Pacific Theater of Operations
Vella Lavella Island Solomans 1943
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The following pictures with captions are from personal album of Captain Leslie Gehres
commander of Fleet Air Wing Four. From Kodiak Military History Museum website:
http://www.kadiad.org/FAW4/index.html
Captain Leslie E. Gehres
(Command car in background)
"Gehres, officers, PBY, command car"
"Command car and driver. On jacket 'N. ALT, Fleet Air Wing Four.'
On car: 'R21 Fleet Air Wing' "
Kodiak Alaska Fleet Air Wing Four, 1943. Photo caption lists:
"My 'Blitz Buggy' with special metal doors - to replace canvas curtains.
Also has a heater! Getting ready to go west. Gehres & one officer, car
doors open, Yagis on pole, wing behind car."
From the website of Lt. Colonel O.H. Davidmeyer who was head of communications in the Pacific Theater under the command of Douglas MacArthur:
The photos above are of a command car that was deliberately "sunk." Seems that vehicles were not readily available from the motor pool when jungle recons were necessary. So, this resourceful group would deliberately run a vehicle off a road and "lose" it in deep water. After it was written off as lost by the motor pool, Dave would send his engineers down to retrieve it. Once they cleaned it up and got it running again it became a communications jeep.
(Photo courtesy of www.aboutww2.com/ohd.html )
Dodge Command Car serving with
tank unit of the Dutch forces in
Surinam (Dutch West Indies)
(Picture through Hans Heesakkers).
Charles Flick from Miami, FL sent this picture in of a command car
being pulled out of the mud somewhere in the Philippines.
The above pictures were taken at Clark Field in the Philippines by
members of the 2nd Emergency Rescue Squadron
Photos courtesy of Jim Teegarden's great website:
Kingston Winget sent in this picture of a command car in Occupied Japan 1946/47.
Crashed B-24 "Gus's Bus" in Fenton, Northern Territory
1944 with command car in background. This photograph was
provided by Ed Crabtree who was a B-24 pilot in the
380 BG, 530th Bomber Squadron, based in Fenton 1944.
More pictures of this B-24 Liberator can be seen
at "The Old CMP Site" which is maintained by
Keith Webb and has information and pictures
of Canadian Military Pattern vehicles and more.
To visit this site click on the Url below:
http://www.oldcmp.net/findit.html
Photos of General Carl A. Spaatz and other dignitaries
awaiting the return of the Enola Gay and her
crew from mission to Hiroshima.
Larry Adler (left), Carole Landis, and Jack Benny pose
in front of a Dodge Command Car during a tour
somewhere in the South Pacific.
[U.S. Army photo]
New Guinea, December 1943 -Australian vehicles lined
up on a muddy road waiting to cross the Song River.
Note the command car on left side of picture.
(Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.)
John Wayne in front of a B-25 Mitchell and a WC-56 command car.
MOROTAI, HALMAHERA ISLANDS, NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES. C. 1945.
FIRST TACTICAL AIR FORCE BASE NOTE THE COMMAND CAR IS
SITTING ON A RAMP ON 44 GALLON DRUMS.
(Photo courtesy of the Australian War Memoria.)
Two command cars slugging it through the mud - Leyte Province, Philippines
[Photo taken from the book "Bombs Away - The AAF's Photographic History"
Wm. H. Wise & Co., Inc. Publishers 1947]
Labuan Island (North Borneo) 1945.
Vehicles of the 2/7 Field Company, Royal Australian
Engineers along the Cantonment road.
(Photo courtesy of Australian War Memorial)
Melbourne, VIC September 15th,1945.
Vehicles destined for the RAAF are lined up with their
Womans Auxiliary Australian Airforce drivers.
(Photo courtesy of Australian War Memorial)
RAAF airmen from No. 76 Kittyhawk Squadron posing with
Dodge WC-56 command car at Momote, Los Negros Island,
Admiralty Islands - April 1944
(Photo courtesy of Australian War Memoria)
Command car of the 79th RAAF Spitfire Squadron
at
Momote, Los Negros Island, Admiralty Islands -
April 1944