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Chevrolet World War Two Truck Database
1911-Current

This page added 12-24-2014.

While Chevrolet was the largest of the GM Divisions during WWII, there is a scarcity of information on the trucks it built during the WWII.  I have attempted to rectify that below and to put in one place the number and type of trucks Chevrolet built during WWII. 

The first issue to be resolved is the total number of Chevrolet name plated trucks built.  Actually, that number can be determined from the total number of trucks GM built as a corporation, found on page 28 of the 1945 GM Annual Report.  The number given by the report is 854,000, which included 21,147 DUKWs.  Also known is the number of total GMC trucks built during the war, which is 551,283 2-1/2 ton trucks, both 4x4 and 4x2.  Subtracting these two numbers from the total gives us the number of trucks that had the Chevrolet nameplate on it that were built in WWII, which is 281,570.  (854,000 - (551,283 + 21,147) = 281,570)  The key words here are "Chevrolet nameplate", because Chevrolet also built the GMC CCKW 6x6 2-1/2 ton truck at both its St. Louis, MO and Baltimore, MD assembly plants, and the GMC DUKW also at St. Louis.

Below are a series of tables with the data I used to determine the total number and types of Chevrolet built trucks, not only its own, but GMC types also.  Unfortunately only the data in tables  A, 13, 16, 20, 21, 30, 31, 32, Y, Z and N is primary data, taken from a reprint of US Army Technical Manuals which gives us only verified Chevrolet production numbers for 1941 and 1942.  For the rest of the war, I had to rely on figures obtained from other sources.  They may or may not be correct.

As of this writing I have not been able to find the Chevrolet nameplate complete production numbers for 1943, 1944 and 1945.  Unaccounted for are 143,182 production units (281,570 - 138,388 = 143,182). 

However, I have found several wartime totals for several production types of Chevrolet nameplate built trucks as shown in table B below.  These figures add another 94,319 Trucks to the 138,388 for a known total of 232,707 Chevrolet nameplate trucks built during WWII.

Still unaccounted for are 48,863 units.  These are assumed to be N type 4x4 1-1/2 trucks.

The 94,319 figure was calculated in Table B.  In Table B, the third column, "Total Number Produced", I have put in total production figures I have found from various sources.  These are unconfirmed numbers.  Subtracting out the number of units produced of each particular type in 1941 and 1942 gives an adjusted net total to be added to the results in Table A as shown above.

 Chevrolet Built GMC CCKW 2-1/2 6x6 Trucks and DUKWs
The second issue for clarification is the number of GMC vehicles Chevrolet built during the war.  Chevrolet started the production of the GMC CCKW in 1941 and three years later in 1944 it began to provide the DUKW for the US military.  GMC subcontracted the work to Chevrolet and the GMC vehicles coming off the Chevrolet assembly lines all carried the GMC nameplate.  But whatever the nameplate said, they were still built by Chevrolet.

I have been able to find documentation for the CCKW Chevrolet and GMC production up through the end of 1943.  However, in the documentation available there are no yearly production numbers for neither Chevrolet nor GMC built versions in 1944 or 1945.   I have, therefore, had to estimate Chevrolet's build for these two years.  What is known is that in 1944 Chevrolet's daily scheduled build rate was higher than GMC's; and by the end of August 1945, when the war ended, Chevrolet St. Louis was producing all of the CCKWs. 

Chevrolet St. Louis produced 6,748 GMC DUKWs during in 1944-45.  In late 1945 all DUKW production had shifted back to the GMC plant in Pontiac, MI.

1941-1942 Chevrolet Nameplate Vehicle Production Tables
(The data below can be considered primary data.)