Fire Engines Photos

Matford was a joint venture between French Mathis and Ford, which was formed in 1934, and lasted only until 194O, after France surrendered. In that year Mr. Mathis fled, the company reverted to Ford Germany management, was relocated to a larger factory and concentrated exclusively on building Ford trucks for the German army.

The product range had included both cars and trucks until 1940, all of which were indistinguishable from the earlier Ford products built in France, and were powered by the very popular and- in their day - very powerful V8 engines.

Interesting that, between their Cologne and the French factories , Ford actually built more trucks for the German army in WWII than it did for the allies. This may have had to do with Henry Ford’s undisguised admiration for the German Chancellor of that era.

In a well documented “coincidence”, the Cologne factory was only very slightly damaged in the bombing raids which almost totally destroyed the rest of the center of the city, and production - by slave workers from numerous countries - was never seriously interrupted.


Added by Rob Johnson on 03 December 2024.

Thanks Rob, very interesting!

Added by JACQUES PETER on 06 December 2024.

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