Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 142:
Description
WWII U.S. Army Yukon Medical Packboard, Quartermaster Corps Stock No. 74-P-25, Medical Department Item No. 9778700 – Wood-Frame Pattern for Forward Medical Supply Transport, circa 1941-1944 Offered here is an original World War II-era Yukon packboard, catalogued under Quartermaster Corps Stock No. 74-P-25 and issued to the Medical Department as Item No. 9778700, intended for the transport of Unit Medical Equipment packs and aid station chests into forward combat areas. No separate published biography accompanies this piece; its history rests in the standardized nomenclature and issue records of the U.S. Army Quartermaster and Medical Departments during the early war years. The Yukon packboard traces its design to traditional Alaskan cargo frames, adapted by the U.S. Army at the outset of American involvement in World War II to solve a persistent logistical problem: moving heavy, bulky supplies across terrain impassable to vehicles. Infantry, engineer, and medical units alike relied on the pattern, but it found particular favor in medical companies, where litter bearers and aid men used it to haul numbered Unit Medical Equipment packs 1 through 5, along with folded litters and chest-style supply containers, forward to battalion aid stations under fire. The solid wooden Yukon frame, while rugged, weighed roughly seven pounds unloaded, a burden that led the Quartermaster Corps to phase in the lighter molded-plywood packboard, Stock No. 74-P-27-20, from 1943 into 1944. Surviving wooden Yukon boards such as this example therefore represent the earlier, transitional phase of American mobile medical logistics before the widespread switch to the plywood pattern, and are consistent with wartime production by contractors such as Boyt Harness Co. or American Seating Co. under Quartermaster contract. The packboard is of the standard early wartime configuration: solid wood side and cross members, laced together and reinforced at the joints, supporting a heavy olive drab canvas back sheet, with padded webbing shoulder straps fitted for load-bearing. Individual construction details, contractor stampings, and any date markings to the wood or canvas cannot be confirmed without direct photographic inspection, and should be independently verified prior to bidding. The lot consists of the packboard frame alone, without an accompanying medical supply bag or pack insert. As no photographs were available for cataloguing, condition has not been directly assessed; buyers should anticipate typical age and field-use wear consistent with the type, including possible splits, scuffing, or drying to the wood, fading or staining to the canvas backing, fraying at the lacing, and oxidation to any metal hardware or buckles, with completeness of the original lacing and webbing straps to be confirmed on inspection. A tangible relic of early WWII medical logistics, this wood-framed Yukon packboard embodies the rugged, load-bearing workhorse that carried life-saving supplies forward before the lighter plywood pattern took its place.
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