US Army 1943 Federal 604 truck, Narromine NSW. Sat 02nd Sep 2023

A veteran of WW-II is the Federal Model 604 truck, built by Federal Motor Company, of Detroit, Michigan USA, it was imported to Australia during the war in 1943 for the Australian Military Forces (AMF) as a 20 ton "transporter". Seen here at the annual "2023 Narromine Show" in western NSW, Australia. It was said they hauled low loaders with military tanks through the Northern Territory, although not confirmed, during the Japanese air assault on Western Australia and the Northern Territory. America, in partnership with Australia had many bases scattered through northern Australia at the time. Federal built thousands of trucks for a variety of applications during the war, sister models to the 604 was the Federal-605 Fuel Truck and the Federal-606 Wrecker (Recovery vehicle) which were built for the USAAF. Federal's slogan at the time was..."Building war trucks for victory." The truck is powered by a Cummins HB-600 rated at 150hp, transmission is a Spicer-881 with eight forward and two reverse selection. The bogie rear axle is a Timken Detroit Axle Company Ratio 10.27:1, maximum speed being 40KMh. It appears today in a "non restored" condition and still runs. During the war a lot of American equipment was sent overseas to Europe and Asia under the "Lend Lease" agreement to assist the war effort, as in Australia's case. At the end of the war what wasn't sold off, was scrapped or dumped with many Australian farmers procuring ex military equipment for farm use. Some of those era trucks even saw service in the Korean war in the 1950's, as seen on the TV show MASH. 1000hrs on Saturday 02nd September 2023.