Canadian Dodge D15 in British Service.

[Matt]

I thought others might like to see these pics of Canadian built Dodge D15's in British Service in the desert.

[Kiwi]

great series of pics, thanks for sharing.

[The Dodge Boys]

What was the reason for 2WD???

[Matt]

To be honest I don't know why the D15 and the larger 3 ton version the D60 were only supplied in two wheel drive,though the British military at that time did use many 2wd types. Few D15's seem to have seen action in Western Europe,most appear to have been used in the desert and perhaps this is why few now survive? D60's do appear to have seen slightly more widespread use in Western Europe in 44-45.

[Gordon_M]

The two wheel drive thing is simple, Matt, they were direct supplements to the truck types the British already had, which were largely two wheel drive.

There were huge quantities of D15 and D60 trucks surplussed at the end of the war in the UK, but as standard two wheel drive cargo trucks that the majority of British drivers were familiar with, every one went to a building company, or a transport company, or a farm, and got used and used and used on the heavily salted British roads from 1945 until they fell apart, which was usually not much later than 1960.

The odd survivor, and there are numerically very few, tends to be things like D15 water tankers which were converted to garage wreckers, where they stood indoors, didn't do much, and got relatively well maintained.

An original WW2 RHD Dodge cab is a rarity now, since they were nearly all fitted to two wheel drive trucks that were just used till they dropped, and even if the cab survives it will be full of rust between panels.

[Tony B]

The old guy who owns the yard where I keep my Dodge is forever going on about the old Dodge truck , I presume a D60 he had at the end of WW2. He told me that he paid £400 for it (A lot of money then) but with no restrictions on hours and plenty of work, plus litle or no checks on weight, it soon paid for itself. Aparently when the most you could get from a British lorry was 40 mph flat out down hill with a following wind the old Dodge would do 60 mph. He later sold it to another transport firm for what he had paid for it, and that was the deposit on his first house.

[Gordon_M]

I grew up overlooking a building and general contractors yard here in Scotland in the 1960's ( sigh )

Every year, the yard owner would go down to the local surplus sale and come back with a 'new' Bedford OY ( pretty much the same size and rating as a T110L D60 )

They would unbolt the wooden cargo body, drag it into a field, and set fire to it ( I know, I know .... ) then transfer the dump body from a worn out truck in their existing fleet to the 'new' Bedford and paint up the cab.

I didn't take special note, but I assume they sold on the worn out truck chassis and cab. just for the yard space, unless they needed to strip it for parts.

I'm sure that scenario played out hundreds of times from 1945 though to about 1970, but few of the trucks that were left were worth restoring. the aggressive use of salt on the roads and the relatively poor corrosion protection of the original vehicles saw to that.

As an aside, I heard the opinion expressed some time back ( that's shorthand for " I don't remember by whom and when ") that British and US vehicles were both pretty rubbish as regards corrosion when stood outdoors or on salted roads, but Canadian CMP trucks were said to be notably better - pretty much agrees with the number of survivors on the roads here today, but to be fair most of the CMP Ford and Chev were 4 x 4, thirstier or fuel, and would have been used less anyway.