Dad's truck

June 5, 2014

My Dad was in Europe during the Second World War. He went over on a troop ship, arrived in Scotland and went to southern England in preparation for the invasion. He was assigned to the Ninth Air Force and drove a fuel truck, re-fueling C-47s, B-17s and B-24s. He was in France, Italy, Belgium and northern Africa. He was a sergeant, a good-looking young guy from rural Pennsylvania.

In my imaginings, I envisioned his truck looked something like the first picture, although he did say it was a tractor trailer with a second tag trailer, both tanks being 2000 gallons.

Some years ago, we were looking through a book on WWII military vehicles and he pointed out that the truck he drove was identical to the one in the second picture. Recalling the stories of the harshness of the winter of 1944, I note that there would have been a canvas cover over the driver. The truck is an Autocar 4-5 ton 4 x 4, powered by a 112 HP Hercules gasoline engine. I suppose at times he may have felt like there was a red bulls-eye painted on the top of the tanks. Thanks Dad.

BearsFan315 · June 5, 2014

That's a great story, and we thank them all for their duty and service !!

My grandfather drove supply trucks during WWII himself, spent a lot of time over in Guam

Found these War Department Technical Manuals per the info you are talking about:

Autocar Model U-7114T 4-5 Ton 4x4 dated 21 March 1944 337pgs

Semitrailer 6-Ton Payload, Fuel Tank 2,000 gallon dated 25 August 1944

Tells you basically everything you never wanted to know about the vehicle, maintenance, service, etc... Including Specs !!

has some pictures of it with the top on it, sure it was still COLD in the winter, and like you said I am sure they felt like they were driving around like a moving target !! 4,000 gallons of fuel... CRAZY !! Also looks like somewhere they did make a CLOSED cab model.

For TONS of pictures go to GOOGLE, click on IMAGES and then in the search just type "Autocar Model U-7144T" to narrow it down put in "Autocar Model U-7144T Fuel Tanker"

Hope this helps out some . . .

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