This is the vehicle, designed by the Ordnance Department and civilian experts, that was intended to supersede both the Nash and the F. W. D. and become the standard Army wheeled tractor. It is shown here with standard ammunition body mounted thereon.
ORDNANCE EQUIPMENT REPAIR TRUCK ON F. W. D. CHASSIS.
Special body, carrying tools and machinery for doing repair work to harness, personal equipment, etc., and capable of being mounted on either F. W. D. or Nash four-wheel-drive chassis.
Special bodies were manufactured by these concerns:
- American Car & Foundry Co., Berwick, Pa.
- J. G. Brill Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
- Hale & Kilburn Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa.
- Dumbar Manufacturing Co., Chicago, Ill.
- Pullman Co., Pullman, Ill.
- Kuhlman Car Co., Cleveland, Ohio.
- C. R. Wilson Body Co., Detroit, Mich.
- Insley Manufacturing Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
- Lang Body Co., Cleveland, Ohio.
- Heil Co., Milwaukee, Wis.
- Variety Manufacturing Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
- J. E. Bolles Iron & Wire Co., Detroit, Mich.
The first contract for these trucks was placed on August 18, 1917, and 9,420 were shipped to the American Expeditionary Forces overseas by the date of the armistice.
It required considerable time to work out and perfect all the details of the special bodies and equipment, as most of these were exceedingly complicated, and in a number of cases there were as many as 700 items of equipment on a single truck.
Representatives of the allied governments were not hesitant in asserting that the line of artillery repair trucks developed for our Army was the most complete and well worked out in detail that any army ever received.
These manufacturers did the work of turning out the special trucks: