Canadian Chevrolet Maple Leaf 4x4 artillery tractors?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by ericnuyt
Word is they were Canadian built Chevrolet 1 1/2 ton. My own research tells me they were used for towing 105mm Bofors howitzers, 75mm Krupp field guns and Bofors 40mm AA guns by KNIL. Some 200 were probably available, presumably all or almost all used on Java. In KNIL they were called Maple Leaf's.

Here's a picture of a 40mm AA gun - sadly without tractor! - captioned as follows:

"Natives of the Netherlands East Indies have long been on the alert against the expected Japanese aggression. They have realized for ten years that the natural wealth of their islands would eventually mean a Japanese move for "unification," and air raid defenses such as these have long been ready for action. The crew is composed of members of the Royal Netherlands Indian (sic) Army. During action they wear steel helmets, rather than the bamboo hats shown here."


Source: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html
Digital ID: fsa 8b13123