Introduction
The Dodge brothers first started producing gasoline-powered vehicles in 1914, and were among the first companies to recognize the value of a motorized army-- one that would need trucks, as well as someone to make them. Their first big success came in 1916 when "Blackjack" Pershing purchased a fleet of 150-250 touring cars to carry troops and supplies on his cross-border expedition chasing the wily Pancho Villa.
Unfortunately, both brothers died in 1920 (one from cirrhosis of the liver; the other from the effects of the Spanish Flu), so their widows sold the company to Walter Chrysler. Dodge became a division of Chrysler and over time was synonymous with sturdy trucks. By the the outbreak of WW2, the company had developed and was producing the VC and WC series of ½, ¾-ton and 1½-ton trucks. These vehicles took a wide variety of forms, and served in all major theaters and with all the Allied armies via Lend Lease. By 1945, Dodge had build over 400,000 trucks for military usage.
After the war, Dodge continued developing and making military trucks, especially the M37 and the M601 Power Wagon. While Dodge trucks continued to serve into the 1990s, it was in Korea and especially in Vietnam where the vehicles saw their most-extensive usage outside of WW2.
In 2015, military historian David Doyle published a massive two-volume history of Dodge martial vehicles that has been long out-of-print. Now he has released the huge, two-volume study in a gorgeous limited edition that will be popular both with modelers and owners of the 1:1 trucks.
Contents
While this two-volume, 1,018 page limited edition is a reprint of Doyle's 2015 edition, it has been updated and corrected with new material uncovered in the near-decade in between. The two books contain over 1,750 images, many of them unique and never before seen outside of these books. Ten chapters in Volume One detail the WW2 years; five chapters in Volume Two are devoted to the postwar years and cover the M37 and M601 stories. Rounding out the second volume are nine chapters showing the Dodge trucks in use all over the globe with the U.S. Military and other users. All major WWII theaters are covered, as well as Korea, Asia, Europe and Vietnam.
Finally there are seven appendices with data on production, registration numbers and allocation for the über nerd who wants to know all the facts about these amazingly-useful vehicles.
The Review
Many research books about military vehicles are useful for modelers, but are also often written by well-meaning amateurs who, while they love their topic, struggle to write in a way that draws the reader into the materiel. They're great for placing tools in the right spot on your build, but the book is hardly something you'd snuggle up with on a cold Winter's night.
Nothing could be further from the truth David Doyle books, and especially with U.S. Dodge.
David Doyle has all the chops of a meticulous historian, as well as an eye for details that matter to modelers. He has devoted years to seeking out the documentation needed to write this book in its original release, so it's hard to imagine finding any missing pieces. Nevertheless, Doyle has done just that: fill in missing details that have come to light, while still refusing to speculate on matters where he doesn't yet know the answer, preferring to say "that information has been lost." Rather than introduce possibly errant material, he keeps things as close to the facts as possible.
It's simply amazing, too, how much he has dug up on these vehicles.
The amazing part is both its sheer abundance and because so much of the material around design, production and deployment was never intended to be archived. Indeed, according to Doyle, these files were often stamped "not for retention." After all, the United States was fighting a hot war from 1941-1945, and then a raging Cold War up through Vietnam. The military needed huge numbers of vehicles across a wide variety of purposes (haulage, ambulances, recon, staff cars, etc.), and the goal was getting them into the field quickly where they had to perform reliably. The process generated tons of paper, too, and storing that archive material proved both too expensive and cumbersome for the private sector and defense department stakeholders who created the vehicles.
The good news is Doyle crisis-crossed the country seeking out the private collections where the photos, drawings and records have been saved by dedicated individuals and collectors. From this trove of data and images, he has assembled a complete and thoroughly-exhaustive account of the Dodge truck from the brink of WW2 right up through Vietnam.
It's a story worthy of the telling, too.
Unlike it's more-famous General Motors and Studebaker "deuce and a half" brothers in arms, the Dodge vehicles have received much less attention and love from modeling companies. In 1/35th scale, for example, only some older, rather awful Roden kits of the M37 and M43 ambulance are available in styrene. In 3D printed resin, Hobby Link has a M37 plain, an M43 ambulance, and a gun truck version. AFV Club has a WC51 weapons carrier version of the WC (known affectionately as a "big jeep" or"Beep"). I can only hope that a MiniArt or ICM will read the book and bring forth some fully-modern Dodge vehicles for modelers in styrene, including the larger 1½-ton versions.
As stated above, the book is chronological, and so starts off with the development of the VC combat car. Intended to fill the need for a reliable light truck, the VC was also modified to carry radios and even a motorized twin .50 cal. turret. It then moves on as Dodge designs are taken from prototype to production, all the way through WW2 and into the Cold War. The second volume looks at development in the Cold War era, especially the M37, a ubiquitous vehicle during the Vietnam War. In the case of Vietnam, for example, Doyle sets out how the rapid upswing in the number of US combat forces there meant that Dodge trucks had to be procured from reserve units, then often extensively-repaired in-country or on Okinawa, Taiwan and Japan as the harsh environment and overuse of these vehicles in the Vietnam countryside wore them out. The photos show all manner of usages of the M37, and several wrecked examples that would make excellent dioramas.
Conclusion
Simply stated, I cannot imagine building a Dodge vehicle in any scale without referencing this resource. Conversely, this volume could conceivably be the source of inspiration for a modeler to spend a very long time exploring all its permutations. In my own case, reading the two books prompted me to order a Hobby Link M37 and put the old Roden kit up for sale. It should also be pointed out that, in an age when books are often poorly-made and horridly-illustrated, U.S. Dodge is a delight to read, consult and own, beautifully-printed and a handsome addition to any library. There simply aren't words sufficient to say what a superb resource this is, both for modelers and military historians. From 1940 through Vietnam, if it could fit into a truck, it almost certainly was carried in a Dodge truck.
Be aware the two-volume set isn't cheap, retailing directly from David Doyle Books for $225. That might sound like a lot until you have one in your possession.
Thanks to author David Doyle and David Doyle Books for this review sample. Be sure to mention you saw it reviewed on Armorama when ordering your own copy.
M37 suffers VC mine damage in Vietnam.
Protype M37