>...Does any one know if a nick name was used for the M37
>(3/4 ton Dodge truck, replaced the WC's in the early 50's).
>Chris Davis '52 M37 MVPA# 20000
====================
In the early 1970s in the Militia (Relax - In Canada it is a GOOD term, one
we are PROUD of -- it is the Canadian Armed Forces' federal 'reserve army')
we called our vehicles the following:
M-37CDN (cargo)= "three-quarter ton"
M152CDN (radio van, looks something like an M43 ambulnce) = "Gin Palace" (an
OLD nickname dating from World War II for a vehicle in which one could drink
in private)
M43CDN (ambulance) = "Ambulance"
M38CDN jeep = "flat hood jeep"
M38A1CDN, M38A1CDN2, & M38A1CDN3 jeeps = "round hood jeep"
M151A2CDN (MUTT 1/4 ton, a jeep imposter) = "new jeep"
M135CDN (2-1/2 ton) = "deuce and a half"
M113 (armoured personnel carrier) = "APC" (in Vietnam the US forces simply
called this a "track" I believe.)
Although I occasionally drove a 3/4 ton, I never knew it was an M37CDN until
AFTERWARDS, when I joined the MVCC (now the MVPA). In 1976, I remember Don
Robson (who sold surplus trucks and who is still an active MVPA member)
talking to me about M37 trucks and I asked what they were. He pointed to a
truck on his lot. I said (in effect) "But that's a three-quarter ton!"
In Canada we also had the Fox, Otter, Sexton, Grizzly, Ram, Skink etc.
The jeeps were sometimes called "blitz buggies". Offically they were "Car, 5
hundredweight".
There is a WWII cartoon of two dumb British soldiers dragging a reluctant
camel into an army base in the Mediterranean, and as I recall the NCO is
yelling at them "I said get a SCAMMELL not a CAMEL !!!" (a Scammell is a
make of British heavy breakdown tractor i.e. tow truck).
Slightly off topic - A WWII Royal Air Force (or RCAF) story is that a supply
NCO who was surprised when 50 "aircrew" turned up one day instead of the 50
"airscrew" (i.e. propellers) which he had requested.
Colin Macgregor Stevens
MVPA Member 954 (since 1977)
& member B Coy 1 Canadian Parachute Battalion (Living History)
Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada
E-mail: colin@pacdat.net
Personal web site: http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net
1944 Willys MB
1942 BSA airborne bicycles (2)
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