Conundrum!
Bonjour mon ami! Comment ca va?
What a conundrum! Note that these two are Australian contracts, and these are the known ones {known to me}:
4844303101 ENGINE # PR3,998.102 PE-197-12 SEPTEMBER 14 1944
4844303231 ENGINE # PR3,998,204 PE-197-12 SEPTEMBER 18 1944
4844303239 ENGINE # PR3,998,543 PE-197-12 SEPTEMBER 19 1944
4844303420 ENGINE # PR3,999,860 PE-197-12 SEPTEMBER 22 1944
4844303731 ENGINE # PR4,000,888 PE-197-12 SEPTEMBER 29 1944
4844305131
This gives you some idea of assembly rates. I am sure that these were assembled by GM-Holden's but not CKD, as they would have a different sequential number. The assembly dates are in my opinion from the evidence below, the Holden assembly/release dates. The build plates would have been stamped from Canadian blanks in the assembly plant. Note that there is no Plant Code. Compare with these C60S trucks, and the one Plant Code:
48442M60011 ENGINE # PR3,985,819 PE-211-103 MARCH 13 1945 [MELBOURNE-ASSEMBLED]
4844260046 ENGINE # PR3,935,793 PE-211-103 MARCH 21 1945
4844260050 ENGINE # PR3,985,768 PE-211-103 28 JULY 1945
484422[6?]0112 ENGINE # ? 93 PE-211-103 APRIL 27 1945
These would I suggest have been rebuilt by GM-Holden's after the war. and then re-issued to the services or sold off on the civvy market. I can only imagine that the truck with the round dash has been rebuilt extensively, perhaps after a smash, and has had a new dash put in from the parts bin? Otherwise was it an in-service replacement?
In England GM Ltd in Southampton rebuilt trucks for resale, cannibalising 10 to make 8 or 9, and they also had huge amounts of wartime spare parts in crates. These they then resold on the export market, just about everywhere! How they ended up in Canada, I can only guess....we know that large numbers of military vehicles were acquired by agents who used the cheap Pound to buy up anything that could be re-used and re-sold and trucks were expirted all over the world. Could this have happened in Australia as well? Unless this was part of the reclaim deal that applied in the UK. The Canadian Government reclaimed the best vehicles in the UK and on the Continent and had then shipped back to Canada, leaving the dross to be taken care off under the post-war cash settlement arrangement with the then Labour Government. As we know vehicles then crossed the Pond back again to be issued under the UNRRA plan. Was there a smilar deal with Australasian countries? Note it's an Australian contract, not British Ministry of Supply one FOR Australia.
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