Om Willys Jeep

The models Willys MB and Ford GPW, both formally called the U.S. Army Truck, ​¼-ton, 4×4, Command Reconnaissance, commonly known as Jeep or jeep, and sometimes referred to as G503, were highly successful off-road capable, light, military utility vehicles, built in large numbers to a standardized design, from 1941 to 1945, for the Allied forces in World War II. The jeep became the primary light wheeled transport vehicle of the United States Military and its Allies in World War II, as well as the postwar period, with President Eisenhower once calling it, “one of three decisive weapons the U.S. had during WWII.”
 It was also the world’s first mass-produced four-wheel drive car, manufactured in six-figure numbers. About 650,000 units were built, constituting a quarter of the total U.S. non-combat motor vehicles produced during the war, and almost two-thirds of the 988,000 light vehicle class produced, together with the Dodge WC series, outnumbering those by almost two to one.
 Large numbers of jeeps were provided to the U.S.’ allies, including Russia at the time—aside from large amounts of 1​½- and 2​½-ton trucks, some 50,000 jeeps and 25,000 ​¾-tons were provided to Russia during WW II—more than Nazi Germany’s combined total production of their Volkswagens Kübelwagen and Schwimmwagen.
 Author 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.”
 Not only did it become the workhorse of the American military, as it replaced the use of horses and other draft animals (still heavily used in World War I) in every role, from cavalry units to supply trains, but improvised field modifications also made the jeep capable of just about any other function GIs could think of.
 The jeep was considered such a valuable piece of equipment that General Eisenhower wrote that most senior officers regarded it as “one of the six most vital” U.S. vehicles to win the war.Moreover, General George Marshall called the squared-off little car “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 around the world 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 trademarked the “Jeep” name, turned the MB into the civilian Jeep CJ models, and Jeep became its own brand. The 1945 Willys Jeep was the world’s first mass-produced civilian four-wheel drive car.

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