Hey! Is this great or what!? A BRC doin' its stuff in a shot out of the Laurel and Hardy movie "Great Guns" (but the footage is of the BRC's actual evaluation and testing by the Army. 

The Original Jeep

©Wm Spear 2002

No part of this document may be published in any form or with out the express permission of the author.

Among people interested in automobiles perhaps none creates so much fascination as the American jeep, as well it might, for, with the possible exception of the Ford Model T, it is the most important vehicle in American automotive history. Certainly it is the best all around vehicle ever designed right up to this day. The original jeep (pictured alongside) rolled out of the American Bantam Car company factory on September 21, 1940 and was delivered to the U.S. Army at Camp Holabird, MD two days later.

Given the interest, and particularly reviewing the huge amount of literature on the subject it is simply amazing how much misinformation circulates about the conception, design and development of the original jeep. I confess to adding somewhat to this confusion in the past (although I think it can be shown that I have been far closer to the truth all along than most). Much of the misinformation is deliberate, beginning with the massive advertising campaign by the Willys-Overland Company (and it's many successors, right up to the current one) to attempt to create the impression in the public mind that Willys had something to do with the original jeep, which of course it did not. It had nothing at all to do with it, and neither did the Ford Motor company which ultimately produced nearly as as many WWII jeeps as Willys. Willys filed on the name "Jeep" but was not granted it for a number of years and after a long drawn out Federal Trade Commission hearing where they were busted for false advertising (that they invented the jeep). Jeep was a term applied early to the 4x4 quarter-ton truck in the Army, indeed even before Willys-Overland had produced a prototype, let alone one that could pass muster. After the war the exclusive right to use the name was granted.  Today they will tell you the built the first "Jeep" hoping you will be an ignoramus and assume thereby that they built the first jeep, which they did not. What does "is" mean?

The Quartermasters Corps was no less quick to jump on the bandwagon claiming fatherhood of the jeep, although little if any actual evidence of this paternity can be shown. (Not to say that they didn't play maybe even a big hand, just that there is no evidence of it). The position of the Quartermasters Corps in this episode can be understood better if you consider that there was a "front office" of officers in Washington who were engaged in the political infighting typical of any organization, and there were QMC engineers and technical types, here involved at Camp Holabird in Maryland. The latter worked hand in glove with Bantam in the development of the car while the former did everything possible to get rid of Bantam and secure the contract for Ford.

My conclusion in the absence of some specific evidence is that the front office got dragged into the jeep matter  kicking and screaming in the first place by the Infantry, particularly Gen George Lynch and his aids Lee and Oseth egged on and encouraged and helped greatly by Bantam lobbyist Harry Payne. The Infantry did not relish the concept of facing the Wermahct on horseback but had only a vague idea about what the actual vehicle would be. All they knew was that it was to be small and light and carry 3 or 4 guys and a machine gun and a a whole bunch of other things too numerous to mention. Thus, I regret to tell you that almost anything you read about this truly fascinating story, from Wade Wells' W-O commissioned book "Hail to the Jeep" (the prototype "infomercial) to the closer but no cigar work current researchers are either completely wrong, mostly wrong, or will leave out essential facts which skew the story unfairly against the very genuine and documented Bantam achievements. Even the so-called "pro Bantam" versions are so incomplete as to be pretty much wrong. Having said that, you are only going to get part of the story here because we just don't know what actually happened.

In a web page I simply do not have time to make scholarly documentation all of my findings about this history, and moreover, I am still discovering new material all the time, so what follows may seem too abrupt an even arbitrary to some. I hope to remedy this lack of detail in the future, but for now I can offer only some benchmark events and conclusions for your consideration. At the end of each page I solicit most sincerely any factual detail you can add to the story. At this point however I am not interested in theoretical arguments. Save those for your own web page please. Also, this page is not really intended for beginners although you should read it and compare this version of history with others you will run into. Moreover, people gathering information about the jeep should come back here and reflect what they think they know against the  statements below. All I can say is that although there may be countervailing evidence to some of my points, I have tried honestly to weigh the evidence and there is nothing here I can't document, usually with sworn testimony or other reliable evidence, or where I speculate, I say so. If there are those who disagree with what is set forth I am very pleased..indeed, I implore you, to send me your evidence (no speculative arguments please). The Bantam side of the story has been abused, lied about and kicked under the rug for 60 years without anyone to defend against it. Many discredit my writing because I am a "Bantam enthusiast" which of course I am. I am  the Vice President of the Austin Bantam Society, and have owned at least pieces of 2 BRC's, so discredit away, but please send me your facts. In the mean time I will be like Boston Blackie..."Enemy of those who make me an enemy. Friend of those who have no friends"

1. Karl Probst did not invent the jeep.

2. "The Army" had little idea of what a light reconnaissance car might look like until they went to the Bantam Factory on July 19, 1940.

3.Although we have to guess they did, "The Army" cannot factually be shown to have  had much of anything to do with the design of the original jeep. To the extent they did it would have been a small technical crew at Camp Holabird led by civilian engineer Bob Brown who, it can be shown participated with Bantam in the original conception. The front office QMC contributed nothing we can prove and indeed had to be circumvented by a direct appeal to the Secretary of War by Bantams' Harry Payne to cut the red tape they entwined the project in.

4. The QMC specifications on July 11, 1940 which are specifically relevant to the jeep were jointly developed by the Holabird QMC and Bantam and were based on Bantam small car expertise and on actual Bantam civilian car blueprints, not on independently developed or existing Army plans on file.

5. Contrary to popular myth Bantam had brilliant mechanics and engineers on it's staff fully capable of designing and building the car the Army said it wanted.

6. Contrary to the usual chant, "Little Bantam" proved it could have produced a good percentage of the jeeps required by the Army.

7. There is no evidence at all that the Bantam jeep was underpowered. Had it won the "all or nothing bid" it would have been "the" jeep. The Washington QMC chose Ford which was less powerful than the Bantam but was over rulled by the Office of Production Management who gav the contract to W-O.

8. Just because they didn't design it doesn't mean there is something wrong with Willys or Ford Jeeps. There isn't. They developed, (as the BRC would have had it been  given the chance) into fine weapons.

9. "One Winter in Moscow" Was the Willy's MA really the 4th successful jeep prototype (AKA Bantam copy :~)?

10. Hail to the Bantik! Take heart Bantamistas the Russians still consider the Bantam a real hero.

Watch this space for more exciting installments.

Do you find our pages helpful and interesting? Maybe yuo can help support them by throwing a little business our way? In addition to the great catalog of over 800 existing designs, we can do commission work for you. Check it out.

How many BRC's are left? Well, I'm starting a little photo gallery here. Send me a picture of a BRC you know about and if possible, it's serial number and date of manufacture (on dash data plates) and any other information you care to share. My goal is to get pictures of 50 (even though popular wisdom says there are only 35). Check out the first 50 or so..(I'm having some trouble keeping up with this page,, so, if it's down or missing pictures, check later..I bet you'll see some that you didn't know about!:~) Hard to say but our best estimate is just under 40 world wide. The King of Romania has one, or is it two? Not bad for a war vehicle and given the low production numbers.

It has been the practice of many "jeep historians" to conveniently and briefly dismiss the Bantam as some antideluvian ancestor "prototype" of the jeep rather than admit the fact that it was in fact the first jeep and was delivered, commissioned and in service well before the Willys company ever even delivered a passable prototype.

My personal feeling is that not only was the Bantam the first jeep ever, and the first jeep to be called a jeep, and the first jeep to be commissioned into the US (or any other) Army but that it was also the first jeep to serve in hostile actions and maybe be used in active combat. I can't really prove these last two. What do you think? Any pictures or evidence out there? If a Bantam was deployed in England during the Battle of Britain it seems to me that since England was under physical attack that that would qualify as combat. I mean, if your jeep gets strafed by the Luftwaffe while it sits on a Brit airstrip, what else would you call it? Here's a page with a few pictures which might support my contention, and a few other pictures of BRC's in actual service. I bet you haven't seen some of them. Don't steal them, link to them.

Exciting and historic BRC discovered and retrieved in Kalamazoo. Need your help in figuring out why it was being evaluated by the Checker Co .