Have we got enough vehicles ?

[Mike K]

I found a revealing document in the NAA system .

In April 1945 , there were over 62,000 vehicles sitting in Ordnance Vehicle Parks in Australia. 20,OOO of the vehicles were earmarked for disposal, the war was still raging at this point in time.

Over 1000 brand new Studebaker/Reo US6 trucks arrive .... Do we need more trucks ?

[Wayne Henderson]

Keep them for the next show, Korea?

[Ed Storey]

That is a good question but the spreadsheet of numbers cannot be looked at on its own as the acquisition of military vehicles would have been forecast and requested by the military as well as approved by treasury board. Finding out why the vehicles were ordered and subsequently disposed of is always the mystery.

[Grant Bowker]

The first thing that struck me was that there were more vehicles either undergoing repair or waiting for repair than were available for issue.

[Lang]

At that stage of the war it was not a matter of if but when it would end. A lot of orders were being cut back and personnel being released.

The Lend Lease agreement finalised only a few months after the war obviously was being worked on for much longer than that.

A part of the agreement stated all existing orders and contracts by Australia to USA had to be completed (to avoid sudden collapse of US industry overnight). I strongly suspect the Studebakers were caught up in that situation. "You may not need them now but you ordered them and the show will go on"

Just like the American aircraft industry kept churning out aircraft that made one flight to huge storage depots and were scrapped without a further flight.