The K-50 telephone repair trucks were used by the U.S. ArmySignal Corps, during and after World War II, for the installation and repair of hard telephone lines, primarily in territories liberated from Nazi Germany by the Allied forces.
The Signal Corps, at the beginning of World War II needed a light telephone repair truck, and contracted initially with GMC-Chevrolet, and later with Dodge / Fargo,[1] for truck chassis to mount a standard American Telephone & Telegraph tool box bed. The original bed was styled after the Streamline Moderne motif of the 1930s. The second style bed, the K-50B, was a more utilitairian square box, that mounted the ladder on the top rather than on the side. It was often used in conjunction with the K-38 trailer. All were eventually replaced by the Dodge M37 series V-41 trucks.
Half-ton Dodge K-50 truck (1942)
The initial trucks were 1/2-ton, rear-wheel driven GMC-Chevrolet units, supplied under two contracts, in 1940 and 1941 respectively. All later K-50 and K-50B trucks were 1/2-ton and 3/4-ton units, contracted from Dodge / Fargo, from 1941 until war's end. Except for two initial rear-wheel drive evaluation units, all Dodges contracted were four-wheel drive.[1]
Versions
Dodge K-50-B telephone truck with ladder on top.
GMC-Chevrolet 1/2-ton, 4x2, (1940 & 1941)
33 units in 1940 and 49 units in 1941 amounted to a total of 82 trucks.[1]
1 2 3 Chief of Ordnance Office; Military Vehicle Preservation Association, eds. (2010). Summary Report of Acceptances, Tank-Automotive Materiel, 1940-1945 (Revision). Detroit: U.S. Army Service Forces, Office: Chief of Ordnance-Detroit, Production Division, Requirements and Progress Branch (published December 1945). pp.62, 63.
The DUKW is a six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the 21⁄2-ton CCKW trucks used by the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War.
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Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) trucks were a class and a coherent range of military trucks, made in large numbers, and in numerous variants, by Canada during World War II, compliant to British Army specifications, primarily intended for use in the armies of the British Commonwealth allies, but also serving in other units of the British Empire.
The GMC CCKW, also known as "Jimmy", or the G-508 by its Ordnance Supply Catalog nr, was a highly successful series of off-road capable, 21⁄2-ton, 6×6 trucks, built in large numbers to a standardized design for the U.S. Army, that saw heavy service, predominantly as cargo trucks, in both World War II and the Korean War. The original "Deuce and a Half", it formed the backbone of the famed Red Ball Express that kept Allied armies supplied as they pushed eastward after the Normandy invasion.
The SCR-197 was a ground mobile high frequency radio station used by the United States military prior to and during World War II, notably during the Battle of Wake Island in 1941.
The K-38 splicer's trailer was used in World War II for carrying telephone cable splicers tools in the field.
The K-37 trailer was used by the U.S. Army Signal Corps to haul telephone poles, and Cable reel, during and after World War II.
The Jeep trailer was a small, 1/4-ton payload rated, cargo trailer, designed in World War II, tailored to be towed by 1/4-ton U.S. Army jeeps. Versions of the quarter-ton jeep trailer remained in military use, by the U.S. or other countries, at least through to the 1990s.
Ben Hur trailer was the nickname of the World War II U.S. Army Trailer, 1-ton payload, 2-wheel, cargo, and the Trailer, 1-ton payload, 2-wheel, water tank, 250 gallon, or G-518 and G-527 — their respective U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Supply Catalog designations. Specialized variants were also manufactured.
The K-36 trailer was a telephone pole hauling trailer used by the U.S. Army during and after World War II.
The K-35 trailer was a house trailer used by the U.S. Army Signal Corps during and after World War II.
The K-55 trailer, manufactured by the A. J. Miller and Oneonta Linn Corp, was a house trailer used by the U.S. Army Signal Corps during and after World War II.
The G-506 trucks, 11⁄2-ton, 4x4, produced as the Chevrolet G7100 models, were a series of (light) medium four wheel drive trucks used by the United States Army and its allies during and after World War II. This series came in standard cargo, as well as many specialist type bodies.
The Dodge WC-54, Ambulance, 3⁄4-ton, 4 x 4,, was a variant of the Dodge WC series light 4×4 trucks, developed during World War II. Built from 1942 to 1945, they served as the U.S. Army's main ambulance, with some used as late as 1953 during the Korean War by the U.S. Army Medical Corps, and others serving as late as the 1960s in the armies of some European countries.
The Dodge WC series, sometimes nicknamed 'Beeps', was a prolific range of light 4WD and medium 6WD military utility trucks, produced by Dodge / Fargo during World War II. Together with the 1⁄4-ton jeeps produced by Willys and Ford, the Dodge 1⁄2-tons and 3⁄4-tons made up nearly all of the light 4WD trucks supplied to the U.S. military in WWII – with Dodge contributing some 337,500 4WD units.
The Autocar Model U8144T, officially "5- to 6-Ton, 4×4, Ponton Tractor Truck", was the largest, and most heavy-duty, of a family of heavy four-wheel drive trucks developed for, and deployed primarily with, the United States Army in World War II. They were of a "cab over engine" design, and produced by the Autocar Company from 1941 to 1945 with 2,711 being built.
The 21⁄2-ton, 6×6 truck was a standard class of medium duty trucks, designed during the beginning of World War II for the US Armed Forces, in service for over half a century, from 1940 into the 1990s. Also frequently known as the deuce and a half, or just deuce, this nickname was popularized post WW II, likely in the Vietnam war era. The basic cargo versions were designed to transport a cargo load of nominally 21⁄2 short tons over all terrain, in all weather. The 21⁄2-ton trucks were used ubiquitously in World War II, and continued to be the U.S. standard medium duty truck class after the war, including wide usage in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, as well as the first Gulf War.
In 1939 Dodge presented a completely new designed line of pickups and trucks. Formally the T series for 1939, V series for 1940, and the W series from 1941 through 1947, the trucks became mostly known as the Dodge Job-Rated trucks.
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