Wheels At War Articles, Toronto Star, Sat. Nov. 8, 2003

[Brian Gough]

Today in the Wheels Section of the Toronto Star there are timely articles on "Wheels At War" covering CMP vehicles and motorcycles. The only CMP photo shows Brian Asbury with a very nice 1941 F15A 12 cab.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Remembering Canada's war contribution
Country supplied a range of vehicles during World War II

Trucks gained solid reputation on both sides of the conflict


SHERRYLL SOBIE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

On May 16, 1940, more than 300,000 British, French and Belgian soldiers were stranded at the port of Dunkirk with German troops quickly closing in. Vessels of all sorts, including fishing boats captained by civilians, criss-crossed the English Channel for nine tense days ferrying loads of soldiers to safety.

While the evacuation of Dunkirk spared thousands of lives, the British Expeditionary Force suffered massive losses in the form of munitions, supplies and military vehicles.

During this one battle alone, Britain lost 80,000 military vehicles. And once the dust settled, it was faced with the harsh reality that only 5,000 vehicles remained, the majority of which were motorcycles.

At this point, the Americans had not yet joined the war effort so it was with utter desperation that the mother country turned to her offspring — the Dominion of Canada — to replenish her dwindled stock.

On Tuesday, as we remember those who gave their lives, few may realize the pivotal contribution Canada made through the design and production of military vehicles. It may be surprising to learn that from 1940 to 1945 Canada, a small agricultural colony with only 11 million people, manufactured upwards of 900,000 military vehicles.

Another interesting fact: The vehicles were uniquely Canadian. Designed by Canadians, made with Canadian materials using Canadian equipment and produced by the calloused hands of a committed and united Canadian workforce.

Flash forward 30 years. It was the early 1970s when flower power had taken the place of military might and Joni Mitchell songs were wafting in the wind. And like many twentysomethings, U of T geology student Brian Asbury was yearning to buy a jeep. What he eventually purchased ultimately changed the direction of his life.

"I spent about $1,200 to $1,400 for a 1952 M38 CDN made by Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd.," Asbury recalls. By his own admission, he didn't know anything about the army jeep, including the fact that only 2,200 such models were ever made.

"There were absolutely no books and there was nobody to talk to. I'd stop people on the street if they happened to have an old jeep."

Despite the obvious setbacks, Asbury persevered. The jeep's simple design allowed the handy university student to hone his skills and, in the process, piqued his interest in other military vehicles.

"Then I started to think: `What can I get that no one else has? An armoured car — or even better, a Canadian Military Pattern truck, which is quite rare.'"

Today, Asbury is a military vehicle collector and dealer based in Halton Hills, also known as the Veterans Highway. And although he no longer owns his first jeep (it was sold in 1979 for $2,000) he now has 55 working military machines in his possession.

His collection comes from Australia, Norway, England, France and Canada. It occupies slightly more than half a hectare and is made possible by money generated through rentals to the movie and television industry.

His armoured vehicles, tanks, jeeps, troop carriers, amphibious trucks, motorcycles and accessories like gas masks and even inflatable rubber buildings have been used in TV shows like Relic Hunter and Nikita, as well as films like K-19 with Harrison Ford.

But in Asbury's eyes, and in the eyes of many Canadian military vehicle collectors, the star of the show is the CMP. "Very few collectors have a CMP. Not too many came back from Europe. They were either destroyed during the war or used by the Allied countries to rebuild after the war. The ones that remained in Canada ended up being used by loggers, farmers and Ontario Hydro," says Asbury. "They were used up, abused and worn out."

Montreal-based Marc Montgomery, a military vehicle collector and publisher of Convoy, a magazine for MV hobbyists, says it's a shame that people don't realize the inherent value of these machines.

"They should be considered Canada's most important heritage vehicles," he contends.

Montgomery stumbled upon this theory 12 years ago after he acquired his first military vehicle, a 1944 C60-L GS Oshawa-built Chevrolet. "The fact it was Canadian hooked me. Then I came to recognize the enormous extent and vital contribution Canada made during World War II," he explains.

Included in the CMP truck lineup: Heavy Utility, FAT 4x4 (field artillery tractors) and 3-tonne 4x2. By far the most widely produced was the 3-tonne 4x4, followed by the 15 cwt 4x4 (1 cwt is a British term for 100 weight capacity or about 50 kg).

Asbury, one of two CMP parts dealers in the world (the other is based in Holland), owns four CMP trucks including a restored 1941 F15A CMP Cab 12. That translates into: Ford 15 cwt four-wheel-drive Canadian Military Pattern with a second-generation cab.

The F15A was highly versatile. Some were used as general service vehicles carrying soldiers and generic supplies while others had modified boxes to carry water, wireless communication, laundry, welding equipment and first aid kits.

The all-steel welded F15A performed admirably in forward areas because of its low silhouette and short wheelbase. It was fitted with a rifle rack and a POW can (petrol, oil, water) — similar to today's jerry can.

The 3,279 kg truck's average fuel consumption was 25 L/ 100 km and reached a maximum speed of 80 km/h.

"Canadian military vehicles were simple and they didn't go fast," Asbury notes. "But they were solid, rugged, mechanical beasts."

Apparently the Germans agreed. A German document that was discovered during a time when Canada was producing by far the majority of "English" vehicles read: "For this reconnaissance, as indeed for every reconnaissance, only captured English trucks are to be employed, since German trucks stick in the sand too often."

Ralph Paulsen, who was a Dispatch Rider with the First Division Royal Edmonton Regiment in the Signals Platoon in World War II, normally rode a British-designed Norton Motorcycle. But on a few special occasions, he drove a CMP truck.

"Most of the trucks in the Signals holding unit were Canadian-made.

"I used to drive a 60 cwt (3 1/2-tonne) Chev loaded with soldiers for Saturday outings to Windsor Castle," he recalls. "One time we met the two princesses (Margaret and Elizabeth) and their Corgi dog.

"Elizabeth used to change the oil in her car," he continues. "I have a picture of her crawling under it and her face is smeared with grease."

While Paulsen and thousands of other Canadian soldiers, sailors and pilots fought overseas, activity on the home front shortly after the evacuation of Dunkirk was reaching an all-time high.

Rival car companies — Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. and General Motors Corporation of Canada Ltd. — pooled their resources in a historical union not seen before or since: Ford assumed responsibility for designing the cab, sheet metal and some powertrains while General Motors was responsible for handling the chassis.

It was a time of co-operation, commitment and courage; it was also the time for a young colony to grow into a mature nation.

According to Montgomery: "The transformation of Canada from a mostly agricultural society, to an industrial and technological giant can be credited, in large part, to the design and production of WWII military vehicles."

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[Alex Blair (RIP)]

>ADVERTISEMENT<


Two-wheeled `white knights' of WWII
Motorcycles pressed into military service

Many bikers served in armoured regiments


ALLAN JOHNSON
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

It has long been fashionable in our society to rank bikers as undesirables on par with Attila the Hun. Noisy and disruptive, vulgar and crude, bikers have often been tagged by our politicians as menaces to decent society.

Not too long ago, the Ontario Provincial Police changed what was once discreetly called the "Special Squad" into the "Biker Enforcement Unit," thus perpetuating the old stereotype that when motorcyclists gather together in some form of organization or club, they need the heavy hand of the law around, or trouble is bound to follow.

It was not that way, though, in Canada during World War II.

When this country declared war on Sept. 10, 1939, it was almost laughably ill-prepared. Our army possessed only 14 obsolete tanks and small numbers of mostly obsolete military vehicles. And yet it was obvious from the first days of the German invasion of Poland that the days of the horse cavalry were over. It would be a mechanized war of rapid movement: the blitzkrieg.

In order to provide Canadian volunteer soldiers with some training in modern war, six traditional cavalry units across the country were quickly designated as Canadian Motorcycle Regiments. The Royal Canadian Dragoons, the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians), the Governor General's Horse Guards, the 17th Duke of York Royal Canadian Hussars, the 8th (Princess Louise) New Brunswick Hussars and the British Columbia Dragoons all put away their horses and switched to motorcycles.

There were, however, only a handful of motorcycles in the whole Canadian military, a small number of Triumphs having been purchased to use in a motorcycle escort for King George and Queen Elizabeth's Royal visit earlier in the year.

The solution was simple: the recruits to these new regiments were encouraged to bring and use their own motorcycles. This was not as outlandish as it might first seem, since goodly numbers of the volunteers were already members of local motorcycle clubs. The 3rd Motorcycle Regiment (the 17th Duke of York Royal Canadian Hussars) enlisted a number of members of the Sports Motorcycle Club of Montreal. In Toronto, the 2nd Motorcycle Regiment (Governor-General's Horse Guards, known locally as the "Gee-Gees") was populated with motorcyclists from the British Empire Motor Club. It was the same in other parts of the country.

One of the main army recruiting posters — widely circulated in both English and French — showed Canadian military motorcyclists leaping their mounts into action while in the background hovered a stylized white knight on horseback. "Canada's New Army Needs You" read the slogan.

The Canadian army also received loans of motorcycles from individual riders who were not volunteering for the services for various reasons. One rider, Frank Bastien of Montreal, loaned his 1934 Brough Superior to the 3rd Motorcycle Regiment in 1940. He then enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

When he got back after the war, he found that the army had scrapped his motorcycle in 1943, even though it was probably worth $400 at the time. He received no compensation for it. (Today, a 1934 Brough motorcycle would probably sell for a hundred times that amount.)

For almost a year, these units trained and rode solely on civilian bikes, before a trickle of American-made military motorcycles became available after France (which had contracted for a large number of Indian motorcycles) surrendered in June, 1940. Some of these France-bound Indian Chief motorcycles, complete with sidecars, were on board the French luxury liner that entered Halifax harbour just as France capitulated. These machines were quickly "liberated," becoming spoils of war and being distributed to a number of Canadian Corps of Signals units across the country.

But such was the shortage that many of the volunteered motorcycles were still in service for three or four more years as training vehicles before being replaced by military ones. By then, their owners were usually on active service overseas.

As tanks and armoured vehicles began to roll out of Canadian factories, five of the six Canadian Motorcycle Regiments were gradually converted to armoured units. The 3rd Motorcycle Regiment, for example, became the 7th Reconnaissance Regiment. A great many motorcyclists subsequently became crewmen on tanks, fighting their way up the length of Italy and across Northern Europe.

A good number of volunteer motorcyclists did stay as riders for most of the war. Ross Rehill was one who did, jokingly calling it "an all-expenses paid six-year tour of Europe by motorcycle."

Once, in a more serious moment, he told me a chilling tale of an encounter in the spring of 1945. He and another motorcycle-mounted rider were scouting ahead, when they stumbled on to a camp. "The gates were open, the German guards gone," he remembered. "Hundreds of starving, living, pleading, skeleton-like human creatures were there. I never felt so helpless. We had no food, not even a chocolate bar between us to give them."

The two headed back for their troops and asked them to radio for help. "I will never forget what we saw."

Like all the returning veterans, the motorcyclists who came home had been changed by what they saw and did. The emblem of the military despatch motorcyclist was a winged wheel arm badge. Thanks to all the bikers, the white knights of Canada's new army, who wore the badge into battle.


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Allan Johnson can be reached at

afjohnson@sympatico.ca.