Oil Service Truck Played Key Role In World War II

Any service truck operator knows the crucial role of service trucks in keeping essential equipment up and running at peak efficiency.

That support role was never more important than during the Second World War, when specialized vehicles were introduced to service the aircraft of the U.S. Army Air Corps. One such vehicle, a 1941 oil service truck, is on permanent display at the Military Veterans Museum and Education Center in Oshkosh, Wisc.

“The fuel and oil servicing trucks were designed to bring fuel from the depots on the airfield to the aircraft that were waiting to fly a mission,” says Rob Buettner, former president of the museum who acquired the truck for the museum’s collection. “Before these vehicles — and actually sometimes during the war if they didn’t have them — fuel had to be transferred in five gallon cans with hand pumps — very primitive means. The GIs loved having these types of vehicles to deliver fuel to the aircraft quickly and efficiently instead of having to use drums and cans and kegs.”

The specific service record of this vehicle has, unfortunately, been lost to time. When a military vehicle from the army is declared surplus, the records are destroyed. That means the only accurate way to determine locations where a vehicle served is to match up the hood numbers with historic photographs. That’s a long shot at the best of times, but impossible in this case since the hood was repainted long before the truck came into the museum’s possession.

Norwegian connection suspected

“What we know is that it was obviously in use by the U.S. military and somehow it got over to Europe,” Buettner says. “It was more than likely used there. It was sold surplus to, we believe, Norway. The pump on the truck is original. But the piping out of the pump to the distribution nozzle has been replaced. We know that it was not original. I’m 99 percent sure it was done by a Norwegian company; the pipe was supplied by them.”

Buettner is unable to say for sure if the Norwegians used the truck actively, or if it was held in reserve as a back-up. In any event, at some point they declared the vehicle surplus and it entered the collector’s market, passing through several private collections before being obtained for the museum.

The tanker truck itself is built on a GMC CC TW model 353 chassis. The chassis was supplied by the Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of General Motors. The original delivery data plate (showing a delivery date of Oct. 21, 1941) is still intact on the truck, says the museum’s current president, Dave Kersztyn.

“The gross weight of our vehicle is stamped as 15,100 pounds. Max payload was 5,000 pounds and max trailer load was 4,500 pounds,” Kersztyn says. “One thing that always blows my mind: It specifically mentions the gasoline/octane rating for this vehicle must be 68 octane or better, which is kind of a joke these days because the minimum octane rating in the United States is 87 octane.”

He adds with a laugh, “These things are designed to run on, like, paint thinner. Pretty poor grade of gas back in the forties.”

In spite of the drastic difference in fuel quality, this somewhat primitive airfield refueler set the stage for today’s refuelers and other service trucks.

“Side by side, there’s really not much difference,” Buettner says. “It’s a PTO-driven pump that goes to flexible hoses that are dragged out to the aircraft. There’s all the bonding and grounding that is still used today to eliminate static electricity.”

Staggering numbers

The important role that such service trucks played in the war effort cannot be understated. These vehicles made the U.S. Army Air Corps’ operations exponentially more efficient at a time when that was desperately needed. A B17 plane, for example, took 40 gallons of engine oil in each of its four engines. And the technicians on hand would have been responsible for servicing 40 to 50 planes for their next mission. The numbers were staggering, Buettner says.

“You can imagine having to fill all those aircraft with fuels and lubricants by hand, from 55 gallon drums. The manpower would have been enormous,” Buettner says. “Here, as soon as the plane landed, two guys went out with the truck and started fueling the aircraft to get it ready for the next mission instead of loading up a cargo truck full of five-gallon cans and driving it out there and forming a bucket brigade and handing those cans up to the people on the wings to fill up the fuel tanks and everything else. Two guys could do the job of 20.”

The historic service truck can be seen in Oshkosh on permanent display at the Military Veterans Museum and Education Center and from June 24 to 30, 2017 at the annual Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture Convention in Oshkosh.

Matt Jones is a writer based in Fredericton, N.B.