MVs IN CRATES
The crating of military vehicles for shipment overseas WAS common in WWII.
Canada did it a lot to save space on ships as every cubic foot of shipping
space counted during the Battle of the Atlantic. Remember too that the USA
got into the war 2 and a 1/4 years AFTER Canada, Britain etc. and crating
for many (but not all) vehicles was well established by then. There are LOTS
of photos of Canadian built MVs (e.g. Canadian built Dodge D8A 4x4 8 Cwt
which is similar to US 1/2 ton but right hand drive and British style rear
cargo box.) crated for overseas shipment - being crated, enroute, and being
uncrated in North Africa etc. The Canadian Army Engineering Design Brasnch
(AEDB) DESIGN RECORD (Published 1945) discussed the efficiencies of the
various crating methods as I recall.
JEEPS IN CRATES
* I have lots of official photos (in magazines & books) of crated WWII jeeps
crated and being uncrated during WWII.
* English collectors have found sides of crates which were used to ship WWII
jeeps to the UK - complete with stencilled maker's name, USA registration
number etc. (story in a back issue of Wheels and Tracks).
* I have a copy of the official Ford instructions for uncrating jeeps (GPW).
* I have a photo of the interior of a Canadian Army warehouse pre-March 1951
with WWII jeeps in sketetal wooden crates (I believe the crates were made by
the Canadian Army as I can see that the jeeps have the wheels installed
which is NOT the nrom for WWII jeep crates) stacked four high and
disappearing into the distance (I can count 8 columns of four). I believe
these jeeps (probably used by Cdn Army in WWII) and then were crated by the
Canadian Army for storage efficiency.
* A colour photo I discovered and then publicised in the MVPA's ARMY MOTORS
of two 1942 jeeps (Willys MBs?) that have NEVER BEEN UNCRATED by either
military or civilians. If you are curious, see NOTE below.
:-) ]
* I have a copy of contract CAN-172 with Willys negotiated in November 1941
and accepted Jan 30 1942 by Willys with "His Majesty the King in Right of
Canada by Department of Munitions and Supply" for 2,000 jeeps. 1,500 of them
were to be crated for shipment overseas. Quote: "ITEM 2: Export boxing for
the cars described in Item 1, in accordance with the specifications referred
to in Article 5 hereof." ... "The export boxing shall be in accordance with
United States Quartermaster Corps Specification No. E.S. 5963 of August 7,
1941"... For this crating (export boxing)" the "Unit Price" was $55.00. By
the way, these NEW jeeps cost $845.42 each. This does NOT include crating,
taxes, shipping, spare parts, manuals etc. all of which are itemized in the
contract. [Enough said as I'm working on a small book on Canadian WWII
jeeps for SERVICE PUBLICATIONS in Ontario, Canada and have to leave
SOMETHING for the book! ]
By the way, the reference in "All American Wonder" Vol 2 to 108 crated
Willys MA jeeps being sent to Czechoslovakia on board the SS Ritchie in
March 1946. One should be careful as I believe that these were crated AFTER
their use by the US Military, for shipping as surplus aid to Czechoslovakia.
I believe one should NOT assume that they are factory new vehicles still in
original crates. In fact as HALF of the jeeps had to be repaired upon
arrival in Czechoslovakia (see details pp. 173-178), I think that this
reinforces the idea that these Willys MAs were USED jeeps that were then
crated for shipment.
I have encounted vehicles that were bought surplus right after WWII still
crated. In both cases Canadian built vehicles (a 10 Cwt i.e. for jeep etc. -
trailer and a D3/4APT Dodge 3/4 ton). Original manuals are STILL with each
vehicle and neither vehicle is for sale! Trailer (in Maple Ridge, BC,
Canada) still has its original canvas too! Manual for D3/4APT (APT=
Airportable by the way) is still in the truck's glovebox -(in Ontario,
Canada). I personally have seen a ex-Canadian Army Triumph TRW motorcycle
from post-WWII still crated. Farmer had it (in BC) way up on an upper level
of his barn. He was not wishing to sell, and besides it was too much trouble
to get to it now. By the way, some of these crated TRW m/c had been robbed
of some parts by the soldiers. At least one story of a collector opening a
'sealed crate' only to find that the ancient Egyptian art of grave robbing
is not dead, and some soldier had opened the crate carefully to remove a
part (a front wheel as I heard the story) and then resealed it! I cannot
confirm this story however.
NOTE: You can go see these never uncrated WWII jeeps for yourself. Go to
Espiritu Santo, New Hebredes Islands (now Vunuatu) in the South Pacific,
then proceed 135 or so feet straight down, into the hold of SS President
Coolidge which was sunk Oct. 26, 1942. Photo on page 464 Vol. 173 No. 4
April 1988 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Cover phtoto is "Ghosts of War" Japanese
bi-plane sitting on ocean floor off New Guinea. On jeep photo inside, note
that the steeing wheel is neatly tucked inside a wheel laying in the rear of
the jeep. Bows are sideways tucked inside the rear body, hood sticks forward
several inches. These features are shown in photos of uncrating jeeps in
South Pacific in 1942. The wooden crates have rotted or been eaten away with
time BUT no human ever unpacked these jeeps!
By the way, always be carefull of stories from veterans (home front or war
front). Each person only saw a single person's perspective of the war. One
should be careful not to generalize too much from one person's report. They
may never have seen "X" (e.g. crated jeeps), but that does not mean that "X"
did not exist. Often there is lots of evidence that "X" existed, but that
person just never saw it. For example: How many veterans actually ever saw
or met a secret agent? They could easily claim that secret agents exist only
in the imagination of Ian Fleming and other writers like him since THEY
never saw one and THEY were in Intelligence etc. I happen to know that this
is not so as I have met many of these WWII secret agents over the last 25
years and I even had a large collection of their special gear, uniforms etc.
One friend was in TWELVE FORCE which was so secret (because they were all
'enemy aliens - Austrians, Germans etc. but anti-Nazi because of religion
etc.) that it was not even mentioned in the history books until a couple of
years ago - yet he had ALL of his kit and list of fellow agents. My friend
was an Austrian Jew who parachuted into Austria in 1945 for the British.
Summary: Yes, jeeps WERE crated. Some have never been uncrated.
Manufacturers appear to have done the crating themselves, or at the very
least, were responsible for it, not the arsenals. ANYTHING is possible and
an original crated WWII jeep COULD still turn up (remember the final scene
in the movie about Indiana Jones where the Arc of the Covenant (crated of
course!) is stored in a HUGE U. S. warehouse?). I'll state for the record
that not only would I like such a jeep, but that IF FOUND IT SHOULD BE LEFT
CRATED !!!!!!!! though tiny probes like they use for the Egyptian burial
chambers (see the above mentioned National Geographic page 518 or your local
"Spy vs Spy" store) could verify the contents without unpacking.
P.S. At the very least I'll want the serial number, data, military
registration number (erroneaously called the 'hood number" by many
collectors) for my data base. :-)
Cheers!
Colin Macgregor Stevens
MVPA Member 954 (since 1977)
Editor MAPLE LEAF UP (Est. 1977) newsletter
of Western Command Military Vehicle Historical Society
Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada
E-mail: colin@pacdat.net
Personal web site: http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net
1944 Willys MB
1942 BSA airborne bicycles (2)
=================================================
Message -----
From: Daniel Terp <dterp@tallcity.com>
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2000 6:01 AM
Subject: [MV] Crated Jeeps
I hope this will shed some light on the "Jeep in a crate" myth:
The company I work for purchased the Raritan Arsenal in Edison, NJ, in
1965. Raritan was one of the major shipping points for military
equipment in WWI, WWII through Korea.
Along with the land we aquired lots of documentation and photographs
of the operation at the Arsenal. I also had a chance to talk with the
Chief Engineer from the ASO stationed there from 1940-1965.
I can tell you that Raritan NEVER crated jeeps for shipment or
storage. EVER. Self powered vehicles arrived on freight cars, were
parked in lots or stored on racks in a warehouse, and loaded by crane
onto boats and tied down. Everything from Mighty-Mites to main battle
tanks and DUKWs.
I have one photo of 7 acres of Jeeps parked out in a lot, ready for
shipment, not a crate in sight. Imagine the labor involved in crating
600+ jeeps for shipment.
Some motorcycles were crated, but aside from that the only things
that were crated were non self-powered items like big guns and
generators. These went to the ships on flat bed rail cars, and were
loaded with the same 75 ton crane.
I can't say for other arsenals, but I expect it was the same there. So
if you hear of a Jeep "new in the crate" I would expect someone is
pulling your leg.
=Mil-Veh is a member-supported mailing list=
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: <mil-veh-off@mil-veh.org>
To switch to the DIGEST mode, send e-mail to <mil-veh-digest@mil-veh.org>
To reach a human, contact <ack@mil-veh.org>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 01 2000 - 21:37:50 PST