CMP - Canadian Military Pattern 

My name is Eric Delcommenne, I am  37 years old. I am journalist and work for the Belgian post (you know, the "snail" mail) in Brussels.
Military vehicles have always been my great passion.

I am the proud owner of  a  world war II Ford jeep and several  canadian military trucksof the same erea.
This site is dedicated to those canadian trucks called CMP (canadian military pattern) , produced by Ford and Chevrolet (General Motors)
 
 

When I was a child, I remember to have seen GMC's trucks used by a circus, jeeps on roads or Canadian trucks (Chevrolet, Ford) driven by foresters.
Through my young eyes, all of these vehicles were so impressive, much more than current trucks. I have in mind all the stories about the liberation of Belgium in 1944-45 by the allied armies, told to me by my parents and grandparents.
These yankees fighting with floods of any kind of vehicles, giving chocolate, cigarettes and chewing gum to a population who had lived on restrictions and terror during 4 years.
 

When I was 20 years old, I acquired my first vehicle : a 1944 Ford jeep. After the war, this vehicle has been used by civilians to feed deer in the Arden woods. The jeep was in such awful state, that it took me 4 years before I could drive it in its original military 'uniform '.
In 1994, I drove it to the landing beaches of Normandy for the 50th anniversary celebrations, realizing thereby a wish made 10 years before.
Since then, I have been several times with it to England, at Beltring (Paddock Wood, Kent), That's the world's biggest military vehicles owned by collectors meeting. More than 3000 vehicles (wheeled and tracked) of any period and any countries are gathered there.
 

In the early 90's, after many years of hesitation, I finally bought a 1944 canadian Chevrolet.
I didn't know much about this kind of truck. In the area where I live, all the military trucks owned by collectors were made in the USA, mostly jeeps, Dodge, GMC or Chevrolet. These vehicles have been mostly used and preserved by the European armies and some of them haven't been released until today by some of these armies. Therefore, many collectors have bought them in running condition.

This Canadian truck, I bought, has been modified by the danish army  and had suffered a lot. The mechanical parts seemed to be ok,  the body had to be repaired. After doing researches, it appeared that this truck was originaly an artillery tractor (CGT).
Instead of having a commun truck tip I found out a relatively scarce trucks, so i decided to restore it as its original form. Unfortunately all its steel body shelter with 4 seats, have been removed and replaced by a common tip.
Lot of original parts were missing. It took me several years to restore it as near as the original one, rear not included yet. Three wrecks, fortunately took just in time out the cutter torch, have been completely dismantled, and their parts help me to complete mine. The biggest problem was the rear body. Nobody could solve it.

In 1994, a trucker told me he has seen several artillery tractors in Portugal. He gave me the name of the place where they were. I flew there and finally found ten Ford artillery tractors and dozens of current Ford trucks F60L, waiting to be rescued. I tried to make a deal with the scrap yard owner, but without any success. The price asked was so expensive that  I sadly came back home to Belgium without any rear body.

One day when a kind friend gave me the remain of a rear body . This friend bought a Chevy used as a breakdown truck. This body had been cut by torch and only the floor was remaining. This story is temporarily ending at this point, but I never lost the hope to find someday a complete one.

In 1996, I discover in a wreckyard a Chevrolet 1940's cab 11!!

I never imagined that I could find one more than  50 years after it came to Europe. I immediately bought it and now,  I am busy to restore i

The willing of this site is not to do a remake of some excellent CMP sites, but rather showing pictures coming from technical manuals, original war time and after war captations and restoration's job).

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