The Leyland Hippo was a 6x4 heavy general service cargo truck manufactured by

Leyland Motors Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was an English vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 a ...

. Introduced in 1929, it remained in production for 40 years.

First generation

The new 6 wheeled 12 ton capacity goods carrier truck was first demonstrated at the Commercial Motor Transport Exhibition held at

Olympia Exhibition Centre Olympia Events, formerly known as Olympia London and sometimes referred to as the Olympia Exhibition Centre, is an exhibition centre, event space and conference centre in West Kensington, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Lond ...

in 1929. Introduced as a rigid chassis 6x4 truck, the hippo had the largest engine by Leyland at the time, which was an in line six engines with power output of 72bhp clocking 30mph top speed supported by a four speed gearbox. As a

cab over engine Cab-over, also known as cab over engine (COE), cab forward or flat face (U.S.), flat nose (Canada), or forward control (UK), is a body style of truck, bus, or van that has a vertical front, "flat face" or a semi-hood, with the cab of the ...

the total length of the unit was 27.3 ft with the wheelbase of 17ft available in tipper and

platform Platform may refer to: Arts * Platform, an arts centre at The Bridge, Easterhouse, Glasgow * ''Platform'' (1993 film), a 1993 Bollywood action film * ''Platform'' (2000 film), a 2000 film by Jia Zhangke * '' The Platform'' (2019 film) * Pla ...

model with 19ft loading and 22ft loading space respectively. Having a dry weight of 5 tons. In the 1931 facelift, the total length of the vehicles was changed to 30ft in total with total capacity of 19 tons. In 1934 a new 8 wheeled vehicles was developed on the platform of the hippo called Octopus with same engine but had higher load capacity of 22 tons.

Second generation

In 1945 Leyland developed Mark II Hippo from military programme these units weighed 19tons powered by an in line six engine with power output of 100bhp supported by a five speed gearbox. Civilian versions of the vehicles were to be built with same specifications but with higher load carrying capacity. At the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

took delivery of 330 militarized Leyland Hippos with open military cabs and bodies, known in service as the Hippo Mk I or the WSW17. In 1943, as a result of

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

preparations, Leyland commenced designing an updated version, the Hippo Mk II. Production commenced in 1944 and roughly 1,000 were in service by

VE Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...

. They remained in British service into the 1970s.Chris Bishop (ed), ''The encyclopedia of weapons of World War II'', London: Metro Books, 1998, .Pat Ware, ''A complete directory of military vehicles'', Wigston: Anness Publishing Ltd, 2012.

Gallery

File:Leyland Hippo Fuel Tanker (17366672300).jpg, Preserved

Shell Australia Shell Australia is the Australian subsidiary of Shell. Shell has operated in Australia since 1901, initially delivering bulk fuel into Australia, then establishing storage and distribution terminals, oil refineries, and a network of service sta ...

Leyland Hippo fuel tanker File:Leyland Hippo Mk I, 1939.jpg, Militarised Leyland Hippo Mk I with open cab, 1939 File:Leyland Hippo 19H-FC 1952 - Flickr - mick - Lumix.jpg, Preserved 1952 Leyland Hippo logging truck File:2009-04-12 12-05-54 - Flickr - Pimlico Badger.jpg, Preserved Leyland Hippo flatbed

References

External links

Hippo The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic Mammal, mammal native to su ...

Vehicles introduced in 1929 {{truck-stub