A few years ago our WW2 jeep club newsletter ran an article on the possible
origin of the jeep body, which I have summarised here. The conclusion was
that since Bantam was in such a hurry to meet the deadline, there was no
time for inventive body design.
The author goes on that if the US Army didn't design it, nor Willys or
Ford, then where did it come from?
He subsequently found a possible answer in 'An Illustrated History of
Military Vehicles' by Hogg and Weeks. Therein is a picture of the Rheinmetall
half armoured anti-ballon car of 1909. Rheinmetall were originally known as
Rheinische Metalwaren Maschinenfabrik of Germany.
Here's the picture:
http://phaedra.apana.org.au/pictures/tmp/ha_car.jpg
The original is fairly dark so it's not very clear, but you can see the
familiar body shape and layout of the gun pedestal that any jeep person
would recognise. Note the shape of the seats!
Steve Malikoff.
steven@phaedra.apana.org.au
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