Anticipating the second world war, the government asked the Daimler group to build several 'Shadow Factories' and in 1939, the building of the second of these, at Browns Lane Coventry, was begun and was scheduled to build 200 Bristol Hercules engines a month. This, of course to this day, is the main Jaguar plant. In 1938, Daimler were commissioned to build a four wheel drive scout car, capable of going up 1:2 hills and travelling at 60mph either forwards or backwards. This was in production 3 months after the outbreak of World War II. From the scout, the armoured car was developed. During the war, over 6,600 scouts and 2,700 armoured cars were built, while at the same time, Daimler were also producing aero engine parts, components for the Bren gun and double-decker buses for the Ministry of Supply. By the end of the war, Daimler had developed their own diesel engine, an 8.6 litre unit capable of exceeding 250,000 miles between major overhauls.
During WW11 nearly 70% of the Daimler production was destroyed by enemy action such was the intensity of the bombing.