Canadian Chevrolet Maple Leaf 4x4 artillery tractors?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Nuyt, David,

Reading your postings I wonder if the "Truck, 30-cwt, 4x4, Gun Tractor (Maple Leaf)" were actually 1940 Maple Leaf 134 3/4 inch wheelbase Chassis with Cowl and Windshield Model 1662 2 1/2 ton trucks destined for General Motors Java Handel Mij at Jakarta, diverted to Australia after the fall of Java.

Originally posted by ericnuyt
I also have some copies (provided again my Mr Ness) of the correspondence in the US about diverting 300 Chevrolet chassis and cab (of the 900 needed) to the Dutch Indies from the Detroit plant. These were 4x4 1 1/2 ton trucks from US army production.

This was of course by the end of 1941 and the vehicles I guess were the standard US military Chevrolet 4x4. I have no proof these were delivered, although I suspect they might have been.

A bit of a long shot, but it sounds like another contender for the "diverted shipment" category. It depends on whether the correspondence referred to the Dutch East or West Indies. The US supplied ample equipment to the West Indies, as Dutch Guiana (Surinam) was of strategic importance for its natural resources: throughout WW-II the Dutch Guiana mines produced 50% of the U.S. demand for bauxite, the raw material for aluminium.

Somehow Australia also got a number of those Chevrolet 1½-ton 4x4 G7100-series trucks - see "Yankee Joe" truck. The Aussie tippers shown below are not the standard G7106 Cargo Dump, the tipper/cargo body could well have been of Australian manufacture fitted to ex-Dutch delivery chassis/cabs, diverted to Australia?