In 1942 at the height of the US Military Production the standard US military 2.5 ton truck was the GMC CCKW. Production for the CCKW was offset by two other 6 wheel truck manufacturers.
International produced the M5 family which was used primarily by the US Navy and US Marine Corps.
Studebaker provided a number of vehicles in long and short wheelbase form with both 6x4 and 6x6 wheel configurations. These Studebaker US6 trucks used many of the same parts as GMC, including the rear cargo decks and the Timken drive-train which was also being used in one of the GMC configurations.
The Studebaker trucks are quite rare in the USA as most were sent to Russia as part of Lend-Lease. Many that stayed in the USA were primarily allocated to building the Canadian / Alaskan Highway and there remains can still be found littered along the side of the road that was built. Also as part of Lend-Lease the US government sent container loads of CKD (Complete Knock Down) Kits to Australia.
However buy the time they arrived the Australian Army had standardised on the Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) Vehicles. Thus the government kept the vehicles in their CKD form for some years after the end of WWII. The trucks were only assembled to replace the CMP in Australian Service, until the Australian designed and manufactured International ACCO was available. This meant that the US served well into the 1970 in Australian Military service; many then went onto serve local businesses as well as the Bush Fire Service.
Nick imported this truck into New Zealand 1996 and perform a totally rebuild into the vehicle seen here.