Lend Lease Studebaker US6s

[Mike K]

Studebakers were definately used in Vietnam early on by Australians . Some were converted into special mobile radio stations and fitted out with Larkspur radios . Ask Rick Cove as he has one of these radio versions .

The Israeli army used some also , I recall talking to Col Bell at auto surplus Melbourne , in the late 1970's . He told me that they had offered all their US6 new spares , many tons , to the Israeli army .

I used to buy their brand new US6 seat covers for my 1/2 ton dodge . They had new in the box stuff like windscreen motors , for $ 5 each , Much other stuff , the US style tail lights in the box $5 each , its all gone now . Many of the boxes were labelled REO MOTORS , They even has NOS headlights , in the box , I bought these for my Dodge and removed the base , and fitted the Dodge base .

I know that quite a lot of the Auto Surplus US6 new spares ended up being sold as scrap metal , as they could not find any buyers for it . The MV collecting thing really had not taken off at that point in time here .

Mike

Mike