Jeep 1941 - 2001

The Original 4x4 Sport Utility vehicle is now 60 years old. Here we chart the meteoric rise from a military drawing board to one of the best selling off-road vehicles of all time.

1940-1946 THE SEARCH BEGINS:

MILITARY PRODUCTION

In a 1940s memo to Willys-Overland officials from Col. A. W Herrington of the Marmon-Herrington Co., Herrington called both the origin of the Jeep itself and its name the subjects of bitter controversy.

"The reasons are obvious," wrote Herrington. "The prestige of the Jeep as the most remarkable vehicular development in 50 years of automotive history is an invaluable asset to any individual or firm which can claim credit for it"

That perhaps was the automotive understatement of the past 50 years. As early as 1938, as hostilities began to flare in Western Europe, the U.S. Army put the word out to all automobile manufacturers they were searching for a light reconnaissance vehicle to replace the motorised tricycle side-car combination traditionally used for messenger and advance reconnaissance duties.

Answering that call, C.H. Payne of the American Bantam Car Co. in Butler, Pa., approached Army officers in the summer of 1939 with a design for a dispatch vehicle to replace the motorcycle and side-car. That design made its way into three Bantam test models delivered to the Army in September 1939. Each weighed 1,275 pounds, but after being tested were all rejected as having no military use.

While the Army was listening to Bantam, Ward M. Canaday, Willys-Overland chairman, held the first discussion of a Willys-built "mosquito" car with Army officials. After further talks and interest from Army officials, Canaday ordered initial research by Delmar "Barney" Roos, the Willys-Overland vice president of engineering. Preliminary sketches of a mosquito car were given to Col. Rutherford, chief of the Planning Section of the General Staff, on December 22, 1939.

From those sketches came the original Willys-Overland concept of the vehicle that would soon be known to the world as the Jeep - a light, manouverable, powerful all-purpose vehicle capable of utility uses as well as a weapon carrier. The "weapon carrier" potential was something Bantam had not considered in its designs earlier that year.

In February 1940, Barney Roos received a letter from Col. A.W. Herrington regarding the "Howie Bellyflopper," a small, 4-wheel vehicle that required the driver to lie on his stomach and thus provide a low silhouette. On March 15, 1940, Roos and J. W Frazier, president of Willys-Overland, examined this vehicle at Camp Benning, Ga. While it was the first concrete example of the Army's search for a weapons carrier as well as a reconnaissance car, it was a crude effort to reach the same objectives on which Barney Roos had been working since the fall of 1939.

At Fort Benning, Frazier and Roos discussed with Gen. Walter C. Short the extent to which Willys-Overland research had gone in designing an entirely new kind of military vehicle.

BACK TO BANTAM

On June 20 and 21, 1940, Army officers went to the Bantam plant in Butler, Pa. to examine a second Bantam reconnaissance model. The Bantam model was rejected as too light, marking the second occasion on which Bantam proposals were rejected.

The Army stepped up the pressure on July 11, 1940, when it mailed requests for bids to 135 manufacturers for delivery of 70 vehicles. The vehicle the Army sought was to weigh 1,300 pounds, carry a 660-pound payload, be powered by an engine capable of 85 pound feet of torque, and have a wheelbase not more than 80 inches and tread not more than 47 inches. The bid request included a 49-day pilot car delivery stipulation and 70-vehicle delivery stipulation of 75 days.

Willys-Overland was the low bidder. However, Bantam was the only company that committed to pilot car delivery in 49 days and total delivery in 75 days. Willys had bid 75 days for delivery of the pilot and 120 days for total delivery. Bantam received the bid.

Willys' Bamey Roos may have lost the bidding war, but he was not about to fade away without putting in his two-cents-worth regarding the type of vehicle the Army thought it needed. Along with the Willys' bid, Roos amended a statement that "no substantial vehicle" could be built at the weight specified --1,300 pounds.

Roos also explained his objections to the delivery date and weight limitations to Major H.J. Lawes, the purchasing and contracting officer for Camp Holabird. Lawes suggested that Willys-Overland build its own pilot model for testing. That same advice was given to Ford Motor Co., which also lost the bidding war. It was clear that the Government was anxious to have as many designs as possible in interpreting this specification - bidding war or not, a real war was raging in Europe. Roos' plan was to disregard the weight specification and build the vehicle as sturdily as possible, but always keeping in mind the weight requirements. Money was immediately appropriated by Willys-Overland for the development of two pilot vehicles.

WWII allies came to beleive that the Jeep was indestructable

THE FIRST PROTOTYPES ARRIVE

On September 23, 1940, Bantam, led by their brilliant designer Karl Probst, delivered a prototype, named the "Blitz Buggy to Camp Holabird. Among those in attendance to view the testing were Roos and Gene Rice of the Willys-Overland engineering staff. Rice was amazed at the agility, stamina, and compactness of the Bantam vehicle and returned to Toledo to spur on the engineering group he was heading. That group had already been working on a Willys-Overland prototype and what he saw at Camp Holabird had triggered some new ideas.

Shortly after Rice returned to Toledo, the two Willys-Overland vehicles were delivered on November 11, 1940 to Army officials at Camp Holabird. Both vehicles, nicknamed "Quads' had a choice of two-wheel or four-wheel drive, while one offered four-wheel steering. The Quad raised the interest of the Army and the ire of the Bantam people.

Internal Willys-Overland documents called a charge from Bantam that the Willys engineers had lifted design ideas "ridiculous." However, in fairness to the Bantam "Blitz Buggy" designer Probst, the Willys prototypes were remarkably similar in looks to the Bantam prototype. The similarity was no coincidence. Both Ford and Willys technical representatives at Holabird had ample opportunity to study the Bantam under test. In fact, in order to expedite production, the Army had given them free access to Bantam blueprints.

The prototypes from Bantam, Willys and Ford did have their differences. While the 2,030 pound Bantam vehicle didn't meet the original 1,300-pound weight requirement, it was lighter than the 2,400-pound Willys. However, the strength in the Willys vehicle was the fact that it was the only one that met the Army's power specifications. In fact, the Willys 105 pound feet of torque not only exceeded the requirement, it dwarfed Bantam's 83 and Ford's 85 pound feet of torque.

The Willys "Go-Devil" engine had greater displacement and horsepower. The engine, like 65 percent of the prototype's parts, had come from the Willys Americar, tested and tried in years of service while the Bantam and Ford models were entirely new and different from their civilian products.

With prototypes from the three companies in hand, the Army ordered 4,500 vehicles, 1,500 from each company, in order to test all three designs in the field. The order accompanied the Army's recognition that the 1,300-pound weight requirement was neither sound nor realistic. Barney Roos' earlier objections were realized as legitimate. The new weight requirement was 2,160 pounds, or 240 pounds under the Willys prototype "Quad."

For Quad it was diet time if Willys-Overland hoped to receive the government contract.

"The problem that confronted me' said Roos, "was whether or not we should redesign our pilot model to meet this weight specification and stick to the Willys-Overland engine, or to simply go out and buy a Continental engine as Bantam was doing and redesign our vehicle.

We knew from the report of tests conducted at Holabird on our vehicle that they liked its performance, power and ride."

Roos decided that the engine was much too valuable to alter, so he and his staff completely disassembled the car and, part by part, bolt by bolt, began to reassemble it. Each part was evaluated with respect to weight and whether a lighter material could be substituted. They trimmed off bolts that were longer than needed; they cut material here and there, and by the time the new vehicle was put back together, it was within seven ounces of the weight restriction.

JEEP IS A GO-DEVIL

Delivery of the 4,500 models began in June 1941, and after studying the production models, the Army decided to standardize one basic design. Of all the features taken into consideration in the standardization process, the Willys-Overland unit was elected as the standard with certain modifications to incorporate some of the superior features of the Ford and Bantam models.

In July 1941, Willys then underbid Bantam and Ford in an all-or-nothing contract for 16,000 vehicles at a rate of 125 per day. Bantam's small production capacity was a disadvantage. Later that same year, the Quartermaster Corps of the Army, pressed for other sources of supply, requested that WillysOverland turn over designs of its vehicle to Ford in order for the manufacturer to build 15,000 vehicles.

During World War II, Willys and Ford filled more than 600,000 orders for Jeep vehicles, with W-O supplying more than 368,000 units. Bantam supplied only 2,675 units, most of which were given to England and the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease Act. Production of the Bantam vehicles ceased just prior to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

"The origin of the name itself is open for debate: It may have evolved from Eugene the Jeep, a comic-strip character popular in the late Thirties. But what's not debatable is what the brand has come to mean. Jeep spells off-road ability. And whether you're afan of the brand or not, you must admit that the company has a well-earned reputation for building vehicles that can tackle just about anything. It's that go-anywhere potential that has made 'Only in a Jeep' something more than an ad slogan." - 4-WHEEL AND OFF-ROAD MAGAZINE, JUNE 1990

During the war the Jeep was adopted as THE form of transport for every type of unit

THE NAME GAME

As Willys-Overland began production in earnest on its versatile all-purpose military vehicle, classified the MA and later in 1941 classified as the MB, the name Jeep became synonymous with it and in no time at all had become a household word.

However, just as the subject of the creator of the vehicle is wrought with controversy, so is the origin of the name "Jeep."

Many people say it comes from the slurring of the acronym G.P, or General Purpose. the designation the Army gave to the quarter-ton, front-wheel-drive reconnaissance car.

However, according to Col. A.W Herrington, the name was used in Oklahoma as early as 1934 to designate a truck equipped with special equipment for drilling oil wells.

Still another "source" of the name is a test driver for ~ products of the Minneapolis-Moline Power Implement Co.

In an affidavit, company officials claim that Sergeant James T O'Brien, in mid- 1940, while attached to the 109th Ordinance Co. at Ft. Ripley, participated in a test of a "4- or 6-wheel vehicle" designed by the firm. He reportedly called the vehicle a "Jeep' in reference to the character Eugene the Jeep in the 1936 Popeye comic strip by E. C. Segar. Eugene the Jeep was a small, impish-looking animal that had the power to travel back and forth between dimensions and could solve all sorts of problems.

The reference to Eugene the Jeep prompted an April 23,1944 editorial in the Washington Post. "As to the origin of the monosyllable (Jeep), there appears to be neither mystery nor controversy. It first appeared as a generic name of an amiable and exotic creature of indeterminate sex, introduced about the middle of the 1930s into what was then a highly popular comic cartoon strip."

But then again, Irving "Red" Hausmann, a Willys-Overland test driver who drove the first pilot model to Camp Holabird, recalled, "Some distinction had to be made as to a name for our vehicle. I took a lot of pride in the vehicle we had developed, and I didn't like people confusing it with the Bantam 'Blitz Buggy' or the Ford 'GP', so I picked up the name that the soldiers at Camp Holabird had been using'

Even though Red did not create or invent the word Jeep, he very well could be the one most responsible for its first news media usage. He gave a demonstration ride to a group of dignitaries in Washington, D.C. Among the group was Katherine Hillyer, a reporter for the Washington Daily News. During the demonstration ride, he referred to the vehicle as a "Jeep. Hillyer's article appeared in the newspaper on February 20,1941, with a photo caption that read, "Jeep Creeps Up Capitol Steps."

What is not in dispute is the service Jeep vehicles rendered in World War II. The late General George C. Marshall called the Jeep vehicle, "America's greatest contribution to modern warfare."

The Jeep served in every WWII theater as a litterbearer, machine gun firing mount, reconnaissance vehicle, pickup truck, front line limousine, ammo bearer, wire-layer and taxi.

In the Ardennes during the 1944-45 Battle of the Bulge, Jeep vehicles, loaded with stretchers and draped with wounded, raced to safety ahead of spearheading Nazi armour.

In the sands of the Sahara, the morass of New Guinea and the snow fields of Iceland, Jeep vehicles hauled the .37mm anti-tank cannons to firing sites.

In Egypt, the British used a combat patrol of Jeep vehicles to knock out a fleet of fuel tankers enroute to Rommel's armor forces on the eve of the battle of El Alamein. At Guadalcanal, Jeep vehicles went in with the U.S. Marines. The Jeep name became so distinguished that on June 13, 1950, Willys-Overland registered the Jeep name as a trademark both in the United States and internationally. Today, Jeep is a registered trademark of the Chrysler Corporation.

How the Jeep Developed from 1941 through to 1963

1940-1946	Military Production
1946-1950	Move to Civilisation
1950-1960	Goodbye Willys Overland
1960-1970	The Sporty Utility
1970-1980	The AMC years
1980-1990	The X factor
1990-2001	Setting New Benchmarks