War Department Numbers

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Jim, I might have the monthly Windsor Plant engine production numbers still, which wil tell me when Ford of Canada built your truck.

OTT that photo of the '40 Chevrolet has finally struck me after all these years as being a very rare shot. This is because it was either assembled at Aldershot (unlikely, as I thought that they were all Ford sedans or Wagons) or Southampton.There were several Chevy sedans destroyed in the bombing of the CMD in Southampton on November 30/ December 1 1940 and clearly this one escaped. It must have been delivered before the blitzing and thus with good timing. I believe that the Chevies were only shipped at the earliest in June 1940, and possibly a while later. Without checking I thinki the papers that I have ex-DND show that they may not have been ordered from GM until June.

The location is not Southampton and I wonder if it is in the Bordon, Hampshire, RCASC Depot? I have seen that photo hundreds of times and it never struck me before.

[Jim Price]

David H,
Will appreciate anything you can find on that production date!

Regards,
Jim

[cletrac (RIP)]

Jim, look at the image in my second post. It says the numbers are to be 3 1/2 inches tall. From the pictures it looks like by 1944 or so they went to smaller letters.
On your truck I'd go with a number just under 4205000 since the F15 on the list is an earlier version with no cowl vents.

[Jim Price]

David,
Oops! Didn't read your post like I should have! Will probably go with 3" letters/numbers.
Do you know where the F8 with the number 4204797 was used during the war, Canada or Great Britain or somewhere else?
Regards,
Jim

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Jim Price

Do you know where the F8 with the number 4204797 was used during the war, Canada or Great Britain or somewhere else?

Hi Jim

I am willing to be shot down in flames on this one. But I have picked up from various books and pics over the years that: apart from service in Canada itself and the U.K., many C8 and F8's ended up in the Nth Africa/Middle East theatre - where they were definately used by British, New Zealand and Australian units and probably other nations ..even the opposing enemy ! I wonder if some of the 8 cwts were shipped directly from Canada to Nth Africa. From memory, this was the case with the light stone finished Dodge D8A's, so maybe the same thing occured with C8 and F8.
Mike

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Jim,

F8 CZ4204797 was most likely pictured in the UK. As noted earlier:

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

As per the manual, by 1944 they were "used only in limited numbers in the UK as general purpose load carrier for supplies and stores over good roads by CRU (Canadian Reinforcement Unit) or other base units."

It was not used in Canada, as at home they used a different census numbering system, of which Phil waterman posted an example.

As Mike says, they were used in action in the North African and Middle East theatres of operation. Attached goes a picture of an F8 captured by the German Afrika Korps and put to good use.

beute%20dak%20truck%2002.jpg

[cletrac (RIP)]

Here's five more.

CL4247550.jpg CL4247857.jpg CL4283572.jpg CM1164447.jpg CM1165332.jpg