Dodge WC Series World War II Apparel and Accessories by Legend Lines
The Dodge WC series 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 Dodge WC‑series came in many different, purpose-built, but mechanically uniform variants from the factory, much akin to the later family of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles. The WC series evolved out of, and was part of a more extended family of trucks, with great mechanical parts commonality, that included open- and closed-cab cargo trucks and weapons carriers, (radio) command cars, reconnaissance vehicles, ambulances, carryalls, panel vans, and telephone installation and mobile emergency / field workshop trucks. Dodge was the U.S. Army's main supplier of 1⁄2-ton trucks, and its sole supplier of both 3⁄4-ton trucks and 11⁄2-ton six-by-six trucks in World War II. With over a quarter million units built through August 1945, the G502 3⁄4-tons were the most common variants in the WC‑series. After the war, Dodge developed the 3⁄4-ton WC‑series into the civilian 4x4 Power Wagons; and in 1951, the WCs were replaced by the very similar 3⁄4-ton 4x4 Dodge M-series vehicles. WC was not an abbreviation of "Weapons Carrier", but a Dodge model code – initially W for 1941, and C for half-ton rating. However, the 'WC' model code was retained for both the 3⁄4-ton and 11⁄2-ton 6x6 Dodges – as well as for the subsequent model years. All in all, not counting mechanically related variants, the WC series alone involved 52 model versions (thirty 1⁄2‑ton 4x4, eight 1⁄2‑ton 4x2, twelve 3⁄4‑ton 4x4, and two 11⁄2‑ton 6x6 models). Standard vehicles in the 3⁄4-ton 4×4 class were the WC-51 / WC-52 Weapons Carrier, WC-56 /-57 /-58 (Radio) Command Reconnaissance, WC-53 Carry‑all, and the WC-54 Ambulance. In the cargo/troop and command trucks, the WC-52 and WC-57 are identical to the WC-51 and WC-56, but with a longer frame, extending to carry the protruding front bumper with front-mounted winch.
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