All of the vehicles owned by the club are privately owned by members of the club. These are all WW2 vehicles that were supplied to the Soviet Union through the Lend-Lease program. Lend-Lease helped keep the Soviet Union in the war, by contributing much needed materiel, enabling the arming and feeding of large numbers of RKKA troops, supplying them transport, and supplying desperately needed critical raw materials and machine tools to help keep Soviet industry in the fight.
During the first half of the war, Lend-Lease helped offset the huge losses sustained by the RKKA in combat, and to gear up industry that had been moved en-mass from areas of the western USSR that were being over-run by the German army, to safe areas east of the Ural Mountains.
During the second half of the war, after US, UK and Soviet industry had come into full production on a war footing, Lend-Lease speeded up the Soviet drive to push the German Army out of the USSR and eastern Europe. By equipping entire Soviet RKKA tank and mechanized corps with Sherman, Stuart, Valentine and other tanks, M3A1 Scout cars, various models of armored half-tracks, Universal Carriers, and thousands upon thousands of wheeled vehicles such as Studebaker cargo trucks and jeeps, RKKA offensive power was able to outnumber and outmaneuver German forces, often completely destroying entire corps and army level formations in the process.
Our club pays tribute to the assistance to the US and UK assistance to the Soviet Union during WW2 and to the men and women of the Red Army who so valiantly employed that equipment in bringing the scourge of Nazism to an end.
During the first half of the war, Lend-Lease helped offset the huge losses sustained by the RKKA in combat, and to gear up industry that had been moved en-mass from areas of the western USSR that were being over-run by the German army, to safe areas east of the Ural Mountains.
During the second half of the war, after US, UK and Soviet industry had come into full production on a war footing, Lend-Lease speeded up the Soviet drive to push the German Army out of the USSR and eastern Europe. By equipping entire Soviet RKKA tank and mechanized corps with Sherman, Stuart, Valentine and other tanks, M3A1 Scout cars, various models of armored half-tracks, Universal Carriers, and thousands upon thousands of wheeled vehicles such as Studebaker cargo trucks and jeeps, RKKA offensive power was able to outnumber and outmaneuver German forces, often completely destroying entire corps and army level formations in the process.
Our club pays tribute to the assistance to the US and UK assistance to the Soviet Union during WW2 and to the men and women of the Red Army who so valiantly employed that equipment in bringing the scourge of Nazism to an end.
Willy's Jeep
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The US supplied 77,972 jeeps to the Soviet Union during WW2. Members of the club own two restored and running Jeeps. These are post-war jeeps modified to look like WW2 model jeeps. The jeeps double in roles between different clubs, so the photos here are of the way they look when not performing their RKKA role. New photos will be added as they become available.
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CMP C15A Truck
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The truck to the left is the Canadian built Chevrolet C15A 15 cwt lorry. These trucks were a standardized pattern under the designation "Canadian Military Pattern" (CMP). During the war Chevrolet of Canada and Ford of Canada cooperated to come up with a standard design of truck that could be manufactured by both companies, and the CMP series of trucks was the result. They came in 15, 30, and 60 cwt (hundred-weight) versions in both two and four-wheel drive. Records have not survived recording the number received by the Red Army during the war, only that they were received and used by them. Ours is a 15 cwt model, meaning that it could carry 15 hundred pounds of cargo or troops in the bed.
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Ford G8T Truck
The Ford G8T truck in the photo below to the left is an example of what our trucks will look like when they've been restored for allied use. The photo below to the right are our two Ford G8T trucks in German camouflage, being used as 'battlefield debris' at one of our events. The United States equipped the Red Army with over 61,000 Ford G8T trucks during WW2. The G8T was the second-most widely exported truck to the USSR during the war, with only the Studebaker US-6 model truck exceeding it in numbers received.
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Universal Carrier
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Great Britain supplied 2,560 Universal Carriers to the Soviet Union during the war. They also received more Universal Carriers built in Canada and the United States during the war. The models were the Mk 1, Mk II and Mk III, as well as the T-16 Universal Carriers. Commonly referred to as "Bren Gun Carriers", the Red Army troops called them "Universals". We have four Mark 1 Universal Carriers awaiting restoration, and one T-16 Universal Carrier.
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