Dodge D60 - or not?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Hi John,

Welcome to this forum and thanks for your interesting picture plus story.

Yes, the truck in your picture is a Dodge D60, or more correctly, a Dodge D60L 60-cwt GS (General Service) truck. The picture below shows the same type of truck, although with a different kind of cargo body (wood, the one on your father´s truck is steel).

Please tell us more about your father!

Thanks,
Hanno



P.S.: sorry, my posting crossed Pete´s

[jsim]

Pete and Hanno,

I'm stunned by the quick response, thank you both very much.

Since you ask Hanno, here goes:

In November 1942 aged 31, and after 2 years service in the Home Guard, my father was called up into the General Service Corps to work on the construction of new camps for US troops near Burton on Trent. Six weeks later he was called up for military service and joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) as a Storeman. He was asigned to 7 Forward Maintenance Stores Section (FMSS) which was a small, mobile unit designed to form the point of the supply network immediately behind the front-line troops. They dealt with all types of supplies except munitions. On completion of training his unit embarked at Liverpool for North Africa in October 1943. He had vivid memories of the convoy sailing through rough Atlantic weather and watching the small escort ships disappear in the wave troughs.

7 FMSS soon moved to Italy, landing at Brindisi then criss-crossing the country, passing through Lanciano, Pisa and Rome, reaching Rimini and the small city state of San Marino.

At some time in 1945 his unit was moved to the south coast of France and drove up the length of the country to join the 21st Army Group, 7 FMSS was then part of 7 Line of Communications (LoC) sub-area. He then served in Holland and Germany until his discharge in August 1946.

He saw out the final part of his military service as a corporal, in charge of a huge store of war materiel. He spent most of that time at Enschede in Holland where he was billeted with a family called Van Tromp. Mrs Van Tromp always sent a card at Christmas until her death in the late 1960's.

Apart from some photos and a few stories that's about all I know about my father's war. As I find the time I'm slowly trying to discover more about the places he saw and the job he did. The attached photo was taken at the same time as the first one. I've always presumed they were taken in Enschede and that the young boy may have been from the Dutch family who were such kind hosts to my father as he waited patiently to return home.

Thanks again,
John

[Hanno Spoelstra]

John,

Thanks for sharing. I hope you found out more about your father's war. But it is great to hear you have traced the route he followed.

If you can get hold of Wheels & Tracks magazine back issue No. 55 (ref. http://www.afterthebattle.com/wtlist.html), you could read a bit more about the The Enschede Dump.

HTH,
Hanno

[jsim]

Hanno,

That's a good lead, thanks, I'll try to get hold of a copy.

John

[gordon]

These trucks did come with a two-speed rear axle, but I think the two-speed axles were limited to those variants that had dual rear wheels.

Since the truck in the photo has single rear wheels I'd expect it to have a single speed rear axle, plus things like a transmission-mounted tyre pump.

Gordon

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

I am miffed that I can't find the census number in my listing! The only gap that I have in the D-60-L series is those supplied under Demand SM 2891. I have no info on number runs.

[gordon]

edit - wrong again, the dual rear wheel trucks had the single speed rear axle - exactly the reverse of what I thought.

G