Many right and accurate answers came from our readers about this rare piece of rust designed for the Italian army and used in the war with Ethiopia. Alan McGuinness, Hugh Stiles ,Gerry Barrett, Roberto Corno, Jury Member Fried Stol, Regis (?) and Andrea (?) gave the correct make and model, but only the two first of these gave the correct year model.
Fritz Hegemann was the only who mentioned the little difference between the early 1932 models and this updated 1936 model, so he is the winner: “OM - Officine Meccaniche – (Milano), in 1917 having merged the famous edwardian Züst (Brescia),was in the twenties and thirties a well-known italian sports-car producer (1927: first, second and third in the first MM), 1933 taken over by FIAT. In 1925 OM started also the production of commercial cars – there as make disappearing in the 80's. Here we see an OM Auto Carretta 36 (production started in '36), a light truck of 1-ton capacity, with air-cooled 4-cyl-diesel, 4-wheel-steering, central mounted gearbox and 4WD, built in numerous civilian and military variations. The earlier OM 32/35 still had solid rubber tires” Congratulations to Fritz who now is a jurymember as well.
Jury member Fried Stol noticed the number plate could be from Lugano (Switzerland) but it is actually from Lugo (Galicia, north of Spain), where this vehicles were really common. During the Spanish Civil War, Mussolini´s government sent his army to help the Franco troops, and after the war the material was sold. Most of Autocarrettas went to the North of Spain, to be used in the abrupt mountains and forest (Spain is the second most mountanious country of Europe, after Switzerland). This 'autocarretas' were heavily used (even until the 1980s). The owner of this unrestored example also has six more of this rare OM, some of them restored (see photos). Special thanks to photographer J. Rubén .
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