Читать книгу 1001 Jeep Facts - Patrick Foster - Страница 10

Chapter 1

Military Jeeps

Legend and Lore

1 Until the first Jeep was created, there had never been another vehicle like it. Sure, the army had earlier used four-wheel-drive trucks; the first of them was during the Mexican Punitive Expedition of 1916–1917 when it brought a fleet of Jeffery four-wheel-drive trucks to Mexico to chase Pancho Villa. The trucks proved to be sturdy and capable but were heavy, and their small engines limited the top speed to about 18 mph! The big trucks found their place in the battlefields of World War I France, where they hauled ammunition and guns to the front lines. However, the army knew it needed something smaller, lighter, and more agile for the coming war.

Here, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reviews troops from a Jeep MB.

2 In the years prior to World War II, the army also tried two-wheel-drive Ford Model Ts, but they proved to be unacceptable. When the cars were stripped down, with fenders, tools, and spare tire removed, their performance was decent, but with a heavy machine gun and other equipment along with passengers and ammunition, the Ford cars got stuck in sand and mud. The army also tried motorcycles, but not surprisingly they got stuck worse than the cars.

3 Two soldiers even built a platform vehicle called the Belly Flopper, which had a machine gun mounted up front and room for two men to lie on their stomachs as they drove forward during the attack. The thing was uncomfortable to use and couldn’t be driven on the road for any length of time (they had to be trucked to the battlefield), so although they were a decent assault vehicle, they didn’t make the cut. The army was looking for a scout car that could be used for many tasks, not just as an assault vehicle.

This three-man crew appears to be on reconnaissance with a hefty machine gun in case of trouble.

4 Most people know that Jeep Corporation didn’t invent the Jeep; neither did its forerunners Willys-Overland and Kaiser Jeep. The first such vehicle was produced by a now-defunct company known as the American Bantam Car Company. In 1940, bidding against Ford Motor Company and Willys-Overland, the Butler, Pennsylvania–based Bantam won an army contract to design and build a prototype of a new military scout car. On the verge of bankruptcy, the company then instituted a crash program to try to win the production contract.

5 Bantam was a weird little company. It was founded originally to produce the British Austin Seven, a tiny, tinny, 13-hp runt of a roadster, under license. It soon went bankrupt because it was undersized, underpowered, and overpriced, whereupon it was resurrected as American Bantam, building a tiny, tinny, 19-hp runt with about the same results. By 1940, the company was essentially bankrupt, which made it desperate to find any kind of work in order to stay in business. Thus, when the army went looking for a scout car, Bantam grabbed on like a drowning man to a life preserver.

6 During 1940, the army sent invitations to bid on the new vehicle to 135 US manufacturers, including automobile and truck builders, plus specialty firms that produced vehicle bodies, chassis, or major components. It was the largest number of firms contacted by the army for a motor vehicle contract, and it expected to receive a large number of bids because the award was up to $175,000 for the initial prototype plus 69 additional vehicles with any changes the army required. However, in the end, only two companies submitted proposals: small-car builders American Bantam and Willys-Overland. Later, as the program matured, Ford joined the bidding.

7 Bantam initially thought it would be able to sell modified versions of its passenger cars to the army. The military even tested several of the Bantams, but in the end decided it need a new vehicle designed from the ground up. Not only that, but the army’s required design specifications for the first Jeep went beyond the technology of the day in 1940, which meant that it either had to change the specs or give up the program (eventually the army changed the requirements).

Initial specifications included a low body height, seating for three, a 20-hp engine, four-wheel-drive, a wheelbase of not more than 75 inches, and the capability of at least 50 mph on a hard surface, all of which could be achieved. However, the army also said that the vehicle had to weigh no more than 1,300 pounds and be able to haul at least 600 pounds, or almost half its own weight. These last two demands couldn’t be met using technology of the day, at least not in time to meet the army’s other requirements that the prototype use as many off-the-shelf components as possible and be ready for testing in 49 days!

The vehicle that is considered the first “Jeep” is the prototype made by Bantam Motors, seen here in 1941. Note the cycle front fenders; this is the only Bantam Jeep with this feature.

8 Bantam was broke and had long since laid off its engineering staff, so in order to actually come up with a Jeep design, it had to hire a freelance engineer. Independent engineer Karl Probst, a brilliant former Packard engineer, took the job despite his own misgivings. Bantam had told him that he would only be paid if they actually won the contract. But Probst was a true patriot and understood the importance of designing the right vehicle for the army.

Once Probst agreed, he packed a bag and immediately drove to Bantam’s plant in Butler, Pennsylvania. Miraculously, he managed to design the entire vehicle, create blueprints, and assign cost estimates in just three days.

9 As noted earlier, army specifications called for an overall weight of 1,300 pounds for the vehicle. When Bantam president Frank Fenn asked engineer Probst about the weight specification, Probst calmly replied, “Of course we can’t make that weight target, but neither can anyone else.” He was smart. From long experience designing cars and components, Probst knew that what the army was asking for was impossible, so he simply didn’t worry about it. In the end, the Bantam military car weighed around 1,850 pounds.

10 Bantam didn’t actually call its first vehicle a Jeep; the company dubbed it the Bantam Pilot Model. It later became known as the Bantam Mk I. The company produced 69 additional vehicles incorporating many improvements. These vehicles are known as the Mk II models (aka the Bantam BRC-60). The Bantam Pilot Model doesn’t seem to have survived (at least it’s never been found), but a highly skilled British enthusiast crafted a new one from scratch a few years ago, and it appears to be a perfect duplicate.

11 When the army opened the competitive bids for the initial prototype vehicle along with 69 follow-up vehicles, Bantam’s bid was $2,445.51 per vehicle for a total of $171,186. Willys-Overland actually bid less than that amount. So why didn’t Willys-Overland win the initial contract? Because Willys’ management had to admit that they couldn’t meet the army’s stated deadline for delivering the vehicles in 49 days; they said they needed 75 days.

Because the army wanted this new vehicle as quickly as humanly possible, it had set a penalty of $5 per day for every day past the 49-day deadline specified in the contract. That single factor allowed Bantam Motors to win the initial contract for what became the Jeep.

12 Although there had never been a lightweight four-wheel-drive car before, it took Probst and a handful of Bantam employees less than two months to build the first Bantam Jeep basically from scratch. However, it was a nerve-racking effort.

They needed to figure out how to modify Studebaker axles to work on the front-wheel-drive part of the Jeep. Three weeks before the deadline, the problem still hadn’t been solved, and Karl Probst privately admitted to a fellow engineer that they wouldn’t make it. However, in the end, American ingenuity worked out the problems, and the Bantam was finally completed and ready to go exactly one day before it had to be delivered to the army. Component suppliers were told that they would be allowed one hour each to road test the vehicle. Then it had to be delivered.

Teddy Roosevelt Jr. didn’t live to see the end of the war. He was the son of former President Theodore Roosevelt and the cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Teddy went in with the first wave of troops on D-day despite being so crippled by arthritis he required a cane. This photo was taken shortly after the landing, mere weeks before he died of a heart attack.

13 Imagine this: Rather than shipping it in an enclosed trailer, the Bantam prototype was driven to the army’s test center at Camp Holabird, Maryland, from Butler, in western Pennsylvania. And this was in an era before major highways! It was a close call; the company met the army’s delivery deadline with only 15 minutes to spare.

So vital was the contract that the vehicle was driven by designer Karl Probst and Bantam president Frank Fenn. They started out slow to break in the engine, but they soon realized they weren’t going to make it in time unless they poured on the juice, so they began driving flat out across Pennsylvania.

14 Army Major Herbert Lawes, who had driven every military vehicle tested in the prior 20 years, test drove the first Bantam Jeep as soon as it was delivered to the army base. He declared, “This vehicle is going to be absolutely outstanding. I believe this unit will make history.”

15 After thorough testing by the army at the Maryland proving grounds, up and down many hills and through mud, sand, and muck, the military staff requested that the 69 additional vehicles ordered be fitted with engines of at least 40 hp. This forced Bantam to drop its own engine in favor of a Hercules-built four, which raised its costs for the vehicle and forced it to beef up the chassis, transmission, axles, and more.

The next series of Bantam Jeep vehicles were the BRC-60 pilot production vehicles, of which 69 were produced. The front fender is squared off and the body side is different from the Bantam Pilot Model.

16 Even though Bantam won the initial contract, the army asked for construction of competitive vehicles from Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Company because it worried greatly about Bantam’s ability to produce the volume of vehicles that might be needed. Bantam was, after all, just about the smallest automaker in America, and it was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.

17 The Willys prototype was called the Quad; the Ford prototype was dubbed the Pygmy. They looked similar to the Bantam, and photos of each are often misidentified.

The army felt that the Ford Pygmy was better constructed and finished than the Willys Quad and the Bantam vehicle. However, with just 46 hp on tap from its ancient Ford tractor engine, it was clearly underpowered. The Willys had 60 hp and performed well but weighed a whopping 2,520 pounds, which was too far over the army’s weight requirement to be accepted.

The Ford GP proposal was well built but underpowered and did not perform as well as the Willys or even the Bantam.

The little Bantam, with just 40 hp available, had the lowest overall weight, and thus performed very well. Because of that, the Bantam remained a strong contender for the main contract for 15,000 vehicles. However, army officers still worried about Bantam’s ability to deliver large volumes of vehicles in an emergency.

The first Jeep proposal by Willys was the 1941 Quad. Reportedly two were built, but neither has survived, though at least one was still around in the mid-1950s.

18 When the army expressed its disappointment with the Willys Quad’s weight, Willys-Overland management realized it needed to have its engineers redesign the prototype to reduce weight or it would certainly lose the big contract. They came up with a new model called the Willys MA that weighed a few ounces less than the army’s revised weight goal of 2,150 pounds.

The simplest way to reduce the weight would have been to install a lighter engine, but that would have eliminated Willys’ one big advantage: power. So instead of doing that, the weight reduction was accomplished by completely redesigning the body and chassis, cutting many pounds in the process.

Engineers also cut the length of screws and bolts used in assembly, used smaller fasteners where possible, and specified higher-strength lower-weight steel in the frame and body panels. Barney Roos even weighed the paint used on each vehicle, deciding (according to legend) that one coat would have to do.

The redesigned vehicle made the weight requirement, though one officer joked that if dust had settled on the Willys it would have gone over the limit. With its potent Go-Devil engine in the lighter chassis, Willys easily outshone both Ford and Bantam and won the contract.

The Willys MA was an improvement over the Quad, and 1,555 were produced for the army. However, the MA was significantly over the weight limit imposed by the military, so Willys’ engineers set to work reducing its weight.

19 Despite having invented the Jeep, Bantam Motors was given contracts for fewer than 2,800 units in all. After that, it was locked out of further orders, not even being allowed to be one of the backup, or supplemental, suppliers, as Ford was. The company was given contracts to assemble military trailers instead. After the war, Bantam did not return to building automobiles.

This Ford GP is undergoing tests at Fort Hood, Texas.

20 Okay, so the big question that everyone asks is this: Where did the Jeep name come from? Over the years, I must have been asked this question a couple of dozen times. The fact is that people can’t seem to agree on it. One thing that I can verify is that the Jeep name existed years before the well-known vehicle first appeared, though it wasn’t capitalized. The name came about as a slurring by soldiers of the initials GP, which is military speak for a “General Purpose” vehicle. The Jeep name had been around for years, mostly in military circles. In the 1930s, a motorized military tractor, nicknamed jeep, was used to haul big guns, along with various other military trucks and vehicles. There was even a small military plane nick-named Jeep.

21 The only civilian use of the Jeep name prior to World War II that I’ve been able to find was for a fictional creature named “Eugene the Jeep” that appeared for a time in the popular cartoon strip “Popeye.” Eugene the Jeep was a mysterious animal with magical abilities, including being able to get out of any situation and to go through any obstacle. Eugene usually proved to be invaluable to Popeye and Olive Oyl, often leading them on fantastic adventures and getting them out of dangerous situations.

Initially, Willys produced its Jeep MAs alongside its passenger cars, as seen here, but by mid-January 1942 only Jeep vehicles were in production.

22 So how did the Jeep name come to be associated with Willys-Overland? In February 1941, Willys-Overland’s public relations people showed off the company’s new MB military scout car (the successor to the Willys MA) to a group of reporters. Journalist Katharine Hillyer was driven up and down some steep hills in a Willys MB by veteran Willys test driver “Red” Hausmann.

Visibly impressed, Hillyer asked, “What’s the name of this thing?”

Hausmann replied proudly, “It’s a Jeep!” using the military GP slang.

So Hillyer wrote her story using that name, and it was picked up by newspapers across the country. The Jeep name soon came to stand for the 4x4 product produced by Willys-Overland.

A Willys MA shows off its stuff in September 1941. This appears to be at the front steps to the Willys headquarters in Toledo, Ohio.

23 In later years, there was a great deal of controversy about who owned the Jeep name; after all, it had been created by army personnel. During the war, Willys-Overland used some clever advertising to convince people to forever link the Willys and Jeep names together. The company used headlines such as “WILLYS builds the JEEP,” and you really had to squint to see the words between Willys and Jeep. After the war, everyone wanted the Jeep name, including the army, Willys, Bantam, etc.

The situation went on for years, but in the end the question was settled by James F. Holden, a lawyer. He filed a lawsuit on behalf of Willys-Overland to win the exclusive right to the Jeep name. The Jeep name has since passed on to the many successive owners of the company that builds Jeeps.

24 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA, Jeep’s current parent company) is fiercely protective of the Jeep name, and rightfully so. The name was copyrighted many years ago, so whenever it appears in print it must be capitalized, Jeep. That’s because Jeep is a noun, and never an adjective or verb. It’s not supposed be used to classify a variety of vehicles, such as “jeep-like vehicles” and cannot be used to describe a vehicle that’s not a genuine Jeep; in other words, you can’t advertise a Ford Explorer as a Ford Jeep or a Ford jeep (unless you like talking to angry lawyers). You should never say or write that you went “jeeping”; the correct way to describe an off-road adventure is to say you went four-wheeling. Got it?

These are American troops of the Patton’s Fifth Army liberating the town of Vergato, Italy.

25 The new Jeep had several nicknames: Jeep, Peep, Blitz-Buggy, and the GI’s Friend. Soldiers often bestowed their Jeeps with names. One Willys Jeep, which saw action on Guadalcanal, was dubbed Old Faithful by the Marines who used it. Old Faithful was officially retired on October 13, 1942, and enshrined in the Marines Corps Museum at Quantico, Virginia. Reportedly, the vehicle was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds received in battle (two shrapnel holes in the windshield).

26Jeeps were used not only as scout cars but were assault vehicles as well. One of the most daring examples was when a fleet of heavily armed Jeeps from British General Montgomery’s camp were ordered to raid General Rommel’s supply line.

Traveling at night and hiding during the day, they managed to sneak their way around the German main force, ending up well behind German lines. There they waited on a hilltop overlooking Rommel’s main supply route. Before long, a convoy of tanker trucks appeared, hauling fuel for Rommel’s tanks. Firing up their Jeeps, the commandos came swooping down, hell-for-leather, toward the enemy. Driving flat out, their heavy machine guns blazing and spitting bullets frantically, the Jeeps weaved in and out of the German column, wreaking a hellish destruction. Within seconds the German force was reduced to nothing more than a long line of blazing trucks and dead soldiers.

The Jeeps then made it back to their own lines under cover of darkness. Rommel’s forward advance stalled as a result of being low on fuel and supplies.

Equipped with a 50-caliber machine gun, a Jeep was a highly effective assault vehicle.

27 Another example is the story of two newspaper correspondents who slogged through the jungles of Burma’s and India’s rugged Manipur Hills, thought to be completely unpassable by vehicles, in a Willys Jeep. When they finally arrived in Imphal, capital of the Indian state of Manipur, an army officer who met them said that their sense of geography must have been mixed up because “There isn’t a single road across those jungles and hills.”

“Shh,” replied one of the journalists, “Our Jeep hasn’t found out about roads yet, and we don’t want to spoil it.”

28 Beloved war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote in the Washington Daily News, “Good Lord, I don’t think we could continue the war without the Jeep. It does everything. It goes everywhere. It’s as faithful as a dog, as strong as a mule, and as agile as a goat. It constantly carries twice what it was designed for and still keeps going.” Ernie Pyle later died when his Jeep was riddled with bullets by a hidden Japanese machine-gun pit.

29 Not surprisingly, during World War II enterprising US soldiers found many uses for the Jeep. Any GI needing warm food could place C-ration cans on the hot manifold of a Jeep engine and after a short drive, have a nice, hot dinner. If he wanted a warm shave, he could drain a little water from the Jeep radiator and lather up with it.

Some soldiers used their Jeeps to provide power to sawmills for cutting firewood or floorboards for their tents.

Jeeps carried men and supplies to the front lines and carried the wounded back to aid stations. Equipped with a 50-caliber machine gun, it was a terrifying assault vehicle. Fitted with a standard chaplain’s pack, its hood could be used as an altar at field church services. Ingenious GIs sometimes fitted Jeeps with railroad wheels to use them as locomotives to haul train loads of supplies in areas where the locomotives had been destroyed.

This is an example of the result of battle: wounded men being cared for by medics. These caring men were able to be close to the front because their Jeep vehicles provided the all-terrain mobility that was lacking in earlier conflicts.

30 The Jeep was never meant to haul big cannons; the army had purchased special heavy-duty trucks for that. But during several invasions in which the trucks were blown up, quick-thinking soldiers hooked up their Jeeps to howitzers and small artillery pieces and dragged them across the beach to where they were needed. The doughty Jeeps had more than enough power for the job, and their four-wheel drive provided the needed traction.

31 Once the war started and it was obvious that the armed forces would need hundreds of thousands of Jeeps, companies that previously hadn’t bothered to bid suddenly became interested in building vehicles for the military. Radio maker Crosley Corporation came up with a peanut-sized “Jeep” vehicle, and taxi builder Checker Motors submitted a bid to produce a standard-size vehicle much like the Willys. A few prototypes of each were built, but no big contracts were forthcoming. It’s not known how many, if any, have survived to this day.

Jeeps were shipped by the thousands to Allied forces around the globe.

32 When World War II ended, the military was forced to decide how many Jeep vehicles to ship back to America. Many were worn out or had mechanical problems and were not worth the expense of transporting. Most of these were left behind, as were thousands wrecked in combat or in noncombat road accidents. Virtually all of the vehicles sent to Russia (many of which were the Bantams) were never returned to the United States. I wonder how many are still there.

33 For its part, Willys-Overland realized that if every army Jeep was brought back to the United States and sold as surplus, it would destroy the market for the only vehicle they would have to sell in the first year or two of postwar production. So, they asked the army to give our allies as many of the old Jeep vehicles as they needed and encouraged them to scrap any heavily damaged ones. Many other Jeeps were simply abandoned and left for the locals to use.

One Jeep Corporation vice president later called this wholesale abandonment “the greatest free sample in history” because by introducing foreign locals to the Jeep, it helped establish Jeep’s highly successful postwar export business. It also created a huge market for spare parts, which benefited Willys-Overland for years. Even in the 1970s, Jeep Corporation stocked many parts for Willys MBs because of the ongoing demand.

A casualty of war, this Jeep MB appears to have been hit by shellfire during an amphibious invasion.

34 In 1949, when it was becoming obvious that war might come to the Korean Peninsula, the military brass realized they needed new Jeeps because many of the World War II units were seven or eight years old and had been roughly used and needed replacing. Besides, the military wanted a tougher, more modern vehicle for the harsh Korean weather conditions.

Willys-Overland created a Jeep vehicle that was updated with a 24-volt electrical system, a 1,200-pound payload, deep-fording capability, and installation of standardized military components including instruments, switchgear, and generators to make stocking replacement parts easier. The army designated the new vehicle the M38; Willys-Overland dubbed it the model MC. These vehicles were produced during 1950 to 1952, at which time they were replaced by a heavily modified version.

Different war, different Jeep. This press photo from the Humphrey Bogart film Battle Circus shows the man himself in a circa-1951 M38 (military designation). The Willys model number for this vehicle is MC.

Actor Alan Alda played Dr. Hawkeye Pierce on the TV show M.A.S.H., which was based on the movie Battle Circus. If you watch the opening scenes of each one, you will see that they are nearly the same.

35 The army wanted more power, more room, a better ride, and more carrying capacity. To answer those concerns, a new military Jeep appeared for 1952. Although it looked different from the M38, for some reason it was considered an improved and updated version of that vehicle, so it was given the military designation M-38A1, which translates to M38, 1st alteration (or modification). For internal company purposes, Willys called it the model MD.

Later, a civilian version was introduced as the CJ-5, which became among the most ubiquitous of all civilian Jeeps and probably the most recognizable of them all.

Superseding the M38 was the M-38A1, shown here undergoing testing at the army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland.

36 Why the army considered the M-38A1 to be a modification of the M38 defies logic. The new Jeep had a different frame, engine, and body. Even though the basic Go-Devil block was retained, Willys engineer A. C. Sampietro devised a new “F-head” cylinder head for it.

Similar to the type used by Rolls-Royce at the time, the Willys F-head put the intake valves in an overhead valve (OHV) position but retained the exhaust valves in the block. This provided much better breathing through the larger valves, boosting engine output to 72 hp, which was a solid 20-percent gain. Torque increased by 9 ft-lbs as well. Top speed, previously about 60 mph, was now 65 mph, and fording depth was increased by half a foot, to 36 inches.

Amazingly, the new M-38A1 even weighed about 100 pounds less than the M38, despite having more interior room, more cargo room, and a longer wheelbase. The army appreciated the lower weight because it made it a little easier to transport.

To better illustrate the differences between the old and the new, here are the military M38 (on the left, aka Willys MC) and its replacement, the M-38A1 (on the right, aka the Willys MD).

37 For its first four military Jeep production vehicles, Willys used the in-house designations MA, MB, MC, and MD. There was no ME and, thankfully, no MF (I wonder what pundits would have done with that designation). There were, however, other military Jeep vehicles that came later, including the M-38A1C, which was modified to carry the army’s 105-mm or 106-mm recoilless rifle, and the M-38A1D, which was designed to carry battlefield nuclear weapons.

38 The 1953 Willys Jeep Model BC (Bobcat) was an experimental vehicle built using shortened and lightened M38 and M-38A1 body parts and components. The engine was the L-head Go-Devil with an aluminum head and brackets, and the body was stamped from aluminum sheet. A two-seater with a small storage area in the rear, the Bobcat weighed about 1,500 pounds, which meant it was ideal for air transport, and even probably more agile than the M-38A1.

This December 1953 photo shows a civilian Model CJ-3B modified with a sloping hood to increase operator visibility. It was planned for both civilian and military use.

39 In later years, Jeep produced some offbeat military vehicles, such as the M606, which is a militarized version of the civilian “high-hood” CJ-3B, the M606A2, and the M606A3, which were militarized versions of the CJ-5. All of these were created in order to satisfy demands for a lower-cost but still highly capable military vehicle.

40 Another unusual “military” Jeep is the CJ-V35/U, which was a militarized CJ-3A that was intended for use during beach landings. It featured either a 12- or 24-volt generator to power radios and a heavily waterproofed electrical system. It could be fitted with intake and exhaust snorkels for deeper water running. These are extremely rare today.

41 Another post–World War II military Jeep is the M170, which is a long-wheelbase (101 inches) military ambulance based on the M-38A1, but with wide door openings and a full-length soft top. Inside, it is fitted for carrying patients from frontline areas.

42 Soldiers in World War II developed a deep, personal affection for Jeeps. One story often told is of an officer who came across a young soldier next to a Jeep that had been destroyed in an air raid. The distraught young man was crying uncontrollably over losing his Jeep.

“Don’t worry, son,” said the officer. “We’ll get you another Jeep.”

“You don’t understand,” replied the trooper. “I loved this one.”

43 Okay, so the second most-asked question about Jeep is this: What’s the correct pronunciation of Willys? Is it Willeez? Or is it Williss? I actually spoke with a member of the Willys family a couple of years ago, and they confirmed that the correct way to say it is Williss. It rhymes with Phyllis.

44 Where did the name Willys-Overland come from? The original name of the company was Overland (it was founded by the Standard Wheel Company, which was an auto industry supplier), and it built a car by using the Overland brand name. The Overland nameplate was picked because it sounded perfect for a rugged car, which is what the company felt the Overland was. John North Willys took over the business when it got into financial trouble, and in time, he renamed it Willys-Overland. Why? Because he liked the way it sounded.

45 By 1958, sales of Willys military Jeeps to the US Army had dwindled to almost nothing. In response, company engineers began to design new vehicles, such as the Mechanical Mule. But an easier and more profitable idea was to focus more attention on selling Jeeps to foreign governments.

One large customer was the Turkish Army, which placed an order for 1,600 Jeeps with the provision that they had to be assembled in Turkey. No problem, said Willys. The company was an old hand at setting up overseas assembly. By 1961, the assembly plant in Turkey was in operation and produced the 1,600 vehicles, which (by looking at old photos) appear to have been the rare Model 606, a militarized version of the CJ-3B high-hood model. The Turkish army was so pleased with its Jeeps that it decided to order an additional 4,000 units.

By the way, Willys-Overland earned double profit on this order: one by selling the parts to build the Jeeps and another by charging a royalty per vehicle built. That’s why Willys usually made more money in overseas markets than it did in the United States.

46 An old joke that soldiers used to tell was that after they died they wanted to be buried in their Jeep. Why? “Because there’s never been a hole made that my Jeep can’t get me out of,” they said.

Body and Interior

47 Willys-Overland wanted to make certain that everyone knew who built the Jeep MA, so up front, just over the grille, the Willys name is stamped in large letters. The company put its name on the rear of the body of the MB until around March 1942, when it was told by the army to stop the practice. Ford Motor Company also wanted to take credit for its efforts building Jeeps, so it stamped the Ford name on the rear panel of the MB body until April 1942, when it too was told to stop the practice. The army made both companies switch to a plain rear panel.

The president of Willys-Overland was Joseph W. Frazer. His employees nicknamed him “Jeeps” Frazer because he managed to win the big contract for army Jeeps, thus ensuring Willys’ survival. The vehicle is a Willys MA.

48 The body design of the production-model World War II–era army Jeep, the MB, is sort of a composite of the Willys MA body shell and the Ford GP hood. The military preferred the Ford’s flat hood over the Willys’ rounded one because the flat surface was useful for spreading out maps, using as a dinner table, serving as a chaplain’s altar, etc.

49 The ubiquitous stamped grille was actually designed by Ford. It soon became standardized on Willys and Ford Jeeps because it was found to be quicker and cheaper to produce than the slat grilles seen on the earlier Willys products. That said, however, some 25,808 early Willys MBs were produced with the slat-style grille. I wonder how many have survived.

50 Here’s something weird: The famous Jeep seven-slot grille, known throughout the world, wasn’t used on World War II Jeeps because it hadn’t been created yet. The MB grille is a nineslot design. The seven-slot grille showed up first in mid-1945 with production of the civilian Jeep CJ-2A. It was also used on early “pilot” model civilian Jeeps as well as prototypes.

51 Even the Bantam Motors production models switched to the Ford-style flat hood. However, Bantam retained its unique slat grille and unique headlamp layout, probably because it never was given the chance to produce the standardized Jeep MB. In all, Bantam produced only 2,605 of its BRC-40 model.

52 To illustrate the difference in size and resources of Willys-Overland versus Ford, Willys purchased its Jeep bodies from American Central Manufacturing of Connersville, Indiana, which produced them to the Willys design. This was because Willys-Overland lacked the financial reserves to buy body tooling. On the other hand, deep-pockets Ford Motor Company could easily afford to produce its Jeep bodies in-house at the Lincoln plant. Although at first glance the two appear identical, there are a number of minor differences between them.

A story persists that Jeep bodies were also produced in York, Pennsylvania, but to date I haven’t seen enough hard evidence to convince me of that. One thing is true, however: With Jeep vehicles, anything is possible.

53 One nice touch seen on army Jeeps is that the headlamps swivel up and backward to provide a convenient under-the-hood lamp for adequate lighting for any needed field repairs in the engine bay. All you need to do is remove one wingnut and twist the lamp around. Question: Why don’t we have this feature on modern Jeeps?

54 Any GI will tell you that the standard Jeep front seats are very uncomfortable after a while. However, they’re much preferred over the back seat, which is situated right over the rear axle, guaranteeing a rough ride and supposedly even bringing on a case of the piles. Officers usually rode in the front passenger seat and left their underlings to suffer in the back seat. Generals who liked to be in control would even drive, letting their “driver” have the front passenger seat.

55 The military Jeep body was built of low-carbon steel, which was 18 gauge for the exterior body panels and 16 gauge for the floor. The body was bolted to the frame via 16 bolts. Initially, the builders inserted rubber dampers between the body and the frame at the bolt holes to help insulate noise. After a while, wartime restrictions on rubber were instituted because India was under Japanese occupation, and that was where most rubber came from. The situation forced Willys to change to fabric shims. As a side note, the wartime shortage of rubber was also the impetus to the invention of synthetic rubber.

56 The World War II–era army Jeep didn’t come with the tailgate that’s so familiar to Jeepers. Although a tailgate would have been a useful feature, adding one would have raised the vehicle’s cost and forced the company to add extra bracing to the body, which in turn would have increased the weight. The fold-down tailgate didn’t appear in production until mid-1945, when the first civilian Jeeps began to trickle down the assembly lines.

57 Although both the Bantam and Willys Quad prototypes had onepiece windshields, the army decided to standardize the two-piece windshield seen on the Ford GP vehicles. Willys basically copied the design for its MA vehicles. All the prototypes had fold-down windshields, but in my opinion Ford appears to have been the inspiration for the standardized design.

58 As World War II progressed, Willys-Overland began developing and experimenting with a two-passenger baby Jeep featuring a body that would be lightweight and cheap to build because it was made out of plywood! The tiny Jeep included several other ideas to save weight and cost, such as leaving off the headlamps and most of the gauges. Several prototypes were constructed, but after testing, the army ultimately rejected it.

This 1943 photo shows two experimental Jeep MB-Ls flanking a stock MB in Toledo. The MB-L (for “Light”) used cut-down bumpers, plywood body panels, and were stripped of extraneous equipment to reduce weight. They held just two passengers.

59 Determined to win as much wartime business as it could, in 1942 Willys management delivered to the army an experimental six-wheel Jeep, configured as a 6x6 cargo truck and built on a lengthened and beefed-up Willys MB chassis. Capable of hauling 1 ton of cargo or troops, it’s not certain what became of the prototype.

In an effort to gain business, Willys engineered this 6x6 Jeep truck. However, the army already had many other truck suppliers and decided not to use it.

60 During the war, an amphibious Jeep was also produced: the GP-A (for amphibious). Popularly known as the Seep (for sea-going Jeep), it was designed and built by a joint venture of four-wheel-drive truck specialist Marmon-Herrington and boatbuilder Sparkman and Stevens. This was not a Willys-Overland project.

Built around a Ford GPW, it was hurried into production before adequate testing was completed. The Seep’s much heavier weight put a strain on the 4-cylinder engine, hurting on-road acceleration and performance. In the water, a propeller was used to power the vehicle, but here too the little Seep was slow.

It also suffered from insufficient freeboard, a result of underestimating the GPW’s weight during the design phase, so it could easily be swamped in stormy waters. In the European theater, it wasn’t popular with GIs because they found it wasn’t very good for the rivers there, which often had steep banks that the Seep had difficulty overcoming.

Seep production was stopped after some 12,778 were produced. A lot of the vehicles were shipped to Russia, where they were better suited to the country’s low-lying rivers.

61 Not all Jeeps are created equal, at least in the eyes of today’s collectors. Among military vehicle buffs the early slat-grille Jeeps are worth more money that the later stamped-grille type, mainly because of their rarity. According to published sources, the stamped grille went into production in March 1942. Interestingly, there’s not a big price differential between the Willys MB and the Ford GPW. It probably comes down to the fact that Ford guys like Ford Jeeps and Willys guys like Willys Jeeps.

62 In many wartime photos of Jeep vehicles, you notice a vertical metal bar attached to the front bumper and rising to a height of about 5 feet or so. Probably you have wondered what it’s for. It seems that right after the Normandy invasion German soldiers came up with a nasty trick: They strung metal wires across the roads so that anyone driving in an open Jeep would have their neck snapped. It wasn’t long before enterprising GIs began welding the thick bars to the front of their Jeeps in order to break the wires before they could kill any more soldiers.

63 In the postwar era, the next-generation 1950–1951 military M38 Jeep (aka the Willys MC) received improvements that included a 24-volt electrical system, a one-piece windshield, and a tailgate. The tailgate was easy to add, of course, because it had been developed for the civilian CJ-2A. After the M-38A1 (aka the Willys MD) appeared in 1952–1953, many of the MCs were sold as surplus because the army realized the new M-38A1 was superior.

64 Ever hear of an M-38E1? It was a prototype military Jeep developed by Willys-Overland that bridged the gap between the flat-fender M38 and round-fender M-38A1. Designed in 1951, it combined the body tub of an M38 with unique front fenders that were flat on top but rounded on the edges. To provide the increased power that the military was asking for, it was equipped with the tall F-head fourbanger. In order to make that engine fit, the hood is tall but has a rounded appearance much like the M-38A1.

Another military prototype was the 1953 Jeep Bobcat. Similar in size to the earlier MB-L, this model was likewise a two-seater but light-ened to make it easier to transport by air.

The M-38E1 came within a whisker of being produced for the army, but in the end the M-38A1 was created and became the new standard army Jeep. The M-38A1 offered everything the M-38E1 did as far as mechanical improvement, but provided much more interior room with less weight.

65 Driving a World War II–era army Jeep in the winter was cold. The soft top gave little protection from freezing weather. Although a fair number of Jeeps were given homemade enclosed bodies built by enterprising GIs, a serious effort to “winterize” the Jeep didn’t occur until after the war when US occupation forces contracted with vehicle builder Steyr in Austria to refurbish Jeeps and build enclosed cabs for them. The new cabs were extremely well built, and that wasn’t surprising because the Austrian company that had built them had previously produced military trucks and staff cars for the German army.

66 Mention military Jeeps and most people think of the Jeep MB of World War II. Realistically, the category also includes the M-series trucks based on the civilian Forward Control Jeeps. There were four basic models: the M-676 was a standard two-door pickup, the M-677 was a four-door crew cab pickup, the M-678 was a van/carryall, and the M-679 Ambulance was similar looking but without rear side windows. Production began in 1964. These vehicles, when you can find one today, are highly collectible.

67 Perhaps the rarest military Jeep of all is dubbed the CJ-4M, a military prototype based on the proposed civilian CJ-4 and related to the M-38E1. How many were built? Perhaps as few as one or two. Photos you may see on the internet show a dark-colored military prototype with a snorkel kit, which may be the civilian model with a new paint job, as well as a long-wheelbase ambulance-type vehicle. So far, only one CJ-4 has been found, and it’s the original CJ-4 serial number 01 civilian prototype. The vehicle still exists. None of the military versions have turned up so far.

Engine and Drivetrain

68 All of the initial Jeep prototypes were powered by 4-cylinder engines because using a 6-cylinder engine would have resulted in a vehicle that was much too heavy to meet the army’s strict weight requirements. Bantam fitted its vehicle with a 40-hp Continental engine that was popular in lift trucks; the Ford GP was fitted with a Ford tractor engine good for 40 hp. Willys used the same four-banger that was in its passenger cars. The Willys’ mill was a rugged, durable 134.2-ci engine that developed 60 hp at 4,000 rpm and 105 ft-lbs of torque at just 2,000 rpm, which meant it was ideal for lugging along in low range yet also capable of fairly high road speeds. The Willys engine’s compression ratio was 6.40:1, meaning the doughty little Jeep could easily run on low-quality gasoline without knock or pinging.

69 The Willys engine originated in the 1926 Whippet, a line of popular, low-priced cars built by Willys-Overland during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Developing just 30 hp at the time, the little flathead mill was fine by the standards of 1926, but sadly out of date by 1938, when it was still being used in the new Willys 48 small car.

By that point, output had been boosted to 48 hp, but the engine was noisy, rough-running, and had a well-earned reputation for being short lived. The engine tended to wear out its bearings, burn pistons, and throw rods. It had a lot of problems.

70 That bad reputation was holding down sales. Who wants to buy a car with a tired, weak engine? So during 1939, the company’s management ordered the engineering department to do something about it. Engineering vice president Barney Roos, assisted by an extremely capable young engineer named Floyd Kishline, decided to go through the engine and fix the problems one by one.

The two men found many; in the end they had to redesign the engine block to give it full-length water jackets for better, more even cooling; design a new cylinder head; engineer a new carburetor and intake and exhaust manifolds for better breathing; design better valves, water pump, bearings, pistons, air cleaner, timing gears; and much, much more. It involved a lot of work and a lot of testing, but in the end, Roos and Kishline created essentially a new engine without the extreme expense of all-new tooling.

Engine output rose from 48 hp to 60 hp, a solid 25-percent improvement, and the engine ran much smoother and quieter. At the same time, durability was vastly increased. Prior to the redesign, a stock Willys 4-cylinder engine run at full throttle usually burned out in about four hours; that’s how bad the engine was. By the time Roos was finished with it, the redesigned engine ran 100 hours or more at peak rpm with no damage.

The Roos-Kishline redesign effort made the Willys engine the most powerful and most durable four-banger in America. They called it the Willys Go-Devil. It went on to become a legend and remained in production for decades.

71 The MB’s transmission is a T-84 3-speed manual gearbox that was produced by Warner Gear. The transfer case is a 2-speed unit manufactured by Spicer Manufacturing Company, which later was renamed Dana Corporation. Some sources report that the Brown-Lippe company also supplied transfer cases to Willys-Overland.

Army test drivers were told to drive the test Jeeps until something broke, then report the problem to Willys, which would then engineer a stronger replacement part. The result was a light but extremely strong vehicle that could be produced for a relatively low price.

72 The Spicer 25 front axle used on the wartime Willys Jeep MB is a full-floating design combining the stability of a hypoid design with steerable front knuckles at the outer ends of a rigid axle housing. This combination provides good maneuverability and outstanding durability in off-road situations.

73 As sturdy as the Willys Jeep was, during early prewar days the test drivers at Camp Holabird were tougher, running the test vehicles around the clock with specific instructions to keep pounding them until something broke. One test Jeep suffered a cracked frame at 5,184 miles; another had its engine cylinders so badly worn out by 5,011 miles that the engine had to be replaced. The army had no spare engines on hand, so a couple of enterprising mechanics from Willys-Overland pulled the engine from a civilian Willys car in the parking lot!

Other problems that showed up in early testing included transfer case main bearing failures, steering pin failures, and several spring and suspension failures. The army testers forwarded their report to the Quartermaster General, who told Willys it better fix the problems if it wanted to keep the contract. Barney Roos, Willys vice president of engineering, conferred with suppliers and with Willys’ own manufacturing people and ordered them to beef up the weak parts ASAP.

74 A report found in the files of Willys-Overland refers to a wartime effort to produce a Jeep without a carburetor. Exactly how that would have worked isn’t mentioned, and I wonder if the test reports on that effort are stowed away in some obscure file at Jeep.

75 In addition to all of the Jeep vehicles it produced for World War II, Willys also produced 83,000 Go-Devil engines that were mounted and used as stationary power units and electrical generators. The company also produced the Robomb (rocket-bomb), which was the US Army’s answer to the German V-1 and V-2 rockets.

The military chose the Willys Jeep MB to be the standard Jeep for the armed forces and contracted with Ford to produce them. The Ford units are dubbed GP-W (for General Purpose) Willys. The MBs and GP-Ws are nearly identical and were designed for easy shipping.

76 By 1952, the Go-Devil was once again out of date and in need of replacing. The new Jeep M38 (Willys MC) weighed about 2,750 pounds and fully loaded could weigh just under 2 tons, which is a very heavy load for 60 hp to pull. So, when the M-38A1 was being developed, increased horsepower was ordered.

Willys management was still extremely frugal with capital investments and didn’t want to shell out the money for an all-new engine, so it instructed its engineers to somehow squeeze more juice out of the aging Go-Devil. Willys’ chief engineer Barney Roos and engineer A. C. Sampietro (Floyd Kishline had left the company) went to work on the little mill. Sampietro designed a new F-type cylinder head for the Willys mill that boosted output to 72 hp, another 20-percent boost.

77 Okay, so you’re asking: What exactly is an F-head? It’s an engine with one valve in the block, similar to an old-style L-head (or flathead) engine, and one valve in the head, similar to an OHV engine. It provides much better breathing compared to a flathead engine and thus more power. It’s a relatively cheap way to boost power in an old-style engine.

78 The little Willys Whippet 4-cylinder engine, introduced for 1926, remained in production through at least 1971 for the United States, and even longer in export markets. It became the Go-Devil engine in 1938 after Willys’ engineers went through it with a fine-tooth comb, ironing out all its bugs. Then it received another large power boost with the introduction of the F-head Hurricane version in the 1950s.

It was offered in nearly all of the postwar Willys vehicles. After Kaiser Motors took over the company, it was kept in production as the standard engine on all Kaiser Jeep CJ Jeeps, and even for the DJ-5 and DJ-6 models, as well as the Jeepster Commando series, despite it being sorely out of date by then. I asked a retired Kaiser Jeep vice president why the company continued to produce the hoary old Hurricane for so long when it was out of date, and he replied, “We did it simply because it was very cheap to make.” Oh.

This experimental multifuel engine was designed and built by Willys Motors’ engineers for the military. The goal of using multifuel engines was to make it easier to obtain and use different fuels in forward areas where gasoline might not be available, but diesel or kerosene was.

79 The 1950–1951 military M38 Jeep (also known as the Willys MC) still had the classic flat fenders up front but was given a stronger Spicer 44 rear axle and sturdy timing gears in the engine, rather than a timing chain as used previously.

80 Military Jeeps used a variety of engines over the years, but the most unique has to be the 3-cylinder Cerlist diesel engine fitted to the FC-based M-series Forward Control trucks. This unique engine produced 85 hp and 170 ft-lbs of torque and was fuel efficient and durable. The army chose them because they were also multifuel engines that could run on diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, or gasoline.

Suspension and Brakes

81 Initially, the main use that the army had in mind for the Jeep was to serve as a scout/combat car capable of carrying a 50-caliber machine gun into battle, along with at least 3,000 rounds of ammunition for it. Those were part of the army specifications. Because of the weight of the ammunition and gun and the kick of the gun as it was fired, the rear floor area of the Jeep had to be heavily reinforced to withstand the strain, and the suspension had to be beefed up to carry the weight.

82 The Jeep MB’s axles were produced by Spicer, the same company that manufactured the transfer case and today is known as Dana Corporation. For the wartime Jeeps a Spicer Model 25 axle was used up front with a Spicer Model 23-2 in the rear. And talk about customer loyalty and longevity: To this day, Dana is still a major supplier of axles to Jeep.

83 Military Jeeps used a Ross Model T-12 cam and lever–type steering gear with a cam ratio of 14-12-14. Although early civilian Jeeps use essentially the same setup, these vehicles came with different tie-rod ends and a different mounting for the bell crank.

84 The military Jeep MB sat on a ladder frame that was built by Midland Steel, a company that was in business from 1893 to 2003. One of the easiest ways to tell a Willys MB from a Ford MB is to look at the front crossmember. The Willys Jeep used a round or tubular crossmember; the Ford vehicle used a U-section design.

85 Army Jeep brakes were four-wheel drums, 9x1.75 inches, mainly because disc brakes hadn’t been invented yet. The parking brake was a drum type working on the transfer case. The brakes were supplied by Bendix, a reputable firm still in business today. Jeep wheels were ruggedly built steel 16x4.5 inchers fitted with 6.00x16-inch tires. Understandably, whitewall tires were not available.

86 The military Jeep’s suspension was as tough as possible according to the engineering standards of the day and included heavy-duty semi-elliptic leaf springs at all four wheels. The vehicle’s ride was stiff, to put it kindly, but suspension failures were rare.

87 To provide important extra strength and robustness to the Jeep’s suspension system, heavy-duty anchor and shackle spring attachments were specified.

88 The Jeep MB maximum gross vehicle weight (GVW) was 3,250 pounds, and its maximum payload was 800 pounds. Surprisingly, in light of how small the Jeep was, the vehicle was rated to pull a 3,500-pound trailer at highway speeds, with a maximum drawbar pull of 900 pounds.

Numbers Crunching and Press Commentary

89 After testing the first few prototypes from Ford, Bantam, and Willys during 1941, the army decided to give each of the companies a contract for 1,500 more vehicles. The 4,500 total vehicles would be tested further, and a winner would be chosen that would receive the big contract everyone wanted: 16,000 Jeep vehicles. Apparently, more vehicles were ordered because in the end Ford built more than 3,500 of its GP prototypes (the exact number is still debated); Bantam produced 2,674 of its MK II and its improved Bantam BRC-40; and Willys built 1,555 of its MA, making the Willys prototype (aka pilot cars) the rarest of the early Jeep vehicles.

90 According to company records, regular production of the Willys MA Jeep commenced on June 5, 1941, with serial number 78401; it ended on September 19, 1941, with serial number 79907.

A small notation to the records says that the company also produced serial numbers 85501 to 85550, which may be experimental units with four-wheel steering or some other low-volume prototype variation. They may also be Willys civilian pickup trucks beefed up for military duty because Willys was eager to sell the army its pickups, and it’s known that a small number were built.

91 The contract that Bantam, Ford, and Willys were struggling to win was set at 16,000 vehicles. In the final round, Ford bid $782.59 per vehicle, Bantam came in at $788.32. Willys made the low bid of just $748.74 per vehicle. Despite presenting the lowest bid (and for a superior vehicle, no less), the Quartermaster recommended accepting the Ford bid! He claimed that Ford was the only builder that could deliver the vehicles in quantity and on time.

At this point, William S. “Big Bill” Knudsen, the former GM president who was now in charge of military vehicle procurement, stepped in and refused to accept the Ford bid, saying that in his opinion Willys was a competent source of supply for the vehicles, and he was not about to reject the low bid. Because Knudsen was considered to be the world’s foremost authority on vehicle production (one of the reasons he was asked to oversee it for the military), the question was settled, and the contract went to Willys.

Within days, an additional 2,600 Jeep vehicles were added to the order with instructions that it had to be completed by January 18, 1942. War seemed ready to break out at any time, and the army was rushing to prepare for it.

92 A memo in Willys-Overland files provides the following information concerning the production of the Willys Model MB military Jeep:

• 1941 series production began on November 6, 1941, with serial number 100001.

• 1942 series production began on January 1, 1942, with serial number 108640.

• 1943 series production began on January 1, 1943, with serial number 199970.

• 1944 series production began on January 1, 1944, with serial number 293801.

• 1945 series production began on January 1, 1945, with serial number 402501.

When the Allies liberated Paris, they drove in triumphantly in Jeeps that were quickly thronged with grateful Parisians.

93 Once America became involved in the war, Ford Motor Company was given production contracts to supplement the vehicles being produced by Willys. Ford was instructed to produce a standardized vehicle using the Willys blueprints, so the Ford product, previously known as the GP (General Purpose) was designated the GPW (General Purpose Willys).

Both Willys and Ford were allowed to supply vehicles to Allied forces. Huge quantities of Jeeps were shipped to Great Britain, Africa, India, and China; pretty much anywhere forces were fighting for freedom. More than 80,000 Jeeps were sent to Russia, which were used to spearhead the ultimately devastating mobilized campaign against the German army.

94 Company records indicate that during 1943, Willys-Overland produced 91,777 Jeep vehicles; of that total, 1,000 were special firefighter units.

The flag of free France flew again over the Eiffel Tower as victorious GIs liberated our oldest ally.

95 According to an official report issued by Kaiser Jeep Corporation, Willys-Overland Company and its successor companies’ military Jeep production from 1940 through 1963 was as follows:

• Willys MA 1,800 vehicles built 1940–1941

• Willys MB 368,714 vehicles built 1941–1945

• Willys MC (aka M38) 60,345 vehicles built 1950–1952

• Willys MD (aka M-38A1) 90,529 vehicles built 1952–1963

That’s a total of 521,388 Jeeps plus the two Willys Quad prototypes. Some reference sources claim the MD went out of production in 1955, not 1963. The memo referenced above may include M-170 models in the MD totals because the M-170 is basically a lengthened and reengineered Jeep MD.

96 Popular legend has it that Ford built more Jeeps during World War II than Willys did. You’ll even see it stated as fact in many books, and I can’t count the number of times people have told me this as fact. However, if you compare the numbers for 1940 to 1945, Willys produced 370,514 production models (MA and MB) while Ford built 283,767 units (GP and GPW). So Willys was clearly the leader.

97 Although the military Jeep MB quickly earned a reputation for being able to go anywhere, less is said about how fast it was. Top speed was reported to be about 60 mph, which doesn’t sound very fast today, but it was considered outstanding back then, especially for a four-wheel-drive vehicle that was classified as a quarter-ton truck. Many civilian trucks had a much lower top speed, even 6-cylinder jobs with two-wheel drive. Earlier four-wheel-drive army trucks were lucky to do 40 mph. The Quad trucks of World War I topped out at about 20 mph. So it’s no wonder the military was impressed by the little Jeep.

98 As things turned out, the Jeep arrived just in the nick of time. Willys MB production began on November 18, 1941. A mere three weeks later, Japanese bombers launched a sneak attack on the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, even as representatives of the government of Japan were in Washington, supposedly negotiating to prevent a war that they had already decided to start. The level of treachery and dishonesty that was displayed by the empire of Japan is unequaled in history.

99 Jeep vehicles were meant to haul military supplies to the front, so it’s not surprising that there was a lot of demand for Jeep trailers during World War II. Several companies were contracted to produce them. Nash Motors built many, as did Bantam Motors. Willys-Overland built 78,731 Jeep trailers between 1942 and 1944.

100 In many books about Jeep history you see photos of the American Motors Mighty Mite, but you don’t see it here. Why not? Because the Mighty Mite is completely unrelated to Jeep. It’s not a Jeep and has no business being in a Jeep book. You also do not see the M-151 Mutt in this book because it too has no relationship to Jeep. The M-151 was designed and built by Ford (though Willys did build about 18,000 of them after underbidding Ford for a small contract). In fact, it was the M-151 that replaced the Willys Jeep during the late 1950s.

101 A lot of people don’t know that optional equipment was offered even on the military MBs. The options included a 12-volt conversion kit for radio use, an arctic conditions kit, a hot weather kit, a front-mounted capstan drive winch, big 7.50-16 flotation tires, a deep-water fording kit, decontamination kit, and more. No, air-conditioning wasn’t available.

102 One little “fact” that you often hear is that World War II Jeeps came in only one color: US Army Olive Drab. But that’s not entirely true. The fact is, there were actually two more standard choices: US Marine Corps Green and US Navy Gray. In later years, the color palette for military Jeeps grew even larger.

103 Willys military Jeep production for World War II ended on August 25, 1945, with serial number 459841. Civilian production of CJ-2As began on June 16, 1945, which means that for two months Willys was producing both civilian and military vehicles. Neat.

104 One of the more interesting production years in military Jeep history is 1952. With the war in Korea, the military needed Jeeps fast. The new M-38A1 (MD) was coming into production alongside the outgoing M38 (MC). A production schedule found in Jeep’s corporate files says that in 1952, Willys produced 22,561 MC Jeeps and 25,555 MDs, for a total of 48,116 military Jeeps for the United States. The company also produced 2,090 MCs and 750 MDs for the Canadian military.

105 For 1957, Willys introduced a new military vehicle: the M-274 Mechanical Mule. Basically a stripped and simplified chassis and platform, the Mechanical Mule was sold to military customers only as a low-cost alternative to a Jeep or a truck. By this point, Willys’ military sales were very low and the company was trying to come up with new products to sell to the army.

106 The Willys XM-443 experimental platform vehicle is often confused by historians with the earlier M-274 Mechanical Mule, but they are completely different. The XM-443 was meant to be a direct replacement for the military Jeep M-38A1 and was created to compete with Ford Motor Company’s M-151 Mutt. Although Willys built many of the XM-443s for testing and merchandising efforts, apparently none were sold to the military. It’s not known if any have survived. When the army turned down the XM-443, Willys tried to interest several of its overseas customers, but to the best of my knowledge, none were ordered or built.

This experimental Jeep XM-443E was created as a supplement and/or eventual replacement for the Jeep MD. Willys Motors built a number of these vehicles, but the US Army declined to purchase them in volume.

107 Once the M-38A1 was replaced by Ford’s M-151 by the US Army, Kaiser Jeep Corporation continued to build small numbers of Jeep vehicles for military forces overseas. The company also began to offer production partnerships with various countries in which Kaiser Jeep and the client country arranged for local manufacturing of Jeep vehicles. Kaiser Jeep sold the clients all of the parts needed to build Jeeps and sent experts to help them set up local production.

Kaiser Jeep Corporation earned a royalty on each vehicle produced, as well as the profits on the parts kits. This business ended up being extremely profitable. In fact, it became more profitable than the civilian Jeep production for the United States.

108 Although many enthusiasts consider the M-422 Mighty Mite to be a Jeep, it’s not. The same rule applies to the M-151 Mutt, except to note that Willys actually did build them for a short time. The M-151 was designed and originally produced by Ford Motor Company. Willys managed to underbid them on one contract in the early 1960s. Later, AM General began producing M-151s instead of Ford.

109 It’s not known how many of the Forward Control–based M-series military trucks were produced, but one source claims about 3,000 in all, with 1,200 of them being powered by the Cerlist diesel engine and the rest using the Willys 226-ci 6-cylinder engine. According to legend, Kaiser Jeep had to go through its 226 engine to make it more reliable before the army would accept them in the M-series.

110 By 1964, Kaiser Jeep’s US military business was tiny, so it purchased the military business of Studebaker Corporation, which had recently ended US car production. In one of the greatest deals of the 20th century, Kaiser Jeep obtained a newer plant in South Bend, Indiana, along with a contract to produce 9,369 5-ton tactical trucks, which was soon followed by a large order for 2½-ton trucks. For the first time, Jeep was building military vehicles other than Jeeps and Mechanical Mules and found them surprisingly profitable. The new operation eventually evolved into AM General, the largest tactical truck producer in the world.

111 In 1966, Kaiser Jeep Corporation added to its military business by winning a big contract to produce the M-715 series, designed to replace the ancient but respected M37 Dodge Power Wagon. Based on the civilian Jeep Gladiator pickup, the Kaiser M-715 was offered in four basic variations: M-715 cargo/troop carrier, M-724 cab and chassis, M-725 ambulance, and M-726 utility body.

Once the market for Jeep M-38A1s had dried up, Willys Motors was able to continue as a major factor in military vehicles. In 1966, it showed off this M-715 military truck, which was based on the Jeep J-series Gladiator pickup. Produced in several versions, it was built from 1967 to 1969.

Rated at 1¼-ton capacity, it was nicknamed the “five quarter ton” truck by soldiers. It was powered by the Kaiser overhead cam (OHC) 6-cylinder engine, which gave decent performance, though the same engine did not do well in civilian vehicles, where it had a reputation for oil leaks and short life. According to popular stories, the military versions of the engines were built stronger and have improved sealing to eliminate oil leaks.

112 So how good was the wartime military business for Willys-Overland? Prior to the war, it struggled to survive. But from July 1941 to August 1945, Willys-Overland’s gross receipts for Jeeps and Jeep parts totaled $464,963,926. That’s an incredible amount for such a small company. It also sold the military some $60 million worth of 155-mm shells and $19 million worth of trailers. Willys also produced a great many other wartime products.

113 The Ford Mutt (aka the M-151) was a Jeep-like vehicle that the army began purchasing in the late 1950s. A unibody vehicle, it was lighter and more modern than the Willys, though it suffered from on-road handling problems. Ford thus stole the US Army business away from Willys Motors for a while, though for 1962, Willys successfully underbid Ford on its own product and won a contract to build 18,000 M-151s in Toledo.

114 Kaiser Jeep was a major player in the military vehicle business until 1970, when American Motors purchased the company and spun off the former military division into a separate company known as the General Products Division. In 1971, this entity was renamed and became incorporated as AM General. From that point on, any military vehicles produced by Jeep Corporation were incidental to the business. Jeep Corporation was to focus on civilian products and leave the military business to AM General. It did so, with a few exceptions.

From 1971 on, the military vehicle business was produced by a spin-off company called AM General. However, even then, Jeep produced small numbers of military vehicles from time to time, as this 1978 militarized CJ-5 illustrates. It is one of 65 produced for the US Army.

115 One of the most unusual military Jeeps of all time is the 1970s era DJ-5 Dispatcher in military trim. Essentially a postal Jeep in military garb, it was pitched as a low-cost staff car, rear-area dispatch carrier, and military police vehicle. Powered by the American Motors 232-ci 6-cylinder, it was fitted with a 3-speed automatic transmission. It could be ordered with left- or right-hand steering.

116 Another unusual military Jeep was the CJ-10A. A short, squat, little Jeep built for the air force to tow planes around airfields, the CJ-10A was essentially a short-wheelbase version of the exportmarket CJ-10 pickup and was built in limited numbers. You still see them around, and occasionally one comes up for sale.

117 So, whatever became of Jeep’s military business? As noted, in 1970 it was spun off as the General Products Division, then in 1971 was renamed AM General Corporation. AM General is still in business as a privately owned company and is headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, the old hometown of Studebaker’s military business. AM General’s best-known product today is the military Humvee, which comes in many variations.

118 Want to have a laugh? Watch the otherwise outstanding war movie Patton, starring George C. Scott. Although mostly accurate, you quickly notice that some of the World War II Jeeps are actually postwar models that were repainted Olive Drab. The producers probably hoped you wouldn’t notice.

119 Popular Science magazine came up with 1,001 possible peacetime jobs for the Jeep. Having had to come up with 1,001 facts about Jeep for this book, my sympathy goes out to them!

120 Despite claims of “Surplus Jeeps Selling for As Little As $25,” the actual selling prices of most surplus Jeeps averaged $400 to $600, according to an article written by US Army Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Conley. The key words in any selling headline is “As Little As,” because the ones that sold for that amount (assuming any actually were, which I doubt) were probably only good for scrap.

121 I almost forgot the 2007 military Jeep J-8. It’s easy to not know what a J-8 is because they were only produced in Egypt by a joint-venture company known as Arab American Vehicles (AAV). Originally set up in conjunction with American Motors, AAV produced the Wrangler and the prior-generation Cherokee for Middle East markets. Its original purpose was mainly to produce military vehicles for the Egyptian army. Originally it assembled the CJ-6, but it expanded in later years to other models, including a brawny version of the Jeep Wrangler TJL series (long wheelbase) called the J-8 (aka J8 MILSPEC). The neat thing about them is that they offered unique models such as an ambulance, pickup, and extended-wheelbase two-door.