The Peugeot DMA was a light truck built by

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

between 1941 and 1948. It was the first commercial vehicle from Peugeot to employ a forward control cab, whereby the driver sat right at the front of the vehicle. The configuration maximised load deck length and gave the driver a good view of the road, but it meant that the driver shared his cab with the engine: Peugeot's light truck, being a rear wheel drive vehicle, was unable to offer a large low flat load area as the front-wheel drive Citroën TUB light van. During the DMA's early years France was under

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

, Peugeot's own plant being located in the strip of land known as the "Zone interdite" with the Swiss frontier to the east and occupied northern France to the west. Many of the 11,045 DMA trucks produced were used by the German army. However, in the immediate postwar years, with funds for new models desperately restricted, the trucks continued to be produced for use by French operators such as local fire services. The 2,142 cc petrol engine came from the

Peugeot 402 The Peugeot 402 is a large family car produced in Sochaux, France from 1935 to 1942 by Peugeot. It was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 1935, replacing the Peugeot 401. The Peugeot 403, introduced approximately thirteen years after the d ...

and could be adapted to work using charcoal derived gazogène, applying technology in which Peugeot had developed an expertise in the late 1930s as the prospect of

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, with its accompanying shortages of petrol/gasoline for non-military use, loomed. The claimed maximum power output (using petrol/gasoline) was with a top speed of .

Musée de l'Aventure Peugeot The Musée de l'Aventure Peugeot (Museum of the Peugeot Adventure) is a historical museum devoted to the Peugeot automobile business. The museum was founded by members of the Peugeot family, opening in 1988 across the road from the company's huge ...

. The exhibit label (2012) states: « Le DMA, équipé d’une motorisation essence d’origine 402, pouvait également être adapte au gazogène quand l’essence faisait défaut….. » The DMA featured twin rear wheels which provided for an impressive maximum load capacity of . There was also, from September 1946, a DMAH version, which featured hydraulic brake linkages. The DMA was replaced in 1948 by the not dissimilar but smaller short-lived Peugeot Q3A light truck. Two years later the light commercial slot was filled by a van, the Peugeot D3 which by then already featured a Peugeot engine and which entered the Peugeot range in 1950 with the acquisition of the cash strapped

Chenard-Walcker Chenard-Walcker, also known as Chenard & Walcker, was a French automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturer from 1898 to 1946. Chenard-Walcker then designed and manufactured trucks marketed via Peugeot sales channels until the 1970s. The facto ...

business.

External links

Dma/Dmah
in French http://dma.peugeot.free.fr

References

{{Reflist DMA Vehicles introduced in 1941