1945 trucks.

[armydriver]

I, apparantlym as a lot of collectors, always assumed that the serial number of a vehicle and the date of delivery to the Army were pretty much matched up. In recent discussions on this site I have come to the conslusion that this is not necessarily the case. Serial number in point. Number 499187 would have been manufactured sometime around early March, 1945 , according to the information posted lately, but yet the DOD to the Army is 8-45 , some 6 months later. Therefore if this is the case did the Army accept any trucks after August that say were manufactured in July? They might have been accepted as late as December of 1945 if this follows true. I realize that GMC did not make the complete truck, so bed types could have been the hold up, but the same basic question should be considered, just how late did the Army accept CCKWs built on the issued contracts.

[armydriver]

mmoore has listed a truckfor sale built in December of 1940 with a DOD date of nearly a year later of 11-41. This is just another case to illustrate my above post that one has to go by serial number on their truck to determine the date unless they are looking for the service dates of the vehicle in the Army, then the DOD date would be the significant date to go by. It is obvious if the truck sat in an assembly yard for 6 months to a year, then it was not being utilized by the Army in any capacity.

[42cckw]

ARMY
It is my understanding that during the earlier part of the war factories were pumping out vehicles as fast as the could be built , with the military accepting them as fast as the recieved them. thus mfg dates and dod dates were close.Industry was having to equip the US military along with our allies,so supplies were tight. by very late 43 into 44 this started to change as supplies were catching up with demand.By late 44 into 45 there were sufficent supplies on the continent to meet replacement needs. So trucks rolling out from factories were being delivered to storage yards , and then delivered to the army as needed,sometimes they could be there a few weeks or months before being accepted and a dod date stamped on, this is were the descrepancy comes from. I have a book on sheman tanks that says buy 1945 they had enough tanks to meet all the demand for every armoured division in europe and they could have fully equipped at least 10 more division with 100% replacement ,thats why german tankers always said for every sherman we destroyed there were always 10 more to take there place. America had out produced the world

JIM 42CCKW

[armydriver]

I agree 42 with your statement. In fact a major factor in our overwhelming victory was our ability to out mass produce any other country in the world and that is exzctly what we did. We overwhelmed them with war goods.
I also agree with somehting Joel said earlier. Trucks, like this one which is a dump truck , had more of a speciality bed on it. DOD may have been held up for the delivery of the hydraulic piston to operate the truck, or some other minor part needed to complete it.
Thanks for your input.