Canadian contract jeeps (was: CDLV 505 Jeep Serial numbers...)

[Eric B]

When Canada bought used Willy's and GPW's , these vehicles would have had USA Hood numbers on them. These were generally painted over but there are some photos where they are still visible. Some of these were shipped overseas while some remained in Canada.

They were suppose to have been rebuilt. Some were done at private businesses, while others were done at US Army Depots. The private business were reported to have done a better job. In most cases these vehicles were missing canvas and other items. Therefore some items such as canvas tops were manufactured within Canada as they were unable to purchase replacements from the USA.

We also bought a number of used vehicles for Korea. The USA hood numbers were retained and CDN was painted over the USA. They were reassigned Canadian numbers but very few of these were ever repainted. None of these vehicles came back to Canada as they were replaced by the M38A1s bought directly from the US Army.

In would guess that a car 5cwt 4x4 found in the Yukon would most likely not have been a CDN vehicle. The US provided vehicles for the defence of Alaska and numerous vehicles were brought in for the building of the Alaskan Highway. Canada sent troops and provided aircraft. There are several good books on the topic.
Thanks
Eric