Dodge WC question

[Lynn Eades]

Gordon, I imagined an arrangement, where the weight is borne primarily by the tow hitch, and folds back from there to get at the boot (trunk)

Eduard, I would suggest this particular Dodge WC51 is earlier production than the 1943 batch that your link describes. Although very smart the pictures in the link, are "artists impression" and show changes from different periods of production. for example none of the trucks with the shock absorber linkages shown, would ever have carried the Dodge badge on the radiator shroud.
I'm no authority, but I think the Dodge in your first post is from the first half of 1942. This would suggest to me a different direction of delivery. What about the possibility of it going with the early Jeeps, MA's,GP's etc. that I have heard so many of, went to Russia.