War salvage in Europe

[chris vickery]

I spoke with an old fellow several years ago that emigrated to Canada from England a few years after the War's end. He had worked for a salvage company. He told me stories of his employer being paid to haul goods to the docks to be put onto scows headed out to the channel. The scows were dumped into the channel. When I asked why they did this he had an interesting reply. His reply was that the Government of the time was worried that surplus goods would be harmful to the economy. Why sell surplus wrenches and tools when there were factories in Sheffield and other places looking to produce new goods for the country to buy. Many industries would not be able to employ a workforce without orders. Considering the influx of workers coming back into the workforce after their military duty, scrapping commodities was seen as key to stimulating growth.
I suppose they were worried that many unscrupulous scrappers would re-sell and that surplus goods would work their way back into the economy.
Probably the same reason why the Canadian Government left so much gear overseas. It was more humanitarian to give it away to desparate nations trying to rebuild and cheaper than shipping it back home.

[Marc Montgomery]

ACtually chris I think you may be right on both counts

leave some stuff there to save shipping costs.. and dump the rest...exactly because Canada and the US didnt want used MVs flooding the market..... farmers buying used jeeps and trucks for $100 to plough the fields and drive around, or small firms to buy used MVs cheap for delivery and haulage when the Ford and Gm and Chrysler were desperate to sell new cars trucks and tractors

someone once told me they say a Cousteau show about the ST Lawrence and at one point they dove on a bunch of dumped WWII vehicles... plausible BUT, I have never managed to get any confirmation about that... never seen the show, nor has anyone I know.

[David Dunlop]

I have heard similar stories about concerns the influx of returning vehicles to the USA in particular was not in the best interests of the auto makers of the day. In Canada, the story morphs a bit because the vast majority of what we sent over was RHD which raised it's own issues.

As for the Cousteau show, Marc, I believe the artifacts they dove to were from the freighter torpedoed in the river during the war with a full load of Valentine Tanks on board. Still there to this day apparently.


David

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

I have heard similar stories about concerns the influx of returning vehicles to the USA in particular was not in the best interests of the auto makers of the day.

Correct, they lobbied until legislation was put in place to prevent an influx of surplussed army vehicles. Re-importing AFVs back into the US is still a big hassle today because of this. Ever heard of the dreaded Form 6?

H.

[Dianaa]

My great grandfather had a transport firm in Sydney (FW Johnston, now Johnston's Transport) early in the war most of his trucks were commandeered for the military, after the war you couldn't get a new truck for love nor money.

They ran the business for a number of years after the War by purchasing CMP kits still unassembled from war surplus sales. They were then reassembled, mostly without the front diff centres because they didn't need 4WD and to use as spares.

[Bill Murray]

A truly fascinating subject to be sure.

I am not making a political statement here, but this aspect of history really brings out the truly staggering costs of modern warfare.

WWII is a particularly good example of this, where almost the entire GNP of the major combatants was devoted to making things, training troops which meant building bases, transporting said troops and things sometimes halfway around the world which meant a need for trucks, railroad equipment and ships and so on and so on.

And, in the case of the Allies at least, we way over produced these things in the sense that we never truly knew when the war would end and we did not want to get caught short handed.

So, here are some photos I snatched in the last days to illustrate the magnitude of this phenomenon. I should also add to something several others pointed out, in the case of soft skin vehicles, the US manufacturers did lobby fiercely against bringing back said vehicles but there were some clever folks that still managed as I will show in a photo.



First three are a salvage sale in the US in the late 1930's as we were changing to the generation just before the first "real WWII softskins". Second photo is a bike park in the UK selling off conscripted bikes and the third is a salvage yard in Italy postwar.

[Bill Murray]

Next batch are not from the ETO but would be typical of dumps found there.

[Gordon Yeo]

The reason farmers and industry bought surplus military vehicle was, there wasn't an alternative. Post war manufacturing took a while too return to a consumer economy. My father went to buy a new tractor in 1947 and the strategy was order a tractor from John Deere, Massy Ferguson and International. The when the first dealer called you went and got what ever model he had. If you didn't want what he had, your name went back on the bottom of the list.
Gravel contractors and forestry contractors scooped up surplus truck for work trucks and even just the engines. It was not uncommon for field artillery tractors to be used as municipal snow ploughs. Most of the 15 cwt trucks I scouted out had The Municipality of " " on the doors. County and Township municipalities were given first chance on military surplus vehicles and buildings before public sales.