WW2 Canadian Jeep Puzzle

[David Dunlop]

Thought I would toss something out to the general membership for comment as there are perhaps several different things at play, that I cannot pull together to come up with an answer.

During the war, Canada placed 5 (I think) orders with Willys for MB Jeeps. Not sure the exact dates for these orders, but a portion of these vehicles were designated for use in Canada and I believe the majority were shipped overseas for use there.

On the surface, it would appear Canada fulfilled it's needs for the jeep at the end of their last contract, whenever that took place. Where the puzzle starts to show up is that at least here in Western Canada, Ford GPW jeeps keep popping up from time to time and they all seem to be dated 1943 and none of them have yet turned up with Canadian Contract information on the data plates. It would seem that for some reason Canada suddenly found itself short of Jeeps, possibly during 1943 and maybe these Ford GPW's filled that shortage.

Now I wonder, why was there a shortage in Canada? Two possibilities come to mind, but maybe there are other reasons. I can see perhaps the expansion of the Canadian military exceeded initial expectations by 1943 and GPW's were purchased to fill the gap. Another possibility that comes to mind is that between late 1940 until sometime in 1943, the Battle of the North Atlantic was peaking. Perhaps, enough of the MB's destined for overseas were lost as sunk cargo that Canada was forced to make up the difference from existing Canadian stocks and replaced those stocks with available GPW's from the USA.

Just some thoughts for you to play with now.


David

[Jordan Baker]

Get in touch with Erice Booth. He is the Canadian Jeep expert.

I believe a lot of the sudden need for Jeeps had to do with the changover from motorcycles to Jeeps in the army.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

The short story is that early during WW2 the US entertained special orders from allied nations like Great Britain, Canada, The Netherlands, France - anyone with cash, really.
Very soon however, when they got into the war also and the US production capacity had to be fully deployed, standardisation was the order of the day.
So you either got US Ordnance spec. Willys MB's or Ford GPW's, or you got nothing. As per Henry Ford: you can have them any colour you want, as long as it is Olive Drab

Also, jeeps from the various contracts were exchanged between the British and Canadians to let supply meet demand.

Read the thread Canadian contract jeeps for some more background info.

[Eric B]

Hello David

The first Canadian contract were with Willy's, which is why Canada was able to specify certain items on it, which were also US Marine Corps items, but a different color. Only these earlier contracts had CDN data plates.

When Willy's went into standardized production Canada could no longer order any further CDN requirement vehicles.

Once Canada was required to make further orders through the Commonwealth procurement process, which was with the US Government, we also started to receive some used vehicles which also included GPW's.

Some trading was done as well with the British.

Oddly most of the WW2 era jeeps still alive in Canada seem to be GPW's.

The Jeep replaced a few different other vehicles in services such as the motorcycle and its role expanded. The Canadian army also grew, which required more vehicles and equipment.

Only a small percentage of vehicles were brought back to Canada at the end of the war.

Out of those a batch was taken and used in Korea. These were left there when we replaced them with the M38A1.

Thanks

Eric

[Harry Moon]

End of the war, Americans could have sold a lot surplus associated with the Alaska highways. might explain the numbers out west.