Lend Lease Studebaker US6s

[Tony Smith]

It always surprised me that Australia kept thier stocks of Studebakers boxed up 'til the CMPs wore out in the late '50s. After reading the "Autogallery" link mentioned by Oliver above, I found this comment:

"4. Some of foreign goods was payd off with the Soviet gold reserv, but very many had to be returned back after the war. My father described me the procedure he witnessed. American ship with tremendous press machine arrived into Soviet Far East. Americans, accompanied by Soviet officials, gathered every lend-lease automobiles they were able to find (many of these vehicles had been sent and participated the war against Japan in August 1945). American ship, laden with trucks went off-shore, crushed the load and dumped it onto the Pacific bottom. They returned and returned. One can imagine, they found not everything, it's easy to understand that many Soviet directors tried to hide good lend-lease vehicles and often succeed in this."

Australia also had heaps of Lend-Lease stuff that was dumped/buried/burned, but why were these CKD Studebakers spared? Were they hidden from the Yanks? Were they not even noticed in stores? (Corporal, what's in those boxes?) Mystery!