CarBrandLogos archive · GMC · 1941

GMCCCKW

The deuce and a half that moved the Allied armies, mostly through mud.

Photo: Van Deusen, Edwin S. · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in GMC history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the GMC CCKW, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Wars are won by logistics, and the CCKW was how the American army did logistics. A two-and-a-half-ton 6x6 designed by Yellow Truck and Coach and built in vast numbers by GMC and Chevrolet from 1941, it used a GMC 270 straight-six, a five-speed gearbox and a two-speed transfer case driving all six wheels: simple, repairable machinery that could be maintained by conscripts with basic training.

Convoy Red Ball Express · Unknown authorUnknown author; Post-Work: User:W.wolny · Public domain

Design and engineering

Well over half a million were built, in short and long wheelbase forms, with open and closed cabs, as cargo trucks, tippers, tankers, workshops and gun mounts. The Red Ball Express, the emergency supply route that kept Allied armies moving across France after the Normandy breakout, ran almost entirely on CCKWs driven around the clock.

GMC CCKW 750 Gal Tanker · Van Deusen, Edwin S. · Public domain

Jour d'la Libéthâtion Jèrri 9 d'Mai 2011 100

In production

Thousands went to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease, where they were valued at least as highly as the armour sent with them, and surplus trucks rebuilt roads and hauled timber across Europe and Asia for decades afterwards. Plain competence, produced in quantity, is exactly why it mattered.

Jour d'la Libéthâtion Jèrri 9 d'Mai 2011 100 · Man vyi · Public domain

At a glance