Funny how the world works: even back in the ‘40s, the Brits trusted American machines more than their home-grown designs when it came to serious work in tough conditions. To wit: the British Army used Chevrolet trucks – not Austin, Dennis, Daimler or whatever – in Burma. And somehow, these old beasts just won’t die, so they’re still in use.
It’s been very quiet in this part of the world for the past couple of weeks, as this is the Buddhist New Year (Thingyan, in the local vernacular). The whole country more or less shuts down for a good ten days while most folks throw water at each other, spend time with their families and/or get blind drunk. Shops, offices and public transport are non-existent. Plus, it’s the height of the hot season right now: temperatures hover around 35-40°C (95-105°F) under a blistering sun, accompanied by frequent power and water outages. So foreign folks such as yours truly usually get the hell out of the city, if not the country, for the sake of health and sanity.
This year, we elected to spend a few days within Myanmar, but at a resort on the coast in Rakhine State called Ngapali. The Bay of Bengal is as hot as Yangon, but more breezy and pretty. We had to endure the water throwing when getting out of the resort, but things like that don’t matter as much when you’re on holiday. I did keep my eyes to the ground and my nose peeled for interesting automotive encounters. And lo and behold, the above picture was snapped. I had seen the likes of this bus before. They are still around in touristic places, of which Ngapali certainly was one.
These Chevrolet buses used to be the standard Burmese city bus back in the day. And those days are not too far away. The above photo (found on the interwebs) was taken in 2007, when one of these venerable vehicles was still doing its daily chores as a city bus. Sometime between 2007 and 2012, all these pre-war Chevrolet buses were retired as public buses, replaced by 20-or-30-something-year-old Mitsubishi, Hino or Hyundai vehicles generously donated by Japan and Korea, which are self-destructing on Burmese city roads as we speak. Oh, and there are a few new buses too – all Chinese-made and usually running on CNG.
There isn’t a whole lot to elaborate on about these Chevy buses. The bodywork seems to largely consist of wood, which is abundant here. The underpinnings are allegedly Canadian-built Chevrolet C-15 trucks that the British Army used extensively from about 1939 to the independence of Burma in 1948. There were a lot of these trucks left over from the Brits, so the Burmese converted many to become “Big Belly” buses, which is how this vehicle was affectionately known here for decades.
Most of these buses lost their original Perkins engines long ago, usually replaced with Nissan units. And since even the best teak in the world can become dry and warped after years of tough use, many were rebodied at least once, and repainted as often as possible.
The ones I saw in Ngapali had been freshly re-done, no doubt about it. The interior and especially the driver’s cabin are clearly 21st Century.
But this does not detract from the vehicle’s overall charm. The blunt, squarish face doesn’t really meld with the streamlined body, complete with fender skirts and comically-shaped last-row windows. These buses have character. Good job I found one sitting at the airport, just as I was about to fly back home: I had only managed to capture one of the three buses I kept seeing in that area (the 3rd photo of this piece, the blue bus) on the go. Now, at least, I could get a few nice shots…
I would have had some CC material in any case, as I had encountered another Chevrolet “blast from the past” a couple days prior – this one must have been imported after the Second World War though, and perhaps was always a civilian.
This is (probably, I’m no expert!) a 1945-46 truck chassis with a locally-built rear body – pretty recently refurbished it was, too, with rattan and a strange stain-glass window effect to cap it all off.
I say I’m no expert because 1. That’s the truth and 2. Chevy made so many variations of these trucks that it’s impossible for me to tell which one this was originally. But if I’m not mistaken, this is a 1941-1947 civilian Chevrolet truck — doubtful any would have made it to Burma before 1945.
This is one of two identical buses used by one of the resorts in Ngapali. If you ever get there by plane, after a bumpy ride in an ageing ATR, you could get a bumpy ride in this ancient Chevy to your hotel. (No such luck with the resort we booked at, unfortunately – just a boring Toyota Grande HiAce).
At least this Chevy kept its original dash. I particularly like the placement of the fuel filler cap, at the driver’s feet. Ford Pinto, eat your heart out.
It is unlikely that this truck still has its original engine, as Chevrolet parts must’ve dried up in Burma about 40-odd years ago when the country went into semi-autarky for a few decades. But even if it’s got a Hino or FAW heart, this old thing is still on the road, and that’s got to count for something.
Wow, never seen that done before, but you may have to edit your first sentence, that the British trusted Canadian designs more than their own. Actually I’m not sure that’s even true, because if we check the history books we can see that the British were busy at the time. Busy in ways that neither Canada or the US got to fully appreciate, so they may have been spread a bit too thin to supply all their own trucks.
At any rate, YES! the first truck featured is based on the legendary CMP (Canadian Military Pattern) truck. Variations were built by both Ford and Chevrolet, and they were quite possibly the vehicle coming closest to matching the description “pug-ugly”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Military_Pattern_truck
As a kid, I remember seeing CMPs being driven around Ottawa in the 70s. I’m not sure if they were civilian, or still being used by the military.
There are many of these in Australia as well. They are ugly, but I would love to have one.
Here’s an example made by Ford with a flathead:
I think they’re ruggedly handsome. Remember, these are battle trucks designed for real work, hence the cab over.
The British built thousands of military trucks but could not keep pace with demand so these American lend lease trucks filled in the gaps, they were cheap and theoretically disposable, however local assembly facilities in recieving countries rebuilt damaged trucks by the hundreds during WW2 and shipped them back to the war theaters, the American forces dumped their vehicles inline with clauses in the supply contracts other countries continued to use those trucks for decades especially places like Burma.
WOW, perhaps one of the few times in post war history where a “lowly” Chevrolet had a wood-lined interior….and they used real wood.
Noticed that Burma or Myanmar has a lot of RHD cars, but traffic keeps to the right a la North America. Is this because of older JDM imports and the legacy of the British?
“because of older JDM imports”
100% this, and the same applies all over the globe that is a dumping ground for used JDM cars. The Far East of Siberia is virtually 90%+ RHD JDM cars. In the early 2000s there was a very serious movement to change traffic laws to start driving on the left side of the road.
“the legacy of the British”
According to Wikipedia, Burma used to drive on the left at one time, but they switched to the right in 1970.
And, according to local legend, this 1970 decision was done on a whim by then-dictator Ne Win, who thought the country was moving too far to the left (politically), so he moved traffic to the right. Sounds crazy, but then if you look at some of what that guy did, he was plenty crazy.
It’s true that nearly all the cars in Myanmar are JDM imports and RHD. The few that are LHD are Chinese cars and the few models that were assembled in Myanmar (mostly Suzukis).
That nutjob’s delusion was confirmed by Jeremy Clarkson in ‘Top Gear’ Series 21, Episodes 6 and 7 (Burma Special). He commented befuddledly on seeing so many right-hooker vehicles, driving on the right side of road.
Now, it’s 2017. So will they revert to left-hand rule of road again?
Thank you for the historical background.
Another example of how vehicle drives vs. traffic pattern mismatch is the Bahamas. As a former British colonial territory, they keep to the left when driving, but the vast majority of the vehicles are LHD (probably due to the proximity of the USA and vast majority of other Caribbean countries which are LHD). They probably get a lot of older USDM imports – I’m guessing.
My favorite story like this is how Sweden switch from driving on the left to driving on the right over a weekend in the mid 60’s. According to my old Swedish boss, who was a teenager in Stockholm at the time, apparently without major incident.
An oddity with Sweden is that even though they used to drive on the left, it’s my understanding that cars there have always been mostly LHD, even back when they drove on the left.
I think you mean the cars were always LHD? How odd. But I was thinking just yesterday that I’ve never seen an old Volvo or Saab w/RHD in Sweden, and I spent a fair bit of time there in the mid 90’s.
Having driven my LHD ’68 300SEL in England, I know what a weird experience that must have been. Leave it to the Swedes. Curiously enough, we’ve always driven on the left, but a number of early American cars had their steering wheels on the right.
The wood body has a nice line to it in the pre- and immediate post-war style with the window line following a gentle arc and the sides bulging towards the middle in the same way, all meeting with generous curves to the front and rear, even if the CMP front doesn’t quite match it in grace it still, as you say, has character and charm.
The elephant trunk door handles are brilliant!
I think that is actually a brake fluid reservoir in front of the seat in the cab of the truck. The small diameter hose under it is the tip off.
If it really is the fuel filler, it’s going to take a long time to dribble fuel in through this setup.
I only see two pedals, the floor lever must be hooked up to an automatic transmission.
https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/docs/gm-heritage-archive/vehicle-information-kits/Chevrolet-Trucks/1942-Chevrolet-Truck.pdf
Pg 24 and pg 116 states double duty cab and chassis and school bus chassis had had fuel tank “clamped outside right side rail”. Looks like only the pickup truck versions had fuel tank under seat, you had to lift cushion to fill.
Those CMP trucks have yet to become rare here, the bonneted Chev built as a bus was quite likely a wartime lendlease truck thousands of them were exported under that arrangement it wasnt all military style vehicles and regular Chev lendlease trucks were used by the NZ long range desert group for raiding the German army in north Africa, they found Jeeps too small and impractical.
Could be a lend-lease truck. NZ and Australia (as well as India, possibly?) received lend-lease trucks during 1940-45 from the US, but Burma was kind of cut off from that supply line from 1942 to 1945… So it could be an early one (1941), but it’s perhaps more likely to be a post-war truck.
Great article – never knew these buses existed. As I’m sure you know, be a little careful up in the Rakhine area. Jim.
The modern steering wheel looks every bit as “GM” as any part of that truck, like it came out of a ’90s TopKick or (more likely) Isuzu tilt cab.
Lovely craftsman ship of the bodies, I too love the elephant handles .
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-Nate
Cool. I love the elephant grab bars at the doors.
When I visited Da Nang, Vietnam in 2002, there were a bunch of old Renault passenger vans still in use. Not sure if that’s still the case. One thing I looked forward to seeing were all the old US cars left over from the war, but alas, the government had recently collected them all as gas-guzzlers. There were a few conventional cab medium duty Dodges and International Loadstars around Da Nang, but that was it.
Known as Chev “Blitzes” here in Australia. There were still plenty of them, as well as Studebakers and GMCs still hard at work in 1960-70s New Guinea.
I have a mate who used to own the SWB gun tractor version of the Blitz
There seems to be a lot of confusion about American being the only country in North America. The trucks were built by Ford Canada in Oakville Ontario (30 km west of me as I write this, and GM Canada in Oshawa (30 east and right next to Camp X in that means anything to readers)
GM Oshawa stopped manufacturing is this year Aussies may be familiar with the syndrome.