The best truck of WWII?

[syscom3]

We do know that much of the transport of the Wehrmacht, I have heard more than half, was horses. They work pretty well in all sorts of weather, if they are fed, watered and rested. I read somewhere that 2.7M horses were used by the German Army in WW2.

And used as food if the situation requires it.

 

[Lucky13]

I'm now where my parents stay in Sweden, called Östersund, which is higher on this pea that we call earth than Anchorage in Alaska. When I still lived here, I was used to work outside in way below -30C and our construction workers are still working at -20C and only stop working when it falls below -25C...
Not far from where I stay it every so often falls below -40C and -50C....
Now that I've rubbed shoulders with everybody about where it's cold and snowy etc....

I think that everybody here's correct about the GMC and Opel. First with the US, its mountain states and having close to Canada with the cold and snow, I'm sure that it could handle that just as well as the Opel. Then you have the interests that US had in Asia, must have been a few GMC there too, just as well as Opel, with the Dutch East Indies, thinking that Holland must have bought a few Opels from Germany before the war. I mean, didn't Germany export WAY more than they imported in the 30's and isn't trucks usually a big part of a countrys export, must have been a few Opels in there, right?
Another thing, with all the cold in Russia, there's one thing missing that you saw in Norway and Austria-Italy.....high mountains! Did the Allied ever cross over the border between Italy and Austria to try their GMC's etc. on harsh slippery winter mountain roads?
Btw, how many tracked trucks, Maultiers, did the Wermacht have compared to the Allied? Must have been a few half track Opel, Steyr, Mercedes and Ford...

 

[pbfoot]

Another thing, with all the cold in Russia, there's one thing missing that you saw in Norway and Austria-Italy.....high mountains! Did the Allied ever cross over the border between Italy and Austria to try their GMC's etc. on harsh slippery winter mountain roads?

Rockies, Coastals, Cascades and all were crossed with construction of the Alaska Highway which BTW was the second costliest project of WW2 right behind the Manhattan project

 

[Lucky13]

True uncle PB...but, it's nice and quiet there! No planes throwing nasty small and large metal objects at you, or grumpy men with big guns around a corner...not a single tin can in the road that says *BOOM* when you step or run over it.

 

[pbfoot]

True uncle PB...but, it's nice and quiet there! No planes throwing nasty small and large metal objects at you, or grumpy men with big guns around a corner...not a single tin can in the road that says *BOOM* when you step or run over it.

Yes your correct but how could there be when they were the first, they didn't have Hannibal to blaze the trails

 

[drgondog]

I will say in fairness that coastal Alaska Highway was not as cold as central and NW Russia. IMO, you still need to warm the block to crank a gas/petrol engine in either location in deep winter most of the time

 

[Soren]

Yeah I was researching abit about the weather and the places where the Alaskan Highway runs through aren't as cold as it got in Russia. Furthermore the trucks running through the Alaskan highway atleast had some fairly good road surfaces to run on, something which wasn't really the case for the Germans in mid Russia. So I don't believe that the Alaskan highway was one of the worst places the GMC had to work in.

Even France was sometimes a very hard environment for any truck:

 

[pbfoot]

Yeah I was researching abit about the weather and the places where the Alaskan Highway runs through aren't as cold as it got in Russia. Furthermore the trucks running through the Alaskan highway atleast had some fairly good road surfaces to run on, something which wasn't really the case for the Germans in mid Russia. So I don't believe that the Alaskan highway was one of the worst places the GMC had to work in.

Even France was sometimes a very hard environment for any truck:

Research more

 

[Soren]

pbfoot,

I can't use comments like that for much. I researched where the highway runs and while it got extremely cold in some places Russia actually got abit colder. But thats not the important part really, the important part is the roads, and the Alaskan Highway atleast had some reasonable road surfaces to offer.

 

[syscom3]

and the Alaskan Highway atleast had some reasonable road surfaces to offer.

Not while it was under construction.

 

[pbfoot]

pbfoot,

I can't use comments like that for much. I researched where the highway runs and while it got extremely cold in some places Russia actually got abit colder. But thats not the important part really, the important part is the roads, and the Alaskan Highway atleast had some reasonable road surfaces to offer.

Where is the reasonable surface?
it was a highway where no other road existed for 100's of kilometres in cold weather for weather look up Watson Lake where the mean temp in Jan is -24c

BTW I for simple nationalistic reasons opt for the CMP trucks of which approx 800k were built

 

[vikingBerserker]

According to "The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II" the standard Opel Blitz used an Opel 6 Cylinder gasoline engine.

 

[Soren]

Sure did, just like the GMC truck, they were both gasoline powered.

Another truck we forgot is the German Enheits Diesel truck, a 80 hp Diesel truck which did marvelously on the Eastern front, esp. during the winter months where it was one of the few machines running around reliably.

 

[Soren]

Einheit Diesels Opel Blitz's together. (4 Diesels front, 2 Opels back)

 

[Soren]

There's also the 105 hp Diesel Büssing NAG 500 A-1 4x4 truck of which more than 14,800 were built:

 

[vikingBerserker]

At least 75% of Opel Blitz's were 4x2, versus the almost 100% of the GMC 6x6. Just thinking out loud, but would that not indicate better traction?

There is a reason why the Germans had to use so many half tracks.

 

[drgondog]

Research more

This pic looked at lot like ALCAN highway in late Spring. Well prepared surfaces were not 'contiguous' for a long time after WWII.

 

[Lucky13]

Wasn't Alaskan Highway gravel while the Russian roads were nothing more than dirt?

 

[pbfoot]

This pic looked at lot like ALCAN highway in late Spring. Well prepared surfaces were not 'contiguous' for a long time after WWII.

I see deciduous trees as opposed to coniferous and the they would be the latter in the Yukon Alaska area I think

 

[Lucky13]

That's crazy talk PB! Anyone can see that it's just around the corner from where my parents stay here in Sweden.....get a grip on yourself will ya...geeessh!