There were also a small number of 107s listed as being FFW (fitted for wireless) , their exact function being uncertain, but it involved the fitting of screened vehicle electrics and batteries for working the radios. Some others were converted with the addition of ladders, cutting gear and large fire extinguishers for fire and crash rescue duties in the Navy and RAF. There were only just over one hundred 107s in this year going to the forces, the rest of the numbers being basic Truck ¹ ton, CL/GS, cargo, 4x4, Rover Mark 3, 86in WB. The FV 1800. This being identical to the civilian model save for the four pin Warner trailer plug and military reflectors and sometimes convoy lights and military pattern headlights.

They were all finished in Deep Bronze Green except for the few being blue for RAF and Navy use. The cost to the Government was £550 for the 86 ins, and more for the 107s depending on specification. There were some other variants in these with an order 6/VEH/21227 for134 yellow (for visibility) painted ones, fitted with hard top and roof rack as ‘ladder vans’ for airfield landing light maintenance with the RAF, their classification being FV18003.

Some more interesting ones were converted from standard FV18001 by the FVRDE then given a new classification of FV18006. There were only a few of them but the SAS patrol vehicles were certainly the most dangerous looking Land Rovers produced this year.

These orders represented several weeks production so the management must have been pleased, as the orders were boosting a declining home market demand. It was, in retrospect, a good thing that the Rover Company did not expand at the same rate as the sales of their Land Rover, as the world market started to slow down. Sales totals were good over the year but the demand, an indicator of the future, was standing at only 575 per week as reported at the October 1955 board meeting. This was well down on the 750 per week back in May 1954 and only about half the previously projected figure of 1000 for this point. If the company had expanded production facilities and spent capital they would have been in trouble but, as demand had been satisfied by extra shifts and not by plant expansion, a reduction was easy to achieve.

The postwar rebuilding boom was slowing down worldwide and there was not much of interest happening of note. The leisure market was just starting to grow and Disneyland opened this year in California. The Eastern Block set up the military alliance, called the Warsaw Pact, in this year as a sort of opposing team to NATO which by now was six years old. Funding to replace military hardware, a lot of which had seen service in the war ten years previously, was easy to come by. No politician at the time wanted the Services to be short of good quality equipment if needed in the future.

The threat from the East, real or perceived, was to be good for military sales for many years to come.

Sales continued of mostly CKD (completely knocked down) vehicles to be re-assembled at their destination by local labour. This often got round local importation laws designed to prevent imports and it certainly saved shipping costs on long distances to Australia and New Zealand, as boxed vehicles were stackable in the ships’ holds.

Vehicle specification was not altered in this year except for a few details such as thesubstitution of glass for the plastic previously in the fixed window in the doors. The sliding portion remaining plastic.

The model lineup was also unchanged with the 86 inch available as pickup, hard or soft top and stationwagon, and the 107 inch still only available as a pickup. Despite being prototyped the year before it was not available as a stationwagon yet.