This photograph found in the National Archives shows Major General Claire Chennault, commander of the Flying Tigers before Pearl Harbor and the 14th Air Force after 1941 and one of the icons of the Allied war effort in the Pacific, with his staff car in China in 1944. At first glance it looks like a 1942 Plymouth P11/P14, one of the most common U.S. military staff cars and a wartime icon of sorts itself. Closer examination shows it to be a Canadian 1942 Dodge Deluxe, an early Plodge that was identical to that year’s U.S.-market Plymouth but with a Dodge grille badge and ram hood ornament substituted for the Plymouth’s grille badge and Mayflower hood ornament.
A Canadian Dodge appearing as a U.S. military staff car in China, for a world-famous commander, is an unusual occurrence with more than one possible explanation. Chrysler may have used cars from its Canadian operations to fill its U.S. military orders, without wasting effort to re-badge them. With civilian car production terminating and tanks, trucks, artillery, and other military equipment taking precedence in 1942, it may have made sense for Chrysler to shut down its domestic sedan assembly lines as soon as possible and use Canadian “captive imports” to complete its relatively small U.S. military contracts for staff cars.
Another possible explanation has its origin in the under-recognized Canadian role in the U.S. Lend-Lease program. Lend-Lease buyers could use the program to order equipment and supplies from Canadian sources, and the U.K, the Soviet Union, and China all did so. Canada also had its own program called Mutual Aid to finance Allied purchases of war material from Canada. Nationalist China may have purchased this Plodge under one of these programs and then given it to Chennault for his use. Which explanation is correct is unclear at this time, because readily available sources such as Allpar.com do not mention the use of Canadian Dodge sedans as staff cars during the war.
Like the Chinese-marked Willys MB jeep that ended up in Europe profiled here in 2014, the presence of this Plodge in China is a minor mystery that inspires the question of whether the vehicle has survived the three quarters of a century since it went across the ocean to war. If it did, it may reside in one of the Flying Tiger Museums in China located in Chongqing and Kunming, where P-40 fighters and other relics of the Flying Tigers are on display — reminders of the vast effort and sacrifices of the United States, China and other Allied countries needed to defeat Imperial Japan.
Some sources have said that Canadian car production continued through 1942, halting sometime in ’43.
Plodge or not these were great old cars, this is mostly what we got out here in the antipodes from Canada with a sprinkling of US models of course supplies became short after WW2 when the former British colonies had to help Britain pay for its war and American cars became an expensive hard to get luxury.
This has nothing to do with cars, BUT in the summer of 1975, I worked for Emerson Electric in St. Louis and I was partnered with an amazing man who was in the Flying Tigers as an aircraft mechanic.
His name was Bill Lewis and was known as “The Great Bearded One” at work!
His stories fascinated me all summer! This person was a true “Indiana Jones” character, basically “kicked out” of the house at 18, which led to his many adventures in his life all over the world – some planned and many not. It was a privilege to work with him.
They don’t make ’em like that anymore…
I also worked with many WW2 veterans during my youth interesting guys not all of them slotted back into society as well as expected,I learnt quite a lot of history the schools didnt teach.
In the 70’s & 80’s I worked in factory that had a number of WW2 vets. One had been a tail gunner in a B-17. Story goes he survived a belly landing. I heard a few other whispered stories of WW2 vets. And I learned rather quickly on the first Memorial Day I worked there that everybody bought a poppy.
With a name like Claire, I’ll bet that the General was as tough as he looks.
He had to be – he had to deal with “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell – a crusty guy if there ever was one according to what I’ve read. BTW, the man I referred to in my post above met Vinegar Joe and apparently all that was written about him was true!
Stilwell disliked most “limeys” but did admit that Lord Mountbatten & Gen. William Slim were “good eggs.“
He had an impossible task, trying to get Chiang Kai-Shek to fight the Japanese when a greater enemy, Mao, was at his back door.
Traditional staff car for a 2 star general. However, I much prefer 4 star Gen. George Patton’s 1938 Cadillac staff car below.
Poor Chenault – MacArthur got a Packard and he got a Plodge. But I guess that’s what happens when you take military issue instead of buying it yourself.
It is funny how relatively quickly alliances can shift. Who would have guessed in 1945 that today Japan and Germany would be some of our besties while Russia and China have become difficult relationships.
I thought MacArthur had a Cadillac Model 90 (V16). In the S. Pacific he had a B-17 (sitting in the spacious radio-operator’s compartment, I assume).
The US still has a good relationship with nationalist China, but itself continues as Taiwan.
Looks like painted over chrome peeking out on the headlight rim. Maybe an early one.
BTW, sure I’m not the first to say this, but WordPress is now forcing an ad on you when you enlarge a picture, eh?
The reason an ad came up is because the author of this post did not follow the proper procedure for inserting images. That’s why a small thumbnail came up, and the ad server saw that as a normal page, not an enlarged image.
When done properly, there will never be an ad when an image is clicked on and expanded.
I’ll fix it.
Fascinating — great piece of historical trivia here. I love historical footnotes, and this one is really captivating, particularly since the officer in the photo is Gen. Chennault, who was quite an interesting person. All of your explanations seem equally plausible. I’d love to know if there’s another image out there of a US military Plodge.
Nice ! .
I wonder if they had fold out map tables in the back seat , some WWII staff cars I’ve seen, did .
BARKO : Yesterday I added uBlock Origin for FireFox and my old LapTop *immediately* sped up page loading and the constant flash player crashing stopped , give it a try .
THANK YOU to whomever it was here who mentioned it ! .
-Nate
As I explained to Barko in a reply to his comment, the only reason he saw an ad when he clicked on that image was because the image was not inserted properly by the author.
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In the event that Plymouth needed repairing, I bet Chennault took it to Gerhard Neumann (AKA “Herman the German”), a brilliant mechanic from Frankfurt an der Oder who was in demand among American, British, Chinese, and German officials for his abilities at fixing things despite a lack of parts. Chennault “rescued” him from British internment in Hong Kong to work with the Flying Tigers. His autobiography is fascinating; he later become an exec at GE’s jet-engine division.
I listed Germans because surprisingly, Germany had good diplomatic relations with China up until Pearl Harbor, despite her alliance with China’s enemy Japan!
Neumann believed American cars were superior to any German cars he encountered in his master’s garage (he was an apprentice there in the ’30s).
I was not aware of Gerhard Neumann before, and I thank you for bringing him up. Chennault gathered some very unusual characters to work for the Flying Tigers, since he was operating on a shoestring and had to grab people with essential skills from wherever he could find them, and Neumann sounds like one of the most unusual ones.
Germany actually had a long history of being China’s most active ally between the two world wars. Germany had a great deal of military and economic influence in Nationalist China, at a time when the United States kept its distance to avoid tensions with Japan. The army of Nationalist China had German Army officers as advisors and trainers well into the 1930s, led by the general (Hans von Seeckt) who had been the commanding general of the German army during the 1920s. Chiang Kai-Shek’s elite troops wore German-style uniforms and helmets, which looked really odd, to put it lightly. The German military advisors did not leave until just before Japan’s 1937 invasion of China, under Japanese pressure. So Neumann’s presence in China makes sense, much like that of John Rabe, the German businessman who helped to save many Chinese civilians during the Rape of Nanking.
Neumann traveled to China in response to a recruiting ad at his school, expecting to work for a Nationalist firm which, however, vanished by the time he arrived there, & since the European war started shortly after, he got caught in the British dragnet of enemy aliens.
Neumann was from a non-practicing Jewish family, & to my amazement, he reported no harassment whatever in his hometown; even SS members were house guests! Evidently persecution was not the same everywhere in Germany, at least during the time he was there. After the War he was naturalized by a special act of Congress.
Really, you’re surprised by anything German? My MIL and boyfriend were German, he became a nazi ss, she got sent to a camp. They got together again after the war.
Really you understand these people?
So, if I’d been flush with cash in say…1944, I could have crossed the border and driven back in a new Plodge or Chev-Pontiac instead of waiting ’til the 1946 model year and using wooden bumpers and shoes for tire treads and praying that the clutch and transmission last just a little longer?
Who knew?
Statistically at least, a Plodge in China is not all that unexpected. Despite a small population (11 000 000 in 1939), Canadian contributions to WW2 production were surprisingly large. According to Wikipedia, Canadian motor vehicle production during the war was 20% of combined US, UK, and Canada totals, and its total truck production of 800 000 was more than Germany, Italy, and Japan put together.
I find that final statistic astonishing, but there it is in Wikipedia (‘Military History of Canada during WW2’). So a Plodge in China may not have been a rarity.
But no, you couldn’t have bought one domestically after 1942. Canada declared war one week after Britain in 1939, and its industry started to convert early on. Domestic car production continued for a while, but total suspension for general use occurred at the same time in both Canada and the US.
As usual, Canada doesn’t get or claim credit for such accomplishments. The CMP truck was built to British spec by Ford & Chevy’s Canadian operations, & were identical except for engines & grill badges.
The Ram was an attempt at a Canadian tank, based on the US M3. Australia also had an M3 derivative, the Sentinel. The Sherman made both redundant.