With the war clouds of World War II forming, the United States quietly began building up our military for combat. A big part of that was trucks. The ability to move men and materiel from the factories to the bases and ports, and, ultimately, to the battlefield was crucial for success. Trucks like this 1941 Dodge WC12 for sale on eBay out of Bayside, New York weren’t as glamorous as fighter planes and battleships. However, as the war wore on trucks like this were just as vital to winning the war. At a current bid of $2,125 would this old soldier be the perfect low-cost restoration candidate?
War was the last thing that the people of 1930s America wanted. Memories were still fresh of the bloodbath that was World War I. The economy was still struggling to rebound out of the most severe depression the country had ever experienced, and our military strength was about on par with some Latin American countries. Everyone was aware of the growing problems in the Pacific and in Europe, but isolationism was the collective desire of a country weary of hard times.
Despite this, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his administration began pushing to prepare for war. One aspect of this buildup was entering into contracts to build trucks for the military. Dodge was one of the companies to meet this challenge. The truck that emerged from design and testing would evolve for decades and become known as the Power Wagon much later. One of the first to emerge was the WC series of Dodge trucks. WCs took on a multitude of iterations, from closed cab pickups to a phaeton type vehicle called a command car. These distinctive command cars sadly became a favorite target for the Luftwaffe in the early days of the war as they almost always carried officers. Said officers quickly found less conspicuous transportation.
After Pearl Harbor, the buildup to support the war became almost unbelievable. So many men joined the military in response that some had to use broomsticks as substitutes for rifles in the many training camps that sprang up all over the United States. Production was halted on many civilian items like automobiles in order to begin manufacture of the necessities of war. As all of these factories started to come online the American soldier enjoyed an ever-growing advantage over his enemy. The vaunted German Wehrmacht was still using horses to move some of its weapons and supplies. While you cannot eat a Dodge truck, having a way to quickly and efficiently move things such as ammunition to the front lines was obviously a huge advantage. The edge that our factories at home gave our soldiers was a factor that contributed strongly to overall victory.
Decades later we find one of these Dodge WC series trucks sitting in a yard in New York. This truck is advertised as complete and original. It was started a few weeks ago and is said to sound good and have good oil pressure. As the picture shows below, it didn’t take too many high-tech tools to awaken this flathead Mopar engine from its slumber. Despite the engine running, there is rust in the cab and the truck’s fuel tank needs cleaning or replacement. A gravity type fuel tank was used to crank it up.
The good news is that there is nothing you cannot get in the way of parts for these vehicles. Steel Soldiers is a website that focuses on surplus military vehicles such as this one and can provide the support you would need for a project like this. Military vehicle enthusiasts are a tight knit and amazingly large bunch of enthusiasts that can frequently be seen displaying their vehicles at shows and rallies across the country. Mechanical parts can be found at the Vintage Power Wagons website along with a plethora of information about these beasts. A lot of the parts they sell are NOS military surplus parts that are still out there in amazing quantities so many years later. Once again, it is hard to comprehend just how much war material was produced for World War II and the subsequent Cold War era.
This truck will take a lot of work to bring it back to presentable condition. Mechanically, however, everything is straightforward to work on and is built to last. It would be great to see this truck back on the road to remind us of the sacrifices made both at home and overseas during World War II.
Do you have any stories of the World War II period that were passed down from family members? If so, please share them in the comments.
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