HISTORY

A CMP HISTORY

During the Second World War, Britain, the British Commonwealth nations and many of their allies used a bewildering variety of motor vehicles to transport their armies towards the ultimate defeat of their enemies. Their trucks came in all shapes and sizes and with literally dozens of manufacturer's plates attached to them. Some were extremely good in their roles, others so poor that they were discarded almost on entering service. Many were anonymous vehicles, quickly forgotten as they rolled by, others stood out then and still do stand out from the throng, trucks with character and reliability, remembered for long after the war for which they were built was over. Such a vehicle is the truck which was known by many names by the soldiers of many different nations but whose official title was the CANADIAN MILITARY PATTERN or CMP truck.

The CMP truck, in it's numerous and diverse models was built by both General Motors Canadian division and Ford of Canada and was also partly manufactured or assembled in Australia, New Zealand, India, Egypt and Britain. It saw service in just about every theatre of WW2, from the deserts of North Africa to the Steppes of Russia, from the jungles of New Guinea to the road to Berlin. Over 350000 CMP trucks left the factories and went to war. And after the war, CMP trucks kept on serving many countries and many armies right through the decades, long after many of it's contemporaries had broken down and rusted away. Norway kept her CMPs in service until the early 1990s. Now, in another century and in many parts of the world, CMP trucks are still earning their keep and are toiling away faithfully in less war-like activities such as farming, fire fighting and logging.

They were made in 4x2, 4x4, 6x4 and 6x6 versions in at least six different wheel bases with four different load ratings. They had two major cab types with numerous sub-types and a huge array of different rear bodies were fitted to them. Curiously for a North American designed and produced vehicle, except for very early prototypes, they were all built in right hand drive, a legacy of Canada's 1930's adherence to British defence policies. Both Ford and General Motors used the components from their CMP trucks range to manufacture light wheeled armoured vehicles in Canada, Australia and India. GM's C15TA armoured personnel carrier and Ford's Lynx scout car both soldiered on post-war with many armies worldwide. Indian CMP based armoured vehicles served that countries post-independence army until the mid 1980's.

Although the two major manufacturers used their own generic engines and running gear, a great many parts were interchangeable. At times even normally non-interchangeable parts were used by the other manufacturer. Ford used GM axles and transfer cases in several different variants of it's trucks when their own production could not keep up. Conversely, Ford made cab sheet metal sections for both it's own and General Motors' vehicles.

CMP PRODUCTION FIGURES

*TYPE*	*DRIVE*	*MODELS*	*QUANTITY*
8 cwt	4 x 2	C8, F8	9837
8 cwt	4 x 4	C8A, C8AX	12967
15 cwt	4 x 2	C15, F15	34195
15 cwt	4 x 4	C15A, F15A	69227
30 cwt	4 x 4	C30, F30	19319
3 ton	4 x 2	F602S, F602L	6000
3 ton	4 x 4	C60S, C60L, F60S, F60L	209004
3 ton	6 x 4	F60H	4123
3 ton	6 x 6	C60X	2710
F.A.T.	4 x 4	C-GT, F-GT	22891
Rear engine chassis	4 x 4	Ford	9494
Armoured car	4 x 4	Fox	1506
Recce car	4 x 4	Otter	1761
Scout car	4 x 4	Ford Lynx	3255
Armoured truck	4 x 4	C15TA	3961
Trailers			19663

Production notes: I have cobbled together this table of production figures from a list of sources too numerous to mention here. As usual if you see any mistakes please let me know. I'm not too sure whether these figures include the Canadian Dodges. I've also included the CMP trailer quantity too as many restorers rightly consider that these are a perfect companion to their CMP truck.