Truck, GMC CCKW

History: The GMC CCKW also known as "Jimmy" was a 2½-ton 6x6 U.S. Army cargo truck that saw heavy service in both World War II and the Korean War. The original "Deuce and a Half", it formed the backbone of the famed Red Ball Express that kept Allied armies supplied as they pushed eastward after the Normandy invasion.

The CCKW came in many variants, including open or closed cab, long wheel base (LWB 353) and short (SWB 352), and over a score of specialized models. It began to be phased out with the deployment of the 6×6 M35 in 1950, but remained in active U.S. service until the mid-1960s. It is related to the Chevrolet G506, built at the same factory.

Railroad/Company: General Motors Company was formed on September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company controlled by William C. Durant, owner of Buick. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were fewer than 8,000 automobiles in America, and Durant had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in Flint, in the 1880s and 1890s, before making his foray into the automotive industry in 1904 by purchasing the fledgling Buick Motor Company.[ GM's co-founder was Charles Stewart Mott, whose carriage company was merged into Buick prior to GM's creation. Over the years, Mott became the largest single stockholder in GM, and spent his life with his Mott Foundation, which has benefited the city of Flint, his adopted home. GM acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland, and several others. Also in 1909, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant, along with R. S. McLaughlin, lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers' trust, because of the large amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions, coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales.

The next year, Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in the U.S., and in Canada in 1915, and through this, he secretly purchased a controlling interest in GM. Durant regained control of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Durant then reorganized General Motors Company into General Motors Corporation in 1916, merging Chevrolet with GM and merging General Motors of Canada Limited as an ally in 1918. Shortly thereafter, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed. Alfred P. Sloan was picked to take charge of the corporation, and led it to its post-war global dominance when the seven manufacturing facilities operated by Chevrolet before GM acquired the company began to contribute to GM operations. These facilities were added to the individual factories that were exclusive to Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland, and other companies acquired by GM. This unprecedented growth of GM would last into the early 1980s, when it employed 349,000 workers and operated 150 assembly plants.

From Wikipedia