WWII vehicles salvage yard

Fleetmaster · Mar 16, 2008

This ex US WWII US Army depot contained 100+ 2 1/2 Ton GMC's, 200+ Dodge WC series and numerous other WWII vehicles that arrived in France trough the Normandy landings.

Sadly, most of the trucks have been removed since, destination unknown...we know what that means.
Bart

hippiedude · Mar 16, 2008

WOW !!!! What a waist.....Sad.....

Tim

54reo · Mar 16, 2008

WillWagner · Mar 16, 2008

That gives me goosebumps!

bulldog_mack13 · Mar 16, 2008

Holy hell , can they be saved?

halftrack · Mar 16, 2008

That's amazing. A graveyard time capsule!!!! I love that Diamond T with the original wood bed.

badgmc56 · Mar 16, 2008

Kinda makes you wonder how much equipment was really left over there. Makes me chuckle when I see a WWII vehicle in an ad and it says' Europe return'. We left it for them and now their selling it back to us.

bubba_got_you · Mar 16, 2008

roger-wilco-66 · Mar 17, 2008

Bart wrote:

> Sadly, most of the trucks have been removed since, destination unknown...we know what that means.

This could does also mean this:

http://www.command-car.com

Where is this place? Are the vehicles for sale?

Cheers,
Mark

maddawg308 · Mar 17, 2008

I dunno if a lot of them were scrapped - there is a BIG MV collector's market in Western Europe, especially with the WWII folks. I'm sure even the worst of them got parted out and saved at least in partial form...

JeepMan · Mar 17, 2008

Can we Google Earth this place??
At one time Van Dams Surplus in Holland had 2-300 CCKW's in the mid 90's. I imagine thousands passed thru there at one time or another (as well as Jeeps etc.)
It's nice to dream though.
Whats the Command Car connection??

JeepMan · Mar 17, 2008

badgmc56 said:
Makes me chuckle when I see a WWII vehicle in an ad and it says' Europe return'.

Whats being said is someone either thru a contact or an actual trip bought the vehicle(s) and had it shipped back to the US to use or re-sell. The gov't left the vehicles over there, they did not/are not shipping them back.

Fleetmaster · Mar 17, 2008

The French Army received most of the vehicles that arrived trough the landings in Normandy and were decomisioned after the war was over. They used the vehicles for a number of years and then drove them of to 3 large storage places in france where the vehicles were neatly parked in perfect running order. This was 1958 and 1966. What you see on the pictures is the storage park close to Grenoble. It is privately owned and just last year the owner started cleaning up. The place remains a heaven for spare parts at least for those with large wallets.
I was able to salvage a rare Chevrolet which now I enjoy driving on the frequent commemorations held in Europe.

Bart

Uglyranger · Mar 17, 2008

Think of the young men who drove those trucks......I salute them all

FrankUSMC · Mar 17, 2008

I think most of the vehicles you are seeing were suppied under the MAPP program in the 1950s. The United States was rebuilding and giving away 1000s of vehicles that were made during WWII. I still come across tags on military vehicle parts with MAPPS tags on them.
One of the few, Frank USMC RET

topo · Mar 17, 2008

last year I bought a Herules XHD motor that will go in my 1943 White 666 .the motor was rebuilt in 1963 in France and never put back in a truck .the seral number in the truck I have is about a thousand numbers diffrent from the motor from France . so maybe this motor was used in the invasion or arived shortly after in another White 666 .

L1A1 · Mar 18, 2008

Hey everybody!
Very cool photos thanks for posting them! We have nothing like that in the USA (unfortunately). Another posibility as to what became of all those HMVs is China. They have been buying up scrap yards for a while now do to their need for steel. A sad fate for any MV, but more so for the ones posted because of thier history.
Matt

NB1944 · Mar 23, 2008

That's quite a collection! Good WWII projects are always hard to find. Sure would be nice to know what happened to these MVs. Seems like there were plenty of restorable MVs in that lot.

NB1944 · Mar 23, 2008

Fleetmaster -

I figure you haven't read my last post... ok. Seriously, I would like to know what happened and if these vehicles (or their remains) can be located. Anything you can tell me will help. Your photos show that they were there just 3 yrs ago (could be worse). I don't want to be a pain, but I would appreciate any info you can provide. There are guys with big wallets in our club that do only WWII stuff. (One of our guys buys only Jeeps - he has 70 of them! I can't tell you why.) I also have friends and contacts in France that could assist. I know its a pipedream, but sometimes you get lucky.

A friend of mine has a container that he has been trying to ship home, but he procrastinated because its only 1/2 full. Now that the shipping has increased dramatically, he really needs to fill it. Sure would like to 'help' him fill it up! Thanks

JeepMan · Mar 24, 2008

NB1944 said:
Fleetmaster -

I figure you haven't read my last post... ok. Seriously, I would like to know what happened and if these vehicles (or their remains) can be located. Anything you can tell me will help. Your photos show that they were there just 3 yrs ago (could be worse). I don't want to be a pain, but I would appreciate any info you can provide. There are guys with big wallets in our club that do only WWII stuff. (One of our guys buys only Jeeps - he has 70 of them! I can't tell you why.) I also have friends and contacts in France that could assist. I know its a pipedream, but sometimes you get lucky.

A friend of mine has a container that he has been trying to ship home, but he procrastinated because its only 1/2 full. Now that the shipping has increased dramatically, he really needs to fill it. Sure would like to 'help' him fill it up! Thanks

Now we need to see pics of those 70 Jeeps!! How did he manage to acquire so many??!!
PICS!! PICS!! PICS!!

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