Willys MB
The Willys MB and the Ford GPW, both formally called the U.S. Army truck, ton, 4×4, command reconnaissance, commonly known as the Willys Jeep, Jeep, or jeep, and sometimes referred to by its Standard Army vehicle supply number G-503, were highly successful American off-road capable, light military utility vehicles. Well over 600,000 were built to a single standardized design, for the United States and the Allied forces in World War II, from 1941 until 1945. This also made it the world's first mass-produced four-wheel-drive car, built in six-figure numbers.
The -ton jeep became the primary light, wheeled, multi-role vehicle of the United States military and its allies. With some 640,000 units built, the ton jeeps constituted a quarter of the total military support motor vehicles that the U.S. produced during the war, and almost two-thirds of the 988,000 light 4WD vehicles produced, when counted together with the Dodge WC series. Large numbers of jeeps were provided to U.S. allies, including the Soviet Union at the time. Aside from large amounts of 1- and 2ton trucks, and 25,000 ton Dodges, some 50,000 ton jeeps were shipped to help Russia during WWII, against Nazi Germany's total production of just over 50,000 Kübelwagens, the jeep's primary counterpart.
Historian Charles K. Hyde wrote: "In many respects, the jeep became the iconic vehicle of World War II, with an almost mythological reputation of toughness, durability, and versatility." It became the workhorse of the American military, replacing horses, other draft animals, and motorcycles in every role, from messaging and cavalry units to supply trains. In addition, improvised field modifications made the jeep capable of just about any other function soldiers could think of. Military jeeps were adopted by countries all over the world, so much so that they became the most widely used and recognizable military vehicle in history.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War II, wrote in his memoirs that most senior officers regarded it as one of the five pieces of equipment most vital to success in Africa and Europe. General George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the US Army during the war, called the vehicle "America's greatest contribution to modern warfare." In 1991, the MB Jeep was designated an "International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark" by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
After WWII, the original jeep continued to serve, in the Korean War and other conflicts, until it was updated in the form of the M38 Willys MC and M38A1 Willys MD, and received a complete redesign by Ford in the form of the 1960-introduced M151 jeep. Its influence, however, was much greater than that—manufacturers worldwide began building jeeps and similar designs, either under license or not—at first primarily for military purposes, but later also for the civilian market. Willys turned the MB into the civilian Jeep in 1945, making the world's first mass-produced civilian four-wheel drive. The "Jeep" name was trademarked and grew into a successful and highly valued brand.
The success of the jeep inspired both an entire category of recreational 4WDs and SUVs, making "four-wheel drive" a household term, and numerous incarnations of military light utility vehicles. In 2010, the American Enterprise Institute called the jeep "one of the most influential designs in automotive history." Its "sardine tin on wheels" silhouette and slotted grille made it instantly recognizable, and it has evolved into the currently produced Jeep Wrangler still largely resembling the original jeep design.
History
The design challenge and achievement
By 1940, U.S. policies had caused a stark disadvantage compared to Nazi Germany's aim, building a standard fleet of Wehrmacht motor vehicles. Since 1933, the German industry could only produce Wehrmacht-approved trucks. The U.S. Quartermaster's only significant success for standardization, through late September 1939 Army Regulations on tactical trucks, was that the War Department limited procurement to just five payload chassis types, from ton to ton—but only "models produced commercially by two or more competing companies..." The Army was still to use "commercially standard" trucks and parts, with only minor modifications, like brush-guards, tow-hooks, etc. Specially designed vehicles or a standardized truck fleet were still ruled out. "This policy was intended to assure speedy production at the outbreak of war, regardless of the maintenance and spare parts problems that might develop later." The new rules more or less allowed the Army to order, in late 1939, the U.S. military's first ever light, quantity-produced 4×4 trucks: the half-ton Dodge G-505 VC-series trucks, delivered in the first half of 1940. Although so well received, that the preproduction order of under 5000 units was followed by nearly 80,000 additional units ordered for 1941, these rigs were still nowhere near small, light and nimble enough for the jobs that both the Infantry and Ordnance branches required it for. By contrast, Germany had already completed a development program to produce off-road capable "Standardized Military Vehicles", from 1933 to 1938, which had already yielded a fleet of tens of thousands of standardized vehicles for the German Army. Moreover, lessons were learned, and a second program to develop a cheap, light, nimble multipurpose off-roader, the Volkswagen Kübelwagen, had already started in 1938. America's military faced a severe catch-up in time and knowledge. In June 1940, the race was on to produce a lightweight, four-wheel-drive cross-country vehicle for the U.S. Army, capable of carrying equipment and personnel across rough terrain.The idea of the jeep originated with the infantry, which needed a low-profile, powerful vehicle with four-wheel drive and it was turned over to commercial companies to deliver—the development repeatedly being described as a "design by committee." In fall 1941, Lt. E.P. Hogan of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps wrote: "Credit for the original design of the Army's truck ton, 4×4, may not be claimed by any single individual or manufacturer. This vehicle is the result of much research and many tests." Hogan credited both military and civilian engineers, especially those working at the Holabird Quartermaster Depot. Nevertheless, Bantam is credited with inventing the original ton jeep in 1940.
However, Willys' advertising and branding during and after the war aimed to make the world recognize Willys as the creator of the jeep. It was engineer Delmar G. Roos who submitted and was awarded design patent 136819, assigned to Willys-Overland which set up the familiar Jeep design having a very slightly tapered front clamshell hood, vertical grille slats and integrated headlights into the front fascia which distinguished it from the original Bantam design. When Willys first applied to trademark the "Jeep" name in February 1943, Bantam, Ford, and other companies objected, because of their contributions to the jeep and the war effort. Although many different companies advertised their patriotic efforts to producing the ton jeeps—including Ford, featuring their own GPW jeeps in their ads—nobody took their claims as far as Willys-Overland, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission opened a case, charging Willys-Overland with misrepresentation in their advertising and news claims, on 6 May 1943. According to The New York Times, the FTC ruled that Willys did not perform the "spectacular achievement" of creating, designing and perfecting the "jeep" together with U.S. Army Quartermaster officers, but that: "The idea of creating a 'jeep' was said by the FTC... to have been originated by the American Bantam of Butler, PA ' and to have been developed by that company." Willys appealed this ruling, and after a five-year investigation, in 1948 the FTC again ruled that "Willys was unfairly taking credit for the creation and was thus using unfair methods of competition. The FTC ordered Willys to stop claiming they were the sole creator of the Jeep."
Some 70 years later, in a late 2012 article, the Defense Acquisition Research Journal still called the jeep design "...a product of a massive team effort, including all three manufacturers as well as Army engineers, both military and civilian."
Moreover, in 2015, the Pennsylvania General Assembly unanimously adopted a non-controversial House Resolution : "...commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Bantam jeep, invented and originally manufactured in Butler, Pennsylvania," therein explicitly resolving that Bantam of Butler, PA, invented the jeep, calling it "one of the most famous vehicles in the world," were the only party to deliver a working prototype of a light four-wheel drive reconnaissance car within the required seven weeks, which withstood 30 days of Army testing at Camp Holabird, then further developed that car, and manufactured 2,675 jeeps, before losing further production contracts to Willys and Ford Motor Company, for fear that Bantam would not be able to ramp up production to 75 jeeps a day, and after the Army handed Ford and Willys the blueprints of Bantam's detailed technical drawings—though Bantam proved highly capable and productive during the war, entrusted with manufacturing torpedo-motors and more.
However, on 7 April 1942, U.S. patent 2278450 for the WWII jeep, titled "Military vehicle body" had been awarded to the U.S. Army, which had applied for it, listing Colonel Byron Q. Jones as the inventor on the patent, though he had performed no work on the design of the vehicle. Filed on 8 October 1941, stating in the application that "The invention described herein, if patented, may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty thereon," the patent relates to a "small car vehicle body having convertible features whereby it is rendered particularly desirable for military purposes" and describes the purpose as being "a convertible small car body so arranged that a single vehicle may be interchangeably used as a cargo truck, personnel carrier, emergency ambulance, field beds, radio car, trench mortar unit, mobile anti-aircraft machine gun unit, or for other purposes."