ANCESTRY

[joel gopan]

It can't really be done, if your truck was completely stripped of paint during the OH process, and old unit markings are no longer under the layers of paint. There are some who will swear up and down that their truck can be traced back thru several units during WWII but I doubt that the documetation that back up the story can be produced. About the only way a truck will have its pedigree is if the Army saw significant historical value to the vehicle at wars' end and wanted to preserve it for the future. such vehicles do exist and are well documented, General Pershings WWI Staff Car, General Pattons Jeeps, Eisenhowers converted CCKW, General Gerhardts MB "Vixen Tor", an M-46 Tank from Remagan(Wright Museum), etc. Many of the WWII vehicles at the Museum at Aberdeen, Ft Eustis, and Ft Knox have accurate history. It is sort of a "feel good" thing to conger up a history that only the collector knows, and there is no shortage of those gullible enough to swallow the story.(Look at the Jeep in the Crate Stories)
USA Numbers are not really traceable, but can be related to the CCKWs with Chassis Numbers before 40,000 with some reasonable accuracy as the avaible contract documentation makes it easy to extrapolate Hood Numbers for the 1941 models. All others get increasingly more difficult.
Sometimes it is best to just paint your truck up in the markings of your favorite unit and be happy at that My truck came from Denmark, was made in May 41, and the USA registration is most likely 454317 and that is the best I expect to find out, and I am happy just to have it. -If it looks like a CCKW, and sounds like a CCKW, it surely must be a CCKW and that cannot be denied. One thing for sure, is that your CCKW did serve in WWII, and only if it could talk..............