A new day dawns for Diamond T

Today, in an era where you don’t need all your fingers to count up the number of heavy-duty truck manufacturers in business, it’s odd to think that fleets had a much wider array of choices when it came to truck brands in the 1930s. Over time, most of these independent truck manufacturers either went out of business altogether or were snapped up by healthier (usually high-volume) competitors.

 Diamond T was one such, well-known brand. The company started building motor cars at the turn of the century and made a name for itself selling powerful (for the time) touring cars. But by the 1930s, Diamond T was becoming increasingly known for it’s well-built, powerful truck line.

 The company enjoyed a heyday in the late 1930s and into the war years. The British government bought large volumes of the company’s 980/981 models for use as tank transporters in the Western Desert campaign against Hitler’s Afrika Corps. The U.S. military also bought large numbers of Diamond T’s after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.