By 1940, the U.S. military faced a severe disadvantage compared to Germany's standardised Wehrmacht fleet. In June 1940, the Army issued specifications to 135 manufacturers for a lightweight four-wheel-drive cross-country vehicle: four-wheel drive, three-man crew, wheelbase no longer than 80 inches, tracks no wider than 47 inches, 660 lb payload, 85 lb⋅ft of torque, and an empty weight not exceeding 1,275–1,300 lb. The winning manufacturer was given seven weeks to deliver a functional prototype.
American Bantam is credited with inventing the original 1/4-ton jeep. Its chief engineer Harold Crist and freelance designer Karl Probst completed full design drawings in two days; the hand-built Bantam Reconnaissance Car Pilot was driven to the Army test centre at Camp Holabird, Maryland on 23 September 1940, half an hour within the deadline. The War Department judged American Bantam incapable of the required production scale and provided Bantam's blueprints to Willys-Overland and Ford, who each submitted competing prototypes by November 1940.
The Willys "Quad" stood out for its powerful 60 hp engine developed by chief engineer Delmar G. "Barney" Roos. Ford's "Pygmy" featured an integrated front grille and lighting design. All three were declared acceptable, and orders for 1,500 units per company were placed for field testing. Willys won the mass-production contract in July 1941, primarily on the strength of its more powerful L134 "Go Devil" engine and lower cost. Design features from Bantam and Ford were incorporated into the final "MB" design. Ford's nine-slot stamped-steel grille, lighter and cheaper than Willys's original welded flat-iron grille, was adopted by Willys for the MB after unit 25,808. Willys engineer D.G. Roos submitted and was awarded design patent 136819 for the characteristic Jeep nose — a slightly tapered front clamshell hood, vertical grille, slats, and integrated headlights.
When Willys-Overland could not meet full procurement demand, Ford received government contracts to build 30,000 units based on Willys's blueprints, specifications, and patents, including the Willys engine. Ford's version was designated GPW, with "W" signifying the Willys-licensed design. Ford retooled at a cost of $4 million and produced its first GPW on 2 January 1942. During the war, Willys produced approximately 363,000 units and Ford approximately 280,000. Some 50,000 were exported to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.
When Willys first applied to trademark the "Jeep" name in February 1943, Bantam, Ford, and other companies objected. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission opened a case against Willys-Overland for misrepresentation, ruling in 1943 that the idea of creating the jeep was originated and developed by American Bantam in collaboration with U.S. Army officers. After a five-year investigation, the FTC again ruled in 1948 that Willys was unfairly taking credit and ordered it to stop claiming sole creation. American Bantam went bankrupt by 1950 and Willys was granted the "Jeep" trademark the same year.
The jeep served in every branch of the U.S. military and every overseas theatre, from deserts to jungles, and was flown into battle on light glider planes. An average of 145 units were assigned to each U.S. Army infantry regiment. In the North African campaign the jeep's off-road ability surpassed that of British vehicles; British forces used modified jeeps in groups of up to fifty or sixty to raid Rommel's supply lines. The United States provided approximately 182,500 jeeps to Allied nations under Lend-Lease, including roughly 105,000 to the British Empire, over 8,000 to Canada, and approximately 50,000 to the Soviet Union. Pulitzer Prize-winning war journalist Ernie Pyle wrote: "It does everything. It goes everywhere. It's as faithful as a dog, as strong as a mule, and as agile as a goat." Enzo Ferrari called the Jeep "America's only real sports car."
The Ford GPA, an amphibious variant nicknamed "Seep" (Sea Jeep), was built in approximately 13,000 units. It proved unwieldy on land and had insufficient freeboard for coastal landings, suffering losses during the Allied Sicily landings in July 1943. Many GPAs were supplied to the USSR, where they were used to cross rivers and swamps; the Soviets later developed their own version, the GAZ-46.
From 1945, Willys marketed its four-wheel-drive vehicles to the public as the CJ (Civilian Jeep) series, producing the world's first mass-produced civilian four-wheel-drive cars. In Britain, Rover built its first prototype on a war-surplus jeep chassis, leading to the Land Rover. Toyota Motors was tasked by U.S. forces to build a vehicle to Jeep specifications, resulting in Toyota's BJ and FJ series. Licenses to produce jeeps were issued to manufacturers worldwide; Mahindra and Mahindra Limited in India continues to produce derivatives. The M38 military successor was launched in 1950, followed by the M38A1 in 1953; these were later developed into the civilian CJ-5 and CJ-6. The CJ-7, introduced in 1976 with a 10-inch longer wheelbase and the first CJ with available doors and hardtop, evolved into the Jeep Wrangler series from 1987. The U.S. military eventually replaced the jeep with the HMMWV ("Humvee"). The 2010 American Enterprise Institute called the jeep "one of the most influential designs in automotive history."
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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