My Father taught me long ago when cranking an engine, to always keep your thumb on the same side of the crank handle as your fingers. This because you were less likely to get your thumb broken if the engine caught quickly or if it backfired and the engine suddenly spun the crank backwards.

The same general lesson was given regarding the steering on any older vehicle or tractor. To never wrap you thumb around to the inside of the steering wheel ring. The front tires could easily drop into a rut or hit a bump causing the steering wheel to suddenly and violently turn. The drivers thumb could get forcefully bent backwards by the spokes of the steering wheel.
(Only ever happened to me once but lesson learned.)

I received the same steering wheel warning at Ft. Knox while taking driver's training, getting checked out to drive the US WWII halftracks at the Patton Museum.

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I wish that lettering had been printed in black!

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From the Manual of the Motor Transport Corps (ca.1919) :



Nice job on this truck Mike.
Did you know that after WW1 an enterprising Frenchman called Louis Willeme bought almost all the 9500 (!) Liberty trucks (+ spare parts) that have been sent to France at the end of the War (most of them after November 1918), and refurbished them to sell them on the civilian market ? He even used them as donor chassis to build his own "Willeme" trucks :





H.P.

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So the "low contrast" blue color is incorrect!

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Ahem ...
"From the Manual of the Motor Transport Corps (ca.1919) :"

Was this manual in use in 1917 or 1918 ?
Not saying it was or was not, just curious ...
Could it be that they specified white to get some contrast?
/ Robin