AEC 850

The AEC 850, first built as the FWD R.6.T, was a British six-wheel drive military vehicle of the interwar years that served in the early part of the Second World War. It began as a six-ton artillery tractor developed by the Four Wheel Drive Lorry Company of Slough under a War Office contract of 1928, with the Niblett rear suspension that gave its two driven rear axles great articulation and a winch that was often remarked upon. After trials in 1929 and 1930 the prototype's Dorman petrol engine gave way to an AEC engine, and in 1932 AEC took over manufacture at its Southall works and redesignated the type the AEC 850. Total production was 58, nearly all for the War Office, and the main use in France with the British Expeditionary Force was as a recovery tractor and tank transporter. Surviving examples include the artillery tractor AMP 80, now in a private collection.