ALL BERLIET MILITARY VEHICLES 1914–1940. VOLUME 1: TRUCKS

Marius Berliet, the most illustrious of the French pioneers of industrial vehicles, committed himself as early as 1906 to the then-nascent field of the military truck. From success to success, repeatedly winning endurance trials, he developed on the eve of the Great War the immortal CBA, which became one of the symbols of the Voie Sacrée at Verdun and of the victory of 1918 — "the French road having defeated the German railway".

After the Great War, the great Lyon-based manufacturer remained one of the most important suppliers to the French army. The gruelling service in Morocco during the Rif War (1925–1926) further cemented the reputation of Berliet military vehicles, and at the time of rearmament in the face of the new German threat, the Vénissieux factory would turn out thousands of 3.5-tonne and 5-tonne trucks — tarpaulin-covered or tanker variants — as well as heavy 7.5-tonne special carriers and 15-tonne tank transporters. All these models, and many more, are reviewed in the present volume.

A historical record paying tribute to the French automotive industry in the service of national defence.

This work devoted to Berliet vehicles is the third in a rich series intended to cover all vehicles used by the French army, across all manufacturers.

Each highly visual volume reviews the models systematically, following a chronological classification, with for each the finest photographs, detailed technical specifications and, where it has been possible to trace them, the original registration numbers.

Furthermore, the main models are presented in colour, allowing collectors and scale modellers to discover their period liveries.

The author

François Vauvillier, born in 1951, founder in 1984 of Histoire & Collections, today editor-in-chief of the quarterly GBM, has established himself over the decades as the foremost specialist in French military vehicles of the first half of the twentieth century. A tireless worker, he divides his time between his Parisian home and his old Breton stone house. Author of countless articles, he published in the 1980s two reference works on the uniforms of the French army in 1940 before turning to motorised subjects with L'automobile sous l'uniforme 1939–1940 (1992) and, more recently, Tous les Blindés français 1914–1940 (H&C 2014).