#1 Discovering "Monsieur" | The restoration of Miss Drop 44's GMC CCKW

Monsieur was brought to the attention of a gentleman called Reuben. Located in a "basement" on a French farm near the Italian border; the Farmer had used the Jimmy for his logging business after it's conversion to a Perkins diesel (P6) in the 50's. Reuben had always loved the idea of recovering a vehicle from a barn, and with his interest in WW2, this was too good an opportunity to pass on.

Reuben began discussions with the farmers family in 2019. After some back and forth, the family reluctantly agreed to let the GMC go, much to Reuben's delight. After the much drawn out (and seemingly never ending) process of importing and registering a vehicle in the UK, "Monsieur" was registered for UK roads in November 2020. Since then "Monsieur" has seen some mechanical love, with Reuben overhauling the entire braking system (incl. Hydrovac [Rex Ward], master cylinder, brake hoses and various other cylinders where required). Also completed was a steering box adjustment and replacement of track rod bushes alongside a complete refresh of all fluids and filters.

Eventually other projects began taking up more of Reuben's time and as a result "Monsieur" ended up on Milweb.

Around this time, I had begun to consider purchasing myself a GMC. This was primarily in order to provide it as a resource for MD44, but also out of a personal interest in general mechanics.

I had mentioned this idea to multiple members of MD44, but one in particular seemed particularly keen for this process to start. Over the following few weeks having told him, Pete Hart sent multiple links to different Jimmys across to me, all of which having their own quirks as to why I deemed them unsuitable. This was until one day when Pete sent the link to "Monsieur". Something about this truck caught my eye and piqued my interest. The conversion to a diesel engine was something I had considered anyway, given the intention of using the GMC to take the MD44 lot to France, but also economy for transport to shows. I had initially longed for a Jimmy with a hard cab and no winch, but this truck immediately shifted my opinion. Within 20mins of Pete sending me the link, I had sent Reuben a message.

On the 1st of March 2026, I agreed to purchase "Monsieur". I drove the 2 and a bit hours with my dad and Pikey as advisors. Reuben told us the history of "Monsieur" and about how he came to own him, the work he'd done and the work he'd yet to do. We spent a while poking around and checking over "Monsieur", and I couldn't be more pleased. The work Reuben has done so far is fantastic, and the work still to do is definitely manageable. "Monsieur" smokes from the exhaust until warm, likely due to a fuelling issue, as Pikey reminisced at the smell of unburnt diesel pouring from the exhaust.

Now begins the process of transporting and storing, Reuben kindly agreed to strap the cargo body on for transport, hopefully making my life a bit easier. Updates to follow....

The photographs I was sent and the ones I took while there show plenty of the details of "Monsieur", and those will follow. Many of the original markings are still visible, with the US star poking through the paintwork, along with the original shipping markings (SOXO, supposedly designating the destination as a port in Liverpool). "Monsieur" was delivered to it's unit in June 1944.