Biederman Motors Corporation in World War Two
Cincinnati, OH
1920-1955

This page updated 10-12-2023.

The Biederman Motors Corporation was founded on the industrial west side of Cincinnati, OH in 1920 by Charles and Fred Biederman.  Charles Biederman became president and chief engineer, and Fred Biederman took on the role of secretary of the new company.  Biederman Motors built small lots of specialized trucks out of two buildings on Barnard Street in Cincinnati.  It was a small job shop with no moving assembly line that the larger truck companies in the industry were moving to at the time.

There are excellent histories available in several books that tell the story of Biederman Motors during its 35 years of operation.  However, as is the case with many corporate histories, the World War years have been overlooked.  Much of this is due to the fact that the company did not produce any trucks that were accepted by Army Ordnance for use by the United States Army.  These records are well documented.  Instead, Biederman Motors produced 1,638 7-1/2-ton 6x6 trucks for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War Two.  Records of trucks built by any truck company for the USAAF are not readily available.  With documents furnished by Jeff Lakaszcyck, I have been able to publish this long overdue recognition of how the Biederman Motors Corporation helped win World War Two.

Location:  To date, the historical record has been unclear as to the location of Biederman Motors in Cincinnati, OH.  In reality, there has been more speculation by historians as to what occupied the former Biederman Motors plant than where it was located to begin with.  Some references indicate that Cincinnati's largest Chevrolet dealership in the late 1950s took over the location, while others say that it was a tool and die shop. 

The largest Chevrolet dealership during Biederman's existence was Queen City Chevrolet.  The original location of Queen City Chevrolet was at 6th and Sycamore in Cincinnati.  Later it moved to 414 East Court Street, which is on the east side of downtown Cincinnati.  During the 1950s and early 1960s this was a good location for a car dealership.  Once the interstates arrived and suburban sprawl set in, this was no longer ideal, and the dealership does not exist today.  Today its former location is a casino.

The 1943 Cincinnati city directory listing below shows Biederman Motors Corporation at 2131 Spring Grove Avenue, which is west of downtown Cincinnati in an industrialized area.  It is located east of the Cincinnati rail yards and one mile north of Union Terminal Train Station.  After Biederman closed up shop, the old factory would have been better suited for a machine shop than a car dealership.

This is the entry for Biederman Motors Corporation in the 1943 Cincinnati city directory.  Image courtesy of the Cincinnati Library. 

Below are three Sanborn maps showing the Biederman factory complex.  Each map shows a smaller area with Biederman in the lower right hand corner.  The actual date of the first three maps is unknown.  The map originated in 1900 and is probably pre-World War Two.

  This area is bounded by Harrison on the north and Spring Grove Avenue to the south and east.  Biederman is in the south-east corner of the map.  The map began in 1900 and had continuing changes made to it.  The exact date of this image is unknown.  Image courtesy of the Cincinnati Library.

This image shows several truck related buildings that encompass the Biederman truck complex.  The auto truck factory is actually located at 2131 Barnard Street, not Spring Grove as noted in the 1943 city directory.  Today, Barnard Street no longer exists.  Image courtesy of the Cincinnati Library.

This image shows the Biederman complex with an auto truck factory and office at 2131 Barnard Street.  It is approximately 75 feet along Barnard and 100 feet deep. The truck and auto building at 2145 Barnard is about the same size with several other buildings for storage.  Because there is a wood storage building in the group, this would imply the date of the map was when Biederman was still using wood in its cabs.  During World War Two, the Biederman Motor Corporation could produce just over six trucks per week from this location.  Image courtesy of the Cincinnati Library.

In looking at the map, the corner of the complex could actually be at 2131 Spring Grove.  It would make sense for Biederman to use a Spring Grove address as it was and is a well-known, major thoroughfare in Cincinnati.  In any event, the location of the factory has been found.

Below is a current Google Maps satellite image of the same area 80-100 years later than the maps above.  A lot has changed.  Barnard Street no longer exists. Praxair and Cemendine Automotive now occupy the area where Biederman was located.  I-75/I-74 is now just to the east of Spring Grove Avenue, which no longer has the southwest split shown on the Sanborn map.

Image courtesy of Google Maps.

This 1935 Biederman Model N was photographed in front of the Cincinnati Union Terminal.  When the company developed a new model and wanted a photo of it for advertising and publicity, it was an easy one mile drive from the factory to Union Terminal.  This was the prototype of a small 1936 order for Army Air Corps fuel trucks with a 3,000 gallon Heil tank installed.  The Model N was called the "Neverstall" by Biederman.  Photo courtesy of John Vannatta via Jeff Lakaszcyck

This Google Maps image shows that Praxair, at the location of the former Biederman truck factory, was a straight shot north of the Cincinnati Union Terminal.  They were about a mile apart. 

The year is 1941 and the U.S. Army put on a huge exercise now known as the Louisiana Maneuvers.  The Louisiana Maneuvers covered 3,400 square miles of which much was done off military reservations and on public roads.  Here some of the 400,000 troops involved are being transported on 1936 Biederman Model 110 6x6 trucks being used as artillery prime movers.  Image courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-12-2023. 

Image courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-12-2023. 

Biederman Motors Corporation World War Two Production:  During World War Two the United States Army Air Forces awarded the Biederman Motors Corporation 18 major contracts valued at $12,844,000.  $12,018,000, or 94% of the company's contracts was for trucks.  The remaining $826,000 or 6% was for truck parts, airplane engine parts and crankshafts, connecting rod bearings, and gasoline engine assemblies.  The company built three different types of 7-1/2-ton 6x6 heavy duty trucks for the United States Army Air Forces totaling 1,636 units.  The average cost for each truck was $7,337.

This is the only known photo of a Biederman C-2 wrecker in use in a combat zone during World War Two.  This photo was taken by SGT. John Francis Sullivan, 32nd Infantry Division, from Janesville, Wisconsin at Cape York in Australia during 1942.  The photo is courtesy of his son, Mr. Brian Phelps.  Photo added 10-10-2023.

What makes this photo even more amazing and historically significant is that Biederman only built twelve C-2s during World War Two.  I want to thank Mr. Phelps of sharing the photo for use on this website.

This is what SGT Sullivan wrote about this photo:  "After landing at Sydney and a short stay there and subsequently at Melbourne, I was sent to join the 8th Air Corps Material Squadron at an inland village; Charleville, Queensland. This unit was soon to move north and it fell upon me, the junior jackass of the squadron to command a detachment that was to move across open country with the heavy equipment. No roads, few villages and wild country. Except for the lack of Indians, it was Lewis and Clarke all the way. Arriving at Townsville, I was attached to the 5th Australian Infantry Division to make an exploratory trek of three hundred miles up the Cape of York. This was a primitive area inhabited only by aborigines. The large mound above is an ant hill. A picture similar to this appeared in Life magazine. The commercial garage picture contains in small print a by line 'monkey glands for motors—limp in an leap out'.  At that time, monkey glands were looked to by some as a way of regaining a lost youth."

F-1 Fuel Tractor:

This is a Biederman F-1 Tractor with an F1A 4,000 gallon fuel trailer.  Photo courtesy of John Vannatta via Jeff Lakaszcyck.

This colorized photo shows a post-World War Two era KC-97 being refueled by a Biederman F-1.  George Murphey colorization image courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-10-2023.

As noted above, Biederman Motors did not produce trucks that were accepted and recorded by Army Ordnance in "Summary Report of Acceptances, Tank-Automotive Material, 1940-1945."  The information used to determine the number of F-1 and C-2 trucks built by Biederman during World War Two came from Documents 1 and 2 shown below.  These were furnished by Jeff Lakaszcyck.   

Document 1:  The information at the bottom of this document is used in Table 3 below.

*This cost is out of line with the other contracts for this vehicle.  It is unknown why this figure is so much lower than the other cost per truck per contract.

This is the first of twelve C-2 wreckers that Biederman built for the USAAF.  Photo courtesy of John Vannatta via Jeff Lakaszcyck.

Document 2:  T.O. No. 19-20-3 (Revised 9-20-43) provides the U.S. Registration numbers for the Biederman-built C-2 wreckers.  This information is used in Table 4 below.

I have shown this photo a second time.  This photo was taken in 1942 in Australia.  Therefore, this Biederman would have been built early in the war.  As the second through fifth contracts were for the F-1 tractor, this leaves the first major contract in Table 1, contract number 535-AC-15291 dated 6-1940 as the only logical choice for the C-2 wrecker contract.  This information is shown in Table 4 below.  SGT. John Francis Sullivan photo via Brian Phelps added 10-10-2023.

The last type of truck Biederman built for the war effort was the P-1 crane truck.  The P-1 had a half cab for the driver and carried a Michigan TM-16 10-ton crane.  Note that the cab has been moved over what on the F-1 and C-2 was the driver's side running board. 

There are no known records of USA nor serial numbers of the Biederman P-1 crane truck to establish how many the company built.  The company was still building the P-1 as of 7-30-1945, which was USA number W00113942.  Production most likely continued for another week until the stop order arrived with the end of hostilities in early August. 

 In looking at the number of F-1 refueling tractors built on contract W-535-AC- 27791, Biederman turned out an average of 33.6 units per month over 15 months.  This is an annual rate of 403.

Assuming that Biederman continued at the same run rate for the P-1 crane truck, that production started in March 1944, and ended after one week in August 1945, the company produced an estimated 638 P-1 crane trucks during 18.25 months of production.

Table 6 below is similar to Tables 3 and 4 above.  However, Table 6 is incomplete because there is no known information available for either the USA numbers or the number per vehicles in each contract.  Contract 33038-AC-8434 had an end date of 4-1946.  This may well have been the originally predicted end of production for the contract.  It would be unlikely that production would have actually continued after August 1945.

However, one can do a reality check on the estimated 638 number of P-1s that I calculated.  Doing this, the average truck cost comes out to $7,258.  While a little lower than the previous costs, it is still reasonable.  This assumes the Michigan Power Shovel TM-16s were Government Furnished Equipment. 

Excerpts from:  "Handbook of Instructions with Parts Catalog for Model P-1 Mobile Truck Crane:"  Because the Biederman-built P-1 Mobile Truck Crane is such an unknown vehicle, I have included the following pages from the manual to give the reader a more in-depth understanding of this truck.  This is T. O. No. 19-40-12 dated 5 March 1945.  All of these images were added 10-10-2023.

Paragraph b notes that the driver's cab is not big enough to include the transmission, transfer, and front axle control levers which are outside of the cab.  This can be seen in the next-to-last image in this section.  

This image shows that the transmission, transfer, and front axle control levers are outside the cab as noted above.

Other P-1 Information:

Survivors:  Currently, there are about a dozen Biederman World War Two era 7-1/2-ton 6x6 trucks that are known to exist worldwide.  This number includes both the F-1 fueling tractor and the P-1 crane truck.  None of the twelve Biederman-built C-2s are known to exist.

F-1 Fuel Tractors:  When this page was first published in October 2020, there were no restored Biederman trucks.  That has changed with the restoration in England of the F-1 fuel tractor shown in the photos below.

This restored Biederman F-1 tractor is owned by Ian Hughes in England.  Ian Hughes photo via Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-10-2023.

This is also Ian Hughes' F-1 fuel truck at a later stage of the restoration.  Chris Barton photo via Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-10-2023.

This and the next three images show Ian Hughes' Biederman F-1 out on a road trip in rural England.  Depending on the perspective of these photos, the F-1 in the last two photos appears to take to up most of the roadway.  I had the privilege in 2008 to drive some of the rural roads near Duxford, England and found them to be rather narrow.  I found this especially true when there was a large tour bus coming in the opposite direction.  I ended up scraping the side of the car in the hedges along the side of the road to make sure I did not end up as a hood ornament on the bus.  Mick Wilson photo via Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-10-2023.

Mick Wilson photo via Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-10-2023.

Mick Wilson photo via Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-10-2023.

Mick Wilson photo via Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-10-2023.

This 1944 F-1 fuel tractor was converted into a crane truck by a post-World War Two owner and is now owned by Ken Ochenkowski.  It is currently being restored to its original World War Two F-1 configuration.  Photo courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck.

In this photo of the F-1 with the crane added, the truck has a reddish hue rather than the orange in the above photo.  Photo courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck.

This second 1944 Biederman F-1 is also owned by Ken Ochenkowski.  Photo courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck.

This image shows the second F-1 with the hood and cowling on the truck.  Photo courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck.

P-1 Crane Trucks:

Mr. Ken Ochenkowski also owns two Biederman P-1 crane trucks.  In this photo, both trucks are shown together at Mr. Ochenkowski's facility.  Warren Richardson photo via Jeff Lakaszcyck added 10-10-2023.  

This is a view of the same P-1 crane truck that was on the right in the above photo before it was removed from the woods and loaded onto the low-boy trailer shown below.  Photo courtesy of Warren Richardson added 10-10-2023.      

Photo courtesy of Warren Richardson added 10-10-2023.

 This 1945 P-1 crane truck is the one on the left in the top photo of this section.  Photo courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck. 

Photo courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck. 

Photo courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck. 

Photo courtesy of Jeff Lakaszcyck. 

This Biederman P-1 was photographed in Sweden.  Photo courtesy of Sven Bengston via Jeff Lakaszcyck.