This very brief look at the French Armed Forces Defender Double Cab was prompted by an info request from Dutch reader JDK, writes Bob Morrison.
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Reader JDK is currently restoring a former French Army Durisotti conversion Defender 110 Station Wagon and, being familiar with previous magazine and online features Carl and myself have penned on this topic, asked if we might have any photos on file of his specific vehicle in service. Unfortunately we haven’t yet located any, but while I was searching through my archives I realised I had photographed this rare Defender 110 Double Cab model during the airborne phase of the Anglo-French JOINT WARRIOR CJEF (Combined Joint Expeditionary Force) exercise in Scotland back in 2013.
This unusual four-door French Army Land Rover did not actually sport the usual DURISOTTI marking above the radiator grille, but there are sufficient of the minor detail changes between standard Defenders and conversions by this French company present to convince me it was almost certainly they who were the contractors. The vast majority of Durisotti conversions were undertaken on five-door long wheelbase Station Wagons, though some three-door short wheelbase (i.e. Defender 90) Station Wagons saw French Navy service, but this is this is the only French Army four-door D110 Double Cab (Pick-Up) model I recollect ever photographing.
The French Army also used Durisotti Defender 130 Ambulance conversions, which in the past both Carl and I have photographed, and I plan to produce a full feature on these in the not too distant future. In the meantime, however, I still have a load of images to sort through to see if I can find one of the demobbed Land Rover JDK is currently returning to its former glory.
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