With so many CCKW 353s in circulation by the end of the war, the truck remained in service in the US Army and its European allies for decades after its peak use had passed. The vehicle remained a stellar performer throughout the Cold War, even into the Korean Conflict, with some armies still using the type well into the 1990s. The GMC CCKW 353 was withdrawn from US Army service in 1956.
The CCKW 353 proved vital in its participation of the US Army's "Red Ball Express", the convoy charged with flooding the French countryside with parts, fuel, supplies, troops and ammunition in support of ongoing military actions - in particular - keeping up with General George S. Patton's fast-moving Third Army. After the beachhead at Normandy had been established, nearly 6,000 vehicles delivered 12,442 tons of supplies to locations within France from August to November of 1944 - a majority of these drivers being young African-Americans whose initial roles were deemed as "non-critical" to the overall war effort - as such they could be recruited for the mundane job. The rest were "cast-off" soldiers, those perhaps in some kind of trouble with their commanding officers and faced with this sort of "punishment".
Red Ball Express drivers had explicit orders to follow: maintain a speed of 35 miles per hour, separate each truck in the convoy by 60 feet when traveling and travel only in convoys of no fewer than five trucks. Each truck would be marked in sequential numerical order - this number appearing visible along the truck sides - and would have to maintain their unique position in the convoy line.
The logistics route began at the Normandy beachhead and technically ended at the French city of Chartres. The "Red Ball Express" proved ever-so critical to ensuring a swift offensive against German-held territories. Drivers wore out some 50,000 tires in the operation.
The CCKW designation dictated the following: "C" designated the production year of 1941 while the second "C" designated a "standard cab". The "K" designated front-wheel drive whilst the "W" designated rear-wheel drive. The CCKW 353 would also come to be known as the "Jimmy" or the "Deuce and a Half". The "Deuce-and-a-half" reference is in how much the vehicle can carry (2.5 tons) and not representative of the vehicle's own weight. The name was coined by US infantrymen to mean simply "2.5".
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