How Bantam's car became the Army's jeep

The Army's search for a light car

For most of the 1930s the Infantry and the Quartermaster Corps looked for a light cross-country vehicle to replace the motorcycle and sidecar. The Army tested an American Austin, a Butler-built midget car, in 1933, and Captain Robert G. Howie built a low machine-gun carrier from Austin parts at Fort Benning in 1937.

American Austin was reorganized as the American Bantam Car Company in the mid-1930s. The Quartermaster Corps tested three Bantam chassis in 1938 and the Cavalry Board found them unsuitable: too little power, too little cross-country ability. Bantam kept writing to the Army, offering its redesigned car for further tests.

The requirement, drawn up at Butler

In the spring of 1940 Bantam's Washington representative, Charles H. Payne, took the idea back to the Office of the Chief of Infantry. On 6 June the Chief of Infantry asked for a four-wheel-drive vehicle no more than 36 inches high.

On 19 June an Ordnance Technical Committee subcommittee, with Major Howie, met Bantam's officials and engineers at the Butler plant. The FTC later found that the conferees "used the Bantam car as a basis from which to work". The subcommittee's report of 22 June set the first characteristics and recommended buying 70 cars.

• No more than 1,200 lb
• Wheelbase about 75 in
• 36 in high
• Four-wheel drive
• Crew of three and a machine gun

Only Bantam and Willys bid

On 11 July 1940 the Quartermaster Corps sent an invitation to bid for 70 cars to about 135 manufacturers, with general specifications and an outline drawing. The bidders had to work out the design themselves. The first car was due in 49 days.

Only Bantam and Willys-Overland bid. Willys was cheaper but would not promise the delivery time, so on 25 July the contract went to Bantam.

Forty-nine days at Butler

Bantam engaged Karl Probst, a Detroit engineer, to draw the layout for its bid. Plant manager Harold Crist and the mechanics Ralph Turner and Chester Hempfling built the first car by hand, largely from bought-in parts: a Continental engine, a Warner Gear transmission, and Spicer axles and transfer case.

Bantam delivered the pilot to the Quartermaster depot at Camp Holabird, Maryland, on 23 September 1940. In tests and demonstrations that autumn it carried troops over rough ground and towed the new 37 mm anti-tank gun, and on 22 October Holabird's engineers recommended the type for service testing. Like every later version it weighed far more than the invitation's limit of about 1,300 pounds, which the Army's procurement officer later called "physically impossible"; the limit was raised to 2,160 pounds for all makers.

“It is our baby.”Frank Fenn, Bantam's president, to Senator Harry Truman, Senate hearings, 6 August 1941

The Army shows Bantam's car to its competitors

The Quartermaster Corps doubted Bantam's finances and wanted at least two sources for any vehicle the Army would use in quantity. Its officers invited Willys and then Ford to build pilot models at their own expense, using the Army's specification and drawing, and both companies' representatives examined the Bantam at Holabird while it was being tested. An Infantry officer recorded that the Willys representative "examined the Bantam pilot model closely and made copious notes".

Bantam's president testified that he had seen Ford men under the car in a grease pit at Holabird, sketching its layout. Ralph Turner, one of the Bantam mechanics, recalled that Willys was given the Bantam's blueprints, and the former Chief of Infantry told the FTC in 1943 that Ford and Willys had "secured plans and specifications of the Bantam". No record of a formal hand-over has been found. Willys delivered its "Quad" pilot on 13 November 1940 and Ford its "Pygmy" on 23 November.

“I personally saw Ford Motor Co. representatives in under our car in a grease pit at Holabird with a clip board making freehand drawings of the lay-out.”Frank Fenn, Senate hearings, 6 August 1941

1,500 from each maker

The Infantry wanted all of the next 1,500 cars from Bantam. The Quartermaster General objected that Bantam was "a small company with no productive facilities of any importance", and the War Department split the order: 1,500 each from Bantam (the BRC-40), Ford (the GP) and Willys (the MA).

Bantam began shipping in March 1941 and completed its 1,500 in June, six days ahead of the extended date, then built a further 1,072. Some 150 were shipped abroad. In comparative tests that summer the Army found the Willys strongest for its engine, the Bantam for its fuel economy and braking, and the Ford for its controls and leg room.

Standardized on Willys, built by Willys and Ford

In July 1941 the Army froze the design so that parts would interchange, and asked for bids on 16,000 vehicles, all to one maker. Bantam, Ford, Willys and Checker bid. Willys was lowest and won the contract on 1 August 1941. Its car, the MB, was developed from the MA and kept the Willys "Go Devil" engine, which the FTC later called Willys's outstanding contribution.

In October 1941 the Army brought Ford in as a second source, building the Willys design to Willys's drawings as the GPW. Willys built about 360,000 jeeps during the war and Ford about 278,000. Bantam built trailers instead, including 73,569 of the quarter-ton trailer that the jeep towed.

“Award of the contract to Ford excluded Bantam from the picture entirely and thus denied to the firm that had pioneered the vehicle any share in its wartime production.”Harry C. Thomson and Lida Mayo, The Ordnance Department: Procurement and Supply, U.S. Army in World War II (1960)

The Federal Trade Commission case

Willys advertised during the war that it had created the jeep. In 1943 the Federal Trade Commission charged that the claim was false, alleging that the jeep was originated and developed by Bantam with Army officers.

In its decision of 27 February 1948 the Commission credited the Army with originating the project and Bantam with the first pilot model, and ordered Willys to stop claiming that it had created or designed the jeep. Willys could still say it had helped develop and perfect it.

“Great credit is due the Army for originating the project and for its tireless efforts toward developing and perfecting the vehicle. Bantam contributed greatly by its assistance during the early stages of the project and by supplying the first pilot model. Willys-Overland made an outstanding contribution in its powerful engine, as well as in other features of the vehicle.”Federal Trade Commission, Docket 4959, findings, 27 February 1948

Bantam after the jeep

Bantam spent the rest of the war on trailers, torpedo parts and other contract work, and received the Army-Navy "E" award in December 1943. It went on building trailers until it was sold to the American Rolling Mill Company in 1956.

In 1993 Pennsylvania placed a state historical marker a block from the Bantam plant in Butler. Butler has held a Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival since 2011.

“Although larger companies ultimately received the chief wartime orders, it was Bantam—in cooperation with the Army—that originally created the jeep.”Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker, "Invention of the Jeep", Butler, 1993

The name

The Army's name was "Truck, ¼-ton, 4×4". Soldiers called it a "jeep" or a "peep" from late 1940. The Federal Trade Commission concluded that a soldier had probably taken the name from Eugene the Jeep in the Popeye comic strip; it reached the national press after a Willys demonstration in Washington in February 1941. The often-repeated story that it came from "G.P." for "general purpose" is unproven.