The Liberty truck was a United States Army vehicle used in World War I.
Production of the 3–5 ton truck began in 1917, and the first models appeared ten weeks after the design was standardized.
The first Class B heavy trucks were manufactured in 1917. Built to U.S. Army specifications, the Liberty truck became the standard truck for all American military forces during World War I. All the trucks had USA on the radiator tank. The first Liberty trucks arrived in France in October 1918 and were used by the Army Quartermaster and Motor Transport Corps to supply the units. Eventually, 8000 trucks were sent. The Liberty truck became one of the most recognizable military vehicles of the war. Despite these issues, all parties concerned recognized the versatility and adaptability of motor trucks under actual conditions of warfare. The lessons of the Punitive Expedition had an immediate and lasting effect on the Army’s motorization program, in particular in procurement and maintenance. Operations in the desert pointed toward standardization as an antidote to the problem at hand – contending with a variety of different vehicles from many manufacturers. The Quartermaster General was convinced that assembling vehicles from a pool of standardized parts would alleviate the difficulties of maintaining a fleet of different makes and models in the field
In July of 1917 the Society of Automotive Engineers embraced the idea and by October, two prototypes of trucks for army service were ready for testing. Once they were approved, the army began full production, which would not stop until the end of the First World War in November 1918. While standardization would fall by the wayside as the United States entered World War One, the Quartermaster Corps (QMC) never lost sight of the value of a fleet of standardized vehicles. Until the beginning of the Second World War, the QMC vigorously pursued both standardization and the complete motorization of the army.
