War Production?

[Don Coatney]

A few days ago I sent out an e-mail with a lot of old factory photos. One of the photos is seen below. A cousin sent me a question and I am unsure of the answer. Below is the question and picture.

 

Don,

You probably know all of this but it is new to me---
Note in the Life magazine photo with all the "Woodies" in the parking lot,
that all the men who appear to be picking them up are in military uniform. I

read that the 1942 "Woody" station wagon was used as a military staff car for

the entire duration of the war. Since these vehicles pictured are of different

makes and models, I am not certain whether these cars are being "requisitioned"
from dealers or picked up from a factory nearby.
Something that I did not know was that several car manufacturers continued
to make limited numbers of 1942 model cars (already in production by Pearl Harbor)

throughout the war as staff cars but also for "essential civilian personnel," such as

politicians and others. Military edict said that they could not use chrome on staff

cars and the chrome had to be "blacked out" on the civilian models.
Although the style did not change during the war, they changed the model registration
date so it is possible to find a '43, '44, or '45 Ford even though it would be

identical to a 1942.
Dave

 

[Old Ray]

By the looks of the building architecture and the Palm (?) trees this might be for California use only  ………….to be used for hauling surf boards on weekends.  

[greg g]

this picture was discussed a couple years back. It was a voluntary deal where folks with station wagons had been recruited to form and drill in case an evacuation order was issued in anticipation of a Japanese attack of the Los Angeles area.  There were a couple of other shots of the assemble group taking up all three lanes of one of the newly opened freeway extensions.  I believe the pictures came from a web site featuring the history of the LA area through an archive of photos.  I guess the deal was these folks would assemble, disperse to preassigned locations, and gather the high muckity mucks and powers that be and transport them to secure locations away from an expected sea borne invasion of the west coast.  I guess us normal folks would have been on our own if such an evacuation of civilians were to have been ordered.

[Plymouthy Adams]

guess us normal folks would have been on our own if such an evacuation of civilians were to have been ordered.

 

same holds true for today Greg...only thing you have been promised is that your tax dollars will continue to pay for the privileged..in war and also in peace....

[RobertKB]

guess us normal folks would have been on our own if such an evacuation of civilians were to have been ordered.

 

same holds true for today Greg...only thing you have been promised is that your tax dollars will continue to pay for the privileged..in war and also in peace....

 

Ain't that the truth! No different in Canada.