I lived in Belgium for many years. The collection and preservation of American WW2 military vehicles is quite popular in Europe. One can expect a contingent of these vehicles in most parades. The Europeans have not forgotten. In the late 50s we picked up a Ford military surplus Jeep for use on the farm. With information from this video, I can recognize that it was from later in the production run.
The lineage of the modern Jeep Wrangler can be traced back to these early beginnings. Another military vehicle (the M-151) replaced the military 'jeep'. And the -151 was replaced by the HMMWV or Humvee. Just like the first 'GP', the -151 was built by Ford, but production was swapped over to Kaiser and AMG. Cheers! Thanks for the tour!
I do believe there where also quite a few differences between the Willys MB and the Ford GP. Mostly minor things. One i believe was that on Willys models the toolbox/ storage box lids where different to the Ford ones. One manufacturers was just a flat piece of metal, while the others had stamped ribbing for stiffness in it
Some research I ran across: • July 22nd, 1940, American Bantam was awarded the initial contract. They submitted the ‘Blitz Buggy’ to Baltimore thus meeting the 75 day requirement. The U.S. Army knew Bantam did not have the production capacity, or the finances available, to meet their needs during a war. • Willys-Overland and Ford were invited to create a prototype using the blueprints from American Bantam. In a few weeks, both Ford and Willys-Overland had their vehicles designed. • 11-13-40 Willys-Overland delivered the Willys Quad. 11-23-40 Ford delivered the Ford Pigmy. The Ford was the only one which passed the initial testing. All three companies were asked to follow the Ford design to each create 1500 prototypes. After further testing of the prototypes, the final design was submitted and thus the birth of the WW2 JEEP. • All three companies were awarded the final contract and each vehicle got a new name: o Willys MB o Ford GPW o Bantam BRC-40
@@kensmithgallery4432 As a fellow GPW owner, 1943, I gathered this info for a poster in the garage. Feel free to use, update, or correct anything needed. Thanks for what you do! In the summer of 1940, the U.S. knew it was going to war. The U.S. War Department recognized an aging fleet of military vehicles and desired a lightweight, 3 seat, 4WD ‘War Automobile’. The request was for a ¼ ton vehicle used for ‘light reconnaissance’. July 11th , 1940, U.S. Government issued a bid request to 135 U.S Manufacturers. They were given 11 days to respond, 49 days to have a prototype ready, and 75 days to have an initial run of 70 vehicles. Only two companies responded: Willys- Overland and American Bantam. It only took two days to design the original jeep. Carl Probst, an American freelance engineer with Bantam, started his design work on July 17th, 1940 and submitted his drawings on July 19th, 1940. July 22nd, 1940, American Bantam was awarded the initial contract. They submitted the ‘Blitz Buggy’ to Baltimore thus meeting the 75 day requirement. The U.S. Army knew Bantam did not have the production capacity, or the finances available, to meet their needs during a war. Willys-Overland and Ford were invited to create a prototype using the blueprints from American Bantam. In a few weeks, both Ford and Willys-Overland had their vehicles designed. 11-13-40 Willys-Overland delivered the Willys Quad. 11-23-40 Ford delivered the Ford Pigmy. The Ford was the only one who passed the initial testing. All three companies were asked to follow the Ford design to each create 1500 prototypes. After further testing of the prototypes, the final design was submitted and thus the birth of the WW2 JEEP. All three companies were awarded the final contract and each vehicle got a new name: o Willys MB o Ford GPW o Bantam BRC-40 Willys-Overland manufactured 363,000 Willy’s MB. Ford manufactured 280,000 Ford GPW. American Bantam manufactured 2,605 of the BRC-40. Total number of jeeps built in WW2 was over 645,000. On 10-13-1942, ‘Old Faithful’ (a Willys MB) suffered damage in the pacific war. It was the first vehicle to receive a Purple Heart! The New York Museum of Modern Art includes a WW2 JEEP in its display of eight automobiles and regards it as “one of the very few genuine expressions of machine art”.
At 11:10 it looks like he has a weld coming apart on the windshield frame. I really can't tell but it did catch my eye. A beautiful example of a WWII workhorse.
