessons. According to her driving instructor at the time, Maud MacLellan, the future Queen was very skillful.
In addition to the almost civilian use as a driving school vehicle, there was also a rather martial variant. There was a twin-socket mount for the light Bren MG, with anti-aircraft sights and a seat for the gunner. This device, called the “AA Bren twin-mount”, was mainly suitable for anti-aircraft defense and could be mounted on the loading area of an Austin Tilly. Vehicles equipped in this way were used for convoy security, among other things. It is highly likely that the Royal Air Force only used the Austin Tilly to a very limited extent and only on a local basis (i.e. sourced from neighboring Army or Home Guard units). There are no photographs of Austin Tillys in service with the Royal Air Force. There are also no documents that prove an order by the RAF. On the contrary: the document “AMO A143” from 1944 lists all vehicles of the Royal Air Force. There is no Austin Tilly among them. The widespread idea that the RAF used Austin Tillys on a large scale is not least due to post-war film productions such as “Squadron 633”. However, the Austin Tilly was used by the Royal Navy. Of course, the wartime use of the Austin Tilly is very much overshadowed by the Willys Jeep, which was also designed for a payload of 5 cwt (approx. 250 kilograms). In the combat zone and as a towing vehicle, the Jeep with its better off-road capability was far superior to the Tilly, but there were also other applications in which the Tilly was able to demonstrate its strengths. The Tilly fulfilled its purpose for transportation and liaison tasks on the road. Moreover, the jeep was not available in abundance everywhere and at all times. It should also not be forgotten that the Tillys, especially those with a fixed driver’s cab, offered better driving comfort, especially in adverse weather conditions.
As the war progressed, however, the jeep outstripped the Tilly. The organization chart of a field artillery regiment from 1944, for example, shows the following equipment: in addition to the regimental staff, there were three batteries, each with two troops (Troop A and Troop B), each with four 25-pdr gun howitzers and the associated tractors (quad gun tractors from Ford, Guy or Morris), then two additional tractors and the associated four protzen (for ammunition) per troop and a bren carrier for the commander and two 15cwt trucks per troop. A total of eight 15cwt trucks (approx. 760 kilograms), seven 3ton trucks (mostly Bedford QL) and twelve jeeps for liaison purposes ran with the command and supply sections of the battery. Then there was one Bren carrier per battery for the battery survey officer. A Bren Carrier and an Austin Tilly were available for the battery commander. The regimental staff also had trucks and jeeps, and the regimental commander drove a Humber FWD Heavy Utility as befitted his rank. Of course, other field artillery regiments sometimes differed slightly from this model in terms of equipment. Photographic documents show the Austin Tilly on the beach in Normandy and also later in the Netherlands. The Tillys deployed in Malta with the distinctive camouflage scheme are well known and were used there in large numbers. The typical camouflage scheme imitated the dry stone or mortar masonry frequently found on Malta and existed in two variants. It proved to be quite effective.
Other Allies also used the Austin Tilly, for example the Czechoslovakian forces in exile with the Western Allies. This applied to the “22 Liaison Headquarters” (LHQ), a British-Czechoslovak planning and liaison staff, and the Czechoslovak Independent Armored Brigade, which was set up in 1943. The latter was occupied with the siege of Dunkirk in the spring of 1945, then at the beginning of April a strike force under Lieutenant Colonel A. Sítek, which was to advance as far as Bohemia. With 139 men, seven motorcycles and 27 vehicles, this “Token Force” departed on April 24. They were joined by two British soldiers from 22 LHQ, Captain Stephenson and his driver, in a Morris Light Utility Car. On May 1, 1945, the column reached the old German-Czech border and was joined over the next few days by personnel from 22 LHQ (including an Austin Light Utility Car). On May 18, 1945, the Motor Battalion of the Czechoslovak Independent Armored Brigade (or in Czech: Československá samostatná obrněná brigáda) arrived in Pilsen – with an Austin Tilly. It is difficult to say how many Tillys the Czechoslovak exile forces had in their inventory; the documents only mention the designation “truck, 5cwt”, which could be light utility cars from all four manufacturers or the Willys Jeep, while the designation “truck, 5cwt, 4×2” excludes the Jeep. At least one Austin Tilly remained in the inventory until 1950 (i.e. even after the communist coup). Several Austin Tillys were in service with the Polish exile forces. The Dutch exile forces also used light utility cars, and the “Prinses Irene Brigade” had several Austin Tillys in its inventory. Photographic documents prove that the Dutch troops in the Dutch East Indies had Austin Tillys after 1945. Light Utility Cars were also used by the “Brigade Piron” of the Belgian exile forces. Commandant Georges Houbion used one of these.
The Greek armed forces had already received Austin Tillys in 1941, and from 1944 they received a few more. Portugal had acquired some Austins (Austin 8HPs) as staff cars during the war (from the beginning of 1943), later (until 1946) Austin Tillys were added, which remained in service for several years (presumably until the end of the 1950s). The Australian armed forces received some Austin Tillys. These vehicles were supplied from England to the Australian army units in the area of operations. Photographic evidence shows the use of Austin Tillys by Australian units in the Middle East. Incidentally, the Australians used similarly configured Australian-made pickups much more frequently: The aforementioned “GS Vans” (official name) or “Utes” (army slang). The majority of the vehicles were produced from 1939 to 1942, but even after that some still left the production facilities. The Australian Utes were larger than the British Tillys: there were three sizes, the “12 cwt GS Van” (payload 610 kilograms), the “15 cwt GS Van” and the “1 Ton GS Van”. Unlike the Tillys, the Utes were used by the Australian armed forces in almost every operational area. In 1946 and 1947, Denmark acquired around 300 Tillys from the British occupying forces in Germany for its land and air forces (the air force only became an independent branch of the armed forces in 1951). They had actually wanted jeeps, but the British preferred to keep them themselves and delivered Tillys instead; some of the vehicles were in very poor condition. During a general inspection of the vehicle fleet in 1949/50, there were still 277 Tillys in the fleet. When 100 Willys Jeeps were purchased from a civilian dealer, the days of the Tillys in the Danish armed forces slowly came to an end. Almost all Danish Tillys were Austins, but there were some Standard Tillys of the BB or DC series acquired by the Royal Air Force shortly after the end of the war. https://militaeraktuell.at/neue-investitionen-in-die-ab212-helis-geplant/ A photo shows an Austin Tilly in 1945 together with American vehicles near the former Führerbunker in Berlin. In Germany, however, the Austin Tilly remained rather exotic. The British armed forces in the immediate post-war period were reduced to 200,000 occupation troops in Germany and 60,000 occupation troops in Austria and had a smaller vehicle requirement than the 21st Army Group at the time of the war. The Light Utility Cars were declared obsolete in 1945/46. The occupying forces were to hand them all over, presumably because of the right-hand drive, which was not so suitable for continental right-hand traffic. Those that were not handed over to other armies were returned to Great Britain. Some of the light utility cars were replaced by newly produced VW Beetles (the factories were under British control). The British armed forces outside Germany (mainly in Great Britain) used the Tillys until the late 1950s, although mainly the “Standard Utility Car” variant.
Afterwards, a number of them also found their way onto the civilian market, relatively many of them in Malta, where the highest concentration of surviving light utility cars can be found today.
