Quote:
Originally posted by chris vickery
I am not aware of whether the units shipped direct to Canada were destined for use here, or whether some were assembled from the CKD form and sent overseas assembled.
|
To set some things straight, CKD stands for Completely Knocked Down. As explained
earlier, CKD should not be confused with trucks being encased, after first being 'knocked down' as much as considered practical. CKD was restricted to destinations where the manufacturers had proper assembly plants. CKD entailed the supply of parts which could not - or not economically - be produced locally, supplemented by parts which could. So basically CKD packs are an incomplete set of parts, which need locally sourced parts to complete the vehicle (as was done with the M38A1 after WW2 in Holland).
Quote:
Originally posted by David_Hayward
My understanding was that FWD Auto Company Ltd in Kitchener assembled the Jeeps and then shipped them on, via Halifax for overseas. Perhaps I am mistaken?
|
As far as I can ascertain, during WW2 Jeeps were not sent overseas Completely Knocked Down. They were always fully built up at the Willys or Ford plant, test run and then partly knocked down (wheels, steering wheel, windscreen, etc.), crated up and shipped as SUP's, which is short for 'Single Unit Pack' (see pic below), or a pair of jeeps crated together as TUP's, which is short for 'Twin Unit Packs' - see
Jeep In A Crate.
Therefore I cannot see a reason for an assembly plant in Canada to receive crated Jeeps, reassemble them and then ship them overseas, as preparation for shipment would entail doing the same operation in reverse order!
We should differentiate between:
1) Willys MB jeeps made to specific Canadian contracts with unique features (incl. paint).
2) Standard model Willys MB and the standard model Ford GPW purchased later by Canada.
3) Jeeps destined for domestic use in Canada, thus shipped from Willys/Ford to a destination in Canada to be reassembled -
if they had been crated for shipment (how many were simply driven on a
train?).
4) Jeeps destined for use overseas, thus crated and shipped from the Willys/Ford plant to a reassembly operation.
So far, it seems any combination of 1), 2) and 3), 4) seems possible.
Regards,
Hanno
