The second war: trucks, engines, and the Weasel

1941 – 1945

The truck: Studebaker's largest wartime product was a truck it built by the hundreds of thousands: the US6, a 2½-ton 6×6 cargo truck developed from its civilian M-series, powered by a Hercules JXD six. Production at South Bend totaled 197,678 trucks by the count the company's war record supports (the Texas State University history of Studebaker's war work and the trade press agree on the figure); Reo built a further 22,204 identical trucks at Lansing as subcontractor. More than half went to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease — the truck became so familiar there that its design seeded postwar Soviet trucks — and others worked the Alaska Highway and the Burma Road.

The engines: Under contracts signed in January 1941, the government financed the building of engine plants which Studebaker then operated — at South Bend (the Chippewa Avenue plant), Chicago, and Fort Wayne — to build the Wright Cyclone R-1820 radial engine under license for the B-17 Flying Fortress. The program employed about 9,400 workers across the three cities and delivered 63,789 engines. A Pacific subsidiary in California also built engine assemblies and nacelles for B-17s and PV-2 Harpoons. The Tribune's retrospective total for the company's military sales in the war is $1.2 billion; Studebaker ranked 28th among American corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.

The Weasel: The third product was the company's own invention: the Weasel, a light tracked cargo and personnel carrier conceived from Geoffrey Pyke's proposal for operations in snow, developed under chief engineer Roy E. Cole on the Champion's small six, tested in secrecy on a glacier in British Columbia, and built as the M28, the redesigned M29, and the amphibious M29C "Water Weasel" — 15,124 in all. The Army Ordnance Department also took over the company's proving ground from March 1943 to June 1945 for testing trucks, half-tracks, and armored vehicles. Civilian car production had stopped in February 1942 after only 9,285 cars of the 1942 run; the works that came out of the war in 1945 were, for a second time in thirty years, a great arsenal that had to become a car factory again.

Sources:

1. John Bodnar's history, "The Studebaker Corporation During World War II" (Texas State University digital library) — the final production totals: 197,678 US6 trucks, 63,789 R-1820 Cyclone engines, 15,124 Weasels.
2. Hemmings, "South Bend Stalwarts" and the Studebaker Drivers Club military-vehicle account — the US6's South Bend production of more than 197,500 with Reo's 22,000-plus at Lansing, the Lend-Lease share to Russia, the Weasel's development path (M28 to M29 to the amphibious M29C, more than 4,400 and more than 10,500 respectively), the glacier testing, and the 9,285 cars of the halted 1942 run.
3. Military Trader, "Studebaker and the Rest of the WWII Story" — the engine contracts of January 1941, the government-financed plants at South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Chicago and their 9,400 workers, and the Army's use of the proving ground 1943–45.
4. South Bend Tribune (2026) — military sales of $1.2 billion by the war's end; standard encyclopedia history — the 28th-place ranking in wartime contract value and the Studebaker Pacific Corporation's engine and nacelle work.