General George S. Patton (1885-1945) was a colorful and hard driving general who led the 7th US Army in the Mediterranean campaign and the 3rd Army across Europe to end World War II. Our subject vehicle is a 1944 Dodge Command Car WC 56 that has been replicated to look like General Patton’s command car. This military vehicle is located in Post Falls Idaho and is listed here on eBay. There is less than 24 hours remaining in the auction and the bids have reached $28,000.
The vehicle is being sold by the son of the owner. The father has owned the vehicle for 20 years and used it for parades and political rallies. Due to declining health, his son is selling the car as is. The Command Car is said to run and drive. the interior looks very nice and it is believed to be powered by a period correct inline 6 cylinder engine. It is equipped with a 50 caliber machine gun that replicates firing using a mixture of propane, oxygen and carbon dioxide. I have heard these guns fire at military re-enactments and it is probably not as loud as the real thing but a whole lot of fun.
The seller does have some extra parts to go with the vehicle including a folding frame for the convertible top, a full hood, wheel, windshield, machine gun covers, floor pan and two sets of doors. The Command Car is painted in olive green with leather bench seats. There are some miscellaneous parts that will be sold with the military vehicle including the oxygen tanks and carbon dioxide tanks.
Patton’s first actual Command Car was very similar to this which he used all the way to 1944 when he upgraded to a Dodge WC-57 for use in the European theater. His actual WC-57 Command Car sold at auction in Auburn Indiana in 2020. The price has been climbing on this one and is not something we see everyday.
Yes very cool, i like the gun, is it street legal? I see a plate on the rear.
My Uncle Bob, was Patton’s mechanic, on his command car and some support vehicles, in North Africa. Patton said, “Make it as fast as Rommel’s Mercedes.” Bob did the modifications to use a supercharger and a sand cast intake manifold. from a crashed German (?) plane. Uncle Bob said that he didn’t think it was a lot faster but, it was powerful and had better get way speed. The whole engine was replaced, back to an original Dodge six, after the Sicily campaign. Bob was a pre and post War II hot rod guy.
If you were pulled up next to someone at the light that had window rattling music (if this had windows) blaring and casually laid your hand on the back of that 50 caliber machine gun, I wonder if they would turn down the “tunes”.
Patton was not only colorful and hard driving, he was the best Allied general in the European theatre hands down.
So much so, that a whole dummy army was created around him, to fool the Germans as to where the Allied invasion of France would be.
And imo he would have gotten to Berlin BEFORE the Soviets had he been allowed to.
Would love to own this vehicle…what a find ! America while our tanks(Sherman) were crappy, our command vehicles and jeeps were great.
Sold $28,300.
I would love to see the faces of the gate guards if ya went on Ft Bragg with this thing. LOL
My dad was part of Patton”s 3d Army [he was in the 13th armored div before they switched him to the engineers, he had a talent with things that went boom =)] I would love to have this vehicle.
It would be neat, my husband could crawl into one of my dad’s WW2 issue uniforms [I have his footlocker] and drive it in a Memorial or Veteran’s Day parade!