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 in Butler PA, USA 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 for trademarks 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 on 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. Several years after the war the exclusive right to use the name was granted to Willys. 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. However, "the latter" does not refer to a huge phalanx of automobile engineers and designers at Holabird for in fact only one, Robert Brown, a civilian engineer attached to Holabird by contract, was actually involved in the development of the car that became the jeep.
My conclusion, in the absence of some specific evidence you may have, is that the "front office" QMC got dragged into the jeep matter kicking and screaming in the first place by the Infantry, particularly by Gen. George Lynch and his aides William Lee and Ingomar Oseth who were egged on and encouraged and helped greatly by Bantam lobbyist Charles H. "Harry" Payne. Nearly forgotten today, Payne, because of his early promotional efforts, was considered by insiders in Washington to be "The Father of the Jeep". Payne did his part there is no doubt, and without him the jeep would have never come about as it did, but, from an engineering and design point of view, the real "Father of the Jeep" is Harold Crist a Bantam engineer who co-designed (probably "mostly designed" is a more descriptive phrase) and completely built the car from scratch. To assist in getting the contract, Crist was aided by Karl Probst who was hired with Crists blessing well after the jeep was conceived to complete bid drawings in a hurry. YOu can forget what you read about Probst being the "Father of the Jeep", he wasn't. By the time he comes into the story Crist is already working on a layout and has the power plants picked and Captain Engler at Holabird has already drawn up Crist and Browns specifications for the car. Not saying Probst did not help with details because he did and he was a brilliant guy, but he did not conceive of or design the jeep in my opinion. That had been done before he got there..
Anything you read about this history will gloss over the real names of the men involved in the jeep story because they generally don't know what the names are, or, where they do, it is inconvenient to mention them in their various spun views of history. Thus you will see stupid references to "the Army" and "little Bantam", as if this little car had been built by multitudes or committees rather than by individual men doing specific things on specific days.
The Army was anything but a monolith and instead, for purposes of this story particularly, was in fact a small bunch of highly compartmentalized, under-funded, very conservative old men very jealous of each others prerogatives and starved for promotion in an Army that was one of the smallest in the world. Okay "Chief of Infantry" sounds pretty impressive, but in fact the office had four guys in it, including General Lynch and a sergeant, all crammed into a little room with their desks only inches apart.
These Infantry guys did not relish the concept of facing the Wermahct on foot and had been trying to get the Infantry on wheels for decades. Of course the Cavalry was very happy to have the Infantry on foot because, as always in the history of war, it made his horse guys so much cooler. You think I'm kidding, but George Patton by his own admission was fixing war games in favor of the horses over the motorized scout cars as late as 1939! In fact, like most customers without technical background, the people in this office had only a vague idea about the vehicle they wanted, and to the extent they did, had almost no idea of what it would look like or what the technology would be. This ignorance was repeatedly on display right up to the day the jeep was delivered. (All of a sudden on that day, everybody knew what they wanted and the QMC up front took a real interest). Prior to that all they knew was that whatever it was had to be small and light and carry 3 or 4 guys and go really fast, be 4wd and don't forget the heavy machine gun and plenty of ammo...and hey, could it also float? In addition, to not knowing what they wanted they apparently did not know how to use the procurement system until Harry Payne took them in hand and started cutting red tape for them.
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 every detail of 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. In any case, it is really not intended for the neophyte. 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. 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 would like to discredit my writing because I am a "Bantam enthusiast" which of course I am. Fair disclosure. I am the Vice President of the Austin Bantam Society, Editor of its newsletter Rooster Tails and my current BRC is the third I have owned. 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.
