... Does anyone know for sure if units were returned stateside from that
theater?
>- mazo mike
==================================
Don Robson in Vancouver, BC, Canada owns an M16 or M16A1 White half-track
which came back from Japan. It had the white star on the radiator shutters
and in an arc over the star, the name JOAD (a character from a famous
novel). It had a Japanese rebuild plate on the engine I believe. We do not
know if it was used in Korea or not, but it might have been. Probably any
surplus MVs returned from Korea to the USA would have been routed through
Fort Lewis in WA and bases in Calif.
If you are planning to do up a vehicle for next year's 50th Anniversary of
the start of the Korean War (and to honour the vets of this forgotten war),
look at the photos. You will notice that MOST of the vehicles, certainly in
the first couple of years, were good old 6 Volt W.W. II vehicles e.g.
MB/GPW (including slat grill MB), Dodge Weapons Carriers, GMC CCKWs,
half-tracks, M-8 armoured cars etc. I only see M series vehicles in later
years in Korea. WHY 6 VOLT OLD VEHICLES? I suspect because that was the
"standard" in that zone of operations and the middle of a desperate fight is
NOT the time to be changing to 24 V vehicles! Indeed in ARMY MOTORS (MVPA's
magazine) I recall seeing pictures of a soldier with his M38 stateside, then
with an MB/GPW once he got to Korea! Thus although most people call the M
series vehiclesd (M38, M37 etc.) "Korean War vehicles", that war was for the
most part fought with W.W. II vehicles!
Incidently, although Canada produced almost a million military vehicles in
World War II (sending thousands of Department of National Defence Pattern /
Canadian Military Pattern, Modified Conventional Pattern and armoured
vehicles to UK, Egypt, USSR, Australia, NZ, South Africa etc. - and post-war
giving thousands to Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, England, Italy,
Czechoslovakia, Poland etc.) when the Korean War came along, we sent our
troops over to Korea with U.S. W.W. II vehicles. Ironically, there were
hundreds of Canadian built vehicles used in Korea by the British and
Australian units - not Canadians!
If there is any one wanting information (or having info to provide) on
Canadian military vehicle markings in Korea, please contact me, Colin
Stevens at colin@pacdat.net It is a poorly documented field. I have some
info - looking especially for the shield decals (I have a damaged NOS one)
and vehicle marking manuals/instructions/orders.
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