Willys

Willys MB

The Willys MB ( WIL-iss) and the Ford GPW, both formally called the U.S. Army truck, 1⁄4‑ton, 4×4, command reconnaissance, commonly known as the Willys Jeep, or simply 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. 626,727 units 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 1⁄4-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 1⁄4‑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 11⁄2- and 21⁄2‑ton trucks, and 25,000 3⁄4‑ton Dodges, some 50,000 1⁄4‑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. Jeeps were adopted into the militaries of countries all over the world, so much so that they became the most widely used and most recognizable type of 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 (in 1949 and 1952 respectively), 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 CJ Jeeps, starting with the CJ-2A in 1945, producing 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.

Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Successor: Jeep CJ|Willys M38

All Willys MB data: UK builds, safety, recalls, model years →

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 (German armed forces) 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 (categories), from 1⁄2‑ton to 7+1⁄2‑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" (the Einheits-PKW der Wehrmacht), from 1933 to 1938, which had already yielded a fleet of tens of thousands of standardized vehicles for the German Army. Moreover, lessons were

Etymology

There is no consensus among historians as to how the U.S. Army's World War II quarter-ton reconnaissance car became known as the "jeep", let alone how the word originated in the first place. Explanations have proven difficult to verify. With certainty, the term "jeep" was already in use before the war, designating various things, while the "1⁄4‑ton trucks" at first had many different designations and nicknames. Eugene the Jeep and prior usage of "jeep". According to several knowledgeable authors, the word "jeep" was used well before World War II; career soldiers used it since World War I – both as casual U.S. Army slang for new, uninitiated recruits or other personnel who still had to prove their mettle, as well as used by Army motor pool mechanics, about any new, unproven vehicles or prototypes. Zaloga also describes use as an adjective: "jeepy," similar to "cooky" or "goofy," to mean anything insignificant, silly, awkward or foolish. Later, in mid-March 1936, a character called Eugene the Jeep was created in E. C. Segar's Popeye cartoons. Eugene the Jeep was Popeye's "jungle pet" and was small, able to walk through walls and move between dimensions, and could go anywhere and solve seemingly impossible problems. The Eugene cartoon character brought new meaning to the Jeep name, diverging from the initial, somewhat pejorative meaning of the term, instead changing the slang to mean a capable person or thing. King Features Syndicate, publisher of the "Thimble Theater" comics that featured Popeye and Eugene the Jeep, trademarked the name "Jeep" in August 1936. Eugene the Jeep's go-anywhere ability resulted in various industrial and four-wheel-drive vehicles getting nicknamed "Jeep" in the late 1930s. Around 1940, converted 4WD Minneapolis-Moline tractors, supplied to the U

Grille

Willys made its first 25,000 MB Jeeps with a welded flat iron "slat" radiator grille. It was Ford who first designed and implemented the now familiar and distinctive stamped, vertical-slot steel grille into its vehicles, which was lighter, used fewer resources, and was less costly to produce. Along with many other design features innovated by Ford, this was incorporated into the design and implemented by April 1942. To get their grille design trademarked, Willys gave their post-war jeeps a seven-slot grille instead of the Ford nine-slot design. This applies both to Willys' "Civilian Jeeps", as well as the M38 and M38A1 military models. Through a series of corporate takeovers and mergers, AM General Corporation ended up with the rights to use the seven-slot grille.

Service

The United States provided jeeps to almost all of the Allies in World War II. Britain, Canada, Australia, India, the Free French, USSR, and China all received jeeps, mainly under the American Lend-Lease program. Some 182,500 units were provided to Allies under Lend-Lease alone. Almost 105,000 to the British Empire, including Australia and India, plus over 8,000 to Canada, and some 50,000 to the Soviet Union. The Free French (almost 10,000) and China (nearly 7,000) were medium takers, and many other countries received a small number. America shipped a total of 77,972 various "jeeps" to the Soviet Union – consisting of 49,250 1⁄4‑tons, 25,200 Dodge 3⁄4‑tons, and 3,520 Ford GPA. In the deserts of the North African campaign, the jeep's abilities so far surpassed those of British vehicles that it wasn't unusual for jeeps to rescue a three-ton truck stuck in the sand. In combat, the British would use their modified jeeps in groups of up to fifty or sixty to raid Rommel's supply lines by surprise, exploiting the jeep's low silhouette; able to remain unseen, hide behind dunes, and surprise the enemy. Within the U.S. military, jeeps were used by every branch. In the U.S. Army, an average of 145 units were assigned to each infantry regiment. Around the world, jeeps served in every overseas theater of operation, in every environment, under all weather and climatic conditions – in North Africa and the Pacific Theater, the Western Allied invasion of Europe in 1944, as well as the Eastern Front. From deserts to mountains, from jungles to beachheads, jeeps could be pulled out of thick mud by their riders, and they were even flown into battle on light glider planes. In the European theater, they were so ubiquitous that some German soldiers believed that each American soldier was issue

Post-war

Willys-Overland filed to trademark the "Jeep" name in 1943. From 1945 onwards, Willys marketed its four-wheel drive vehicle to the public with its CJ (Civilian Jeep) versions, making these the world's first mass-produced 4WD civilian cars. Even before actual civilian purpose jeeps had been created, the 3 January 1944 issue of Life magazine featured a story titled: 'U.S. Civilians Buy Their First Jeeps'. A mayor from Kansas had bought a Ford GP in Chicago in 1943, and it performed invaluable work on his 2,000-acre farm. Already in 1942, industrial designer Brooks Stevens came up with an idea to make a civilian car called the Victory Car on the jeep chassis. It never went into production, but Willys liked the idea and gave Brook Stevens notable design jobs, including the 1946 Willys Jeep Station Wagon, 1947 Willys Jeep Truck, and 1948 Willys-Overland Jeepster, as well as the 1963–1993 Jeep Wagoneer. In 1948, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission agreed with American Bantam that the idea of creating the Jeep was originated and developed by American Bantam in collaboration with the U.S. Army as well as Ford and Spicer. The commission forbade Willys from claiming, directly or by implication, that it had created or designed the jeep, and allowed it only to claim that it contributed to the development of the vehicle. The trademark lawsuit initiated and won by Bantam was a hollow victory: American Bantam went bankrupt by 1950, and Willys was granted the "Jeep" trademark the same year. The first CJs were essentially the same as the MB, except for such alterations as vacuum-powered windshield wipers, a tailgate (and therefore a side-mounted spare tire), and civilian lighting. Also, the civilian jeeps had amenities like naugahyde seats and chrome trim, and they were available in a va

Postwar conversions

=== Filipino jeepney === When American troops began to leave the Philippines at the end of World War II, hundreds of surplus jeeps were sold or given to local Filipinos. The Filipinos stripped down the jeeps to accommodate several passengers, added metal roofs for shade, and decorated the vehicles with vibrant colors and bright chrome hood ornaments. The jeepney rapidly emerged as a popular and creative way to re-establish inexpensive public transportation, which had been virtually destroyed during World War II. Argentine Autoar. Starting in 1950, a Jeep-engined utility vehicle was produced by Autoar in Argentina. In 1951, a new sedan was introduced using the same 2199 cc Jeep engine and manual transmission. It was fitted with an overdrive to compensate for the Jeep's low axle ratio. In 1952, a new overhead valve 3-litre six-cylinder was announced but was probably never built. At that time, Piero Dusio returned to Italy. In the 1950s, production was sporadic, and models built included a station wagon with a Jeep-type 1901 cc engine. Commemorative edition. Inspired by the U.S. Army Willys MB, Jeep produced about 1000 Willys editions of the 2004 Wrangler TJ and hoped to sell twice that number for the 2005 model year.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); text is shortened. Read the full article for the complete history and citations.