[David_Hayward (RIP)]

In January 1939, G.M. (France) started C.K.D. production of cars at Gennevilliers with a maximum daily capacity of four cars, either Buick, Chevrolet or Pontiac, six C.K.D. Chevrolet trucks with cabs, 6 M.K.D. [‘Mostly Knocked Down’] or semi-assembly cars from either G.M. Continental, Antwerp, or Adam Opel A.G., and six S.U.P. [‘Single Unit Packs, or fully-assembled] units. As a consequence, G.M. (France) was taken out of the supervision of G.M. Continental, and reported directly to G.M. Overseas Operations in New York. Further, that same month, the Le Havre truck plant closed as well as the Puteaux facility, in favour of Gennevilliers. The AC Titan plant [AC Titan, Section Equipment, G.M. (France} moved from Clichy or Levallois-Perret to 151 Avenue du President Wilson, Puteaux when G.M. France vacated. AC Titan moved back to Gennevilliers post-war, and became a counterpart of the British components operations albeit under one factory roof. The operation employed 280 people of whom 160 were office workers. However of significant interest is that in 1933 G.M. (France) was assigned to report to G.M. Continental for ‘economic reasons’, by the start of operations at Puteaux it was ‘a distinct operation, reporting to New York’.

By the time that war broke out G.M. France had 175 employees with 110 more in A.C. Titan’s Clichy Plant and 85 in the French Frigidaire operation. Soon after war was declared the French military authorities requisitioned the Gennevilliers Plant and released many of the former workforce who had been called-up into the Army so that the assembly of urgently required trucks could be resumed. This was because the French Army Staff in Paris and the French Purchasing Commission in New York had placed an order for 2,000 GMC trucks whilst Frigidaire were asked to supply naval units and food lockers for the Maginot Line. Gennevilliers assembled immediately pre-war a whole range of G.M. cars and trucks. They also handled C.K.D. or S.U.P. 1939 and 1940 Model Chevrolet and GMC civilian style trucks shipped from the U.S., some with conversions to 4 x 4 and 6 x 4 drive that were used by the Armed Forces [E.g. Thornton].

A.C. Titan supplied the Armed Forces with sparking plugs, fuel pumps and other accessories. The official history states that ‘The GMC trucks on order managed to get through to France early in 1940, which is believed to be correct, and 450 workmen were employed on a 12-hour shift, seven days a week assembling 60 trucks per day still on 11 June 1940, three days before the Germans entered Paris .

Supplementary orders for 7,000 Chevrolet and GMC trucks and 48 portable Diesel generators were placed but allegedly never reached France and negotiations for engines to power French tanks were cut short by the German drive for the Channel ports. The trucks and much of the Diesel material were later ‘transferred to the British Army’. Although diversions of deliveries were undertaken to the U.K., some crated vehicles landed at the port of La Rochelle, the intention being to assemble them for Free French forces, but the Germans seized the port on 22 June and the crates were eventually delivered to Antwerp to be used in the invasion of the Soviet Union.