Here’s a great old image of a transport truck Blaine spotted. He saw it at Just-a-car-guys website. I also found another image there as well.
Old Images Research Archives
Jeepster in Tahiti
Alex forwarded this picture of a Jeepster in Tahiti taken in 1951. As far as I’m concerned, any excuse to show a picture of Tahiti is a good excuse in my book!
Popular Science Post War Willys Article
Ok, ignore the “no update” post below. I do have one update. I found this article from Popular Science, August 1945, as part of my search (mentioned below).
Some Interesting Getty Images
I happened upon some Getty Images, so thought I’d do a search on Getty’s website. They have some cool images, though a variety I have seen in other places. Note that some of the descriptions and/or dates aren’t quite right. For example, the “date created” for the Willys MA image below is Jan 1, 1941. However, the Willys MA wasn’t delivered until April of 1941.
Click here to see all the Getty Images with the Search Term of “Willys”
1. This is a Willys MA
Getty Image #50470924 — Two soldiers sitting in Willys jeep parked on grass, fr. take on state the army just before US joined WWII, w. hangar-type bldgs. in bkgrd. (no caps). (Photo by Robert Yarnall Richie//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images).
2. Here’s another Willys MA
Getty Image #104406783 — FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 16: The jeep WILLYS can help the fisherman because it is semi-amphibious. Picture taken on September 16th, 1945. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
3. Here are snow skiers in France
Getty Image #104422238 — UNSPECIFIED – JANUARY 01: Patrol Of Skiers With A Jeep Willys Circa 1940 (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
4. This is a color image from the D-day Preperations in England.
Getty Image #106893455 — High angle view of American troops and Ford GPWs (light utility vehicles very similar to Willys MB, both of which are commonly refered to as jeeps) aboard an unidentified landing craft, England, early June, 1944. The vessel is loaded as part of the preparations for invasion of France, the Normandy Landings, which began on June 6, 1944. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
5. A Rare Farm Jeep Photo (note the hood and windshield are inscribed with Jeep rather than Willys). This original photo is of the CJ-2 X26, identified by Fred Coldwell on page 165 of his book PreProduction Civilian Jeeps. He notes that for advertising purposes, a 2nd version of this photo was created, with the grille of the CJ-2 airbrushed to look like a standard CJ-2A grille (the mb grille and brush guard are wiped away).
Getty Image #104422239 — UNSPECIFIED – DECEMBER 16: The Jeep Willys Has Been Constructed For Works In The Usa In 1945. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
A Few Forest Ranger Images
Brendan, from the This Old Jeep, found some great old images and history from the New York Conservation Department. Check out the ‘bumper card’ mod! Anyone know anything about this particular mod?
More From the Canadian National Archives
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon the National Archives of Canada the other day, discovering a variety of WWII Jeep images related to Canadian forces.
2. Troopers of the Three Rivers Regiment in a jeep, England, 22 July 1942.
Men & Women on the Assembly Line
Here are some more pics from the same source as yesterday’s pics (crated Jeeps and Seeps). These all show the assembly of jeeps at different stages in the process. Note this first image is backwards (the transfercases are all extending to the left rather than the right, unlike the second image).
Crated Jeeps
Gerald found an old email with some great links. Here are a few of some crated Willys. I don’t have any background or ownership information on them.
Ready to go Camping ….
UPDATE: I did a little more research and finally found this photo at the CJ-3B Page. There is a complete discussion of the history of the CJ-3B, including a note that the CJ-3B has a custom body extension and a Sears top was purchased that was also custom extended. It’s a good story to read.
I’m not sure where this image might have originated, but I spotted it at expeditionportal.com.
A Big Load
Rich forwarded this image of an old FC with a big load from this website. Cool pic!
Another Tipped Jeep gets some work ….
A while back, Tom told me his dad has stories from WWII about flipping Jeeps on their side to work on them. After some digging, he managed to locate this for our viewing pleasure. Many Thanks Tom! See some other tipped jeeps here.
Stenciling Jeeps
Just a couple photos tonight from the Canadian Archives that show some stencilers at work.
1) Unidentified soldier stencilling numbers on the hood of a jeep, England, 21 December 1943.
A WWII Courier Willys
I don’t know anything about this particular jeep except that it is called the “Dixie Flyer”. It seems to be a modified MB with a ‘Courier’ sign in the front and some modifications to the fenders. It also appears to have a gas tank on the passenger side (I think that is what is sticking down under the passenger?). I found this image on the European Center of Military History’s Blog.
David Ommanney’s Hunting Wagon
David Ommanney appears to have been a well know big game hunter in Nairobi. As best as I can tell, this is a modified Willys Wagon. I have searched for a better image, but haven’t found one, though I found images of his later vehicle, a Landrover.
Color Photo of Willys MA
Here’s an unusual color photo of soldiers posing in a Willys MA from Life Magazine. I couldn’t find the original source of this on the Life Magazine site (I stumbled upon it through Google).
A Couple Slat Grille MBs and Marmon Herrington Tanks
Here’s an image from 1942 that Hugo spotted at wikipedia. The picture is high enough resolution that I was able to get a couple closeup pics as well.
S.A.S. Ready for Action
As I was researching yesterday’s article on the LRDG, I wanted to learn more about the Bagnold sun compass. After reading the explanation, I’m am quite sure that I’m not yet ready to be thrown in the middle of the desert with a Bagnold.
However, as I did my research this unique ‘time’ piece on a French Sundial website, I happened to see the amazing image below.
Surviving a Nuclear Blast …
Just a few Updates Tonight ….
As a kid in elementary school, I remember climbing under my desk as part of our emergency drills (earthquake, nuclear blast, bully avoidance). But, I always wondered what I would do if there wasn’t a desk to dive under!
Now I know the government had already been planning for a lack of desks. Thanks to this image Alex spotted on Wikipedia, I now see that I just have to locate a Willys Wagon and dive into it for safety. Sure, it might get blown over, but it would sure be more comfortable than getting trapped underneath my desk (unless I was trapped under my desk with my sweetheart from 6th grade Michelle, but that’s a whole ‘nother story)! See the expanded image here.
The 135 MPH Jeep Test
As I mentioned a couple days ago, a reader named Dave spotted this article and wanted to share it with readers. The article published in the 1960 edition of All American Word follows the All American Engineering Company Testing the air drop of a jeep by a pallet rather than via a parachute. To test this concept, the AAE built a special vehicle to mimic the landing of a jeep atop a pallet at speeds of 135mph. As you can see, the test was successful (at least the one captured in the photos).
Dave writes,”I was in Georgetown, DE recently which is a small town on the DelMarVa peninsula, and I ran across this very interesting use for a VEC CJ2A! I think it might fit your recent “museum” series of posts and I’m sure that your eagle-eyed readers will immediately recognize the historical relevance of this column shift speed demon! Apparently, this was a precursor to what is now known as LAPES or the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System which is still taught, practiced and used today by our Military for forward area resupply missions. I watched C130 crews practice this (with varying levels of success)! at Whiteman AFB in western Missouri in the late 80’s. Fortunately by that point they were only destroying HMMWVs and military pickup trucks! The 8 of 10 or so operations that were succesful were really cool and you could certainly see the advantages of this type of operation.”
Click on the link below to see some closeups
Fire Marshal MB in Korea
Just a few updates tonight (sat night)
I’m guessing this is a Fire Department (perhaps makeshift) out of Korea. I found this during an image search, but I could not locate the source. It looks like a Library of Congress type of image. If anyone knows of the source, please let me know so I can properly credit it.
Santa favors the Willys MA over the Red Sleigh
UPDATE: Brendan noted that this is indeed a LOC image. Here is a link to this image and others http://www.history.army.mil/photos/Holiday/wwii.htm.
I suspect it was just easier to stick the tree in the MA rather than his sleigh? It’s a great pic. I found this during an image search, but I could not locate the source. It looks like a Library of Congress type of image. If anyone knows of the source, please let me know so I can properly credit it.
Some Great Old Photos at JpZombie.com
At JpZombie.com, Casey has uploaded 20 images from the late 40s / early 50s. Several of the images have also been loaded at the earlycj5.com website and a thread has popped up around them. A video was also uploaded (see below) that shows early color footage of the Yakima Ridge Runners (from Yakima, Washington) playing in what appears to be the Little Naches River and shows them traveling over the Naches Trail (you can also see video excerpts from Exploration Northwest which discusses the trail).
Below is a small version of one of the pics at JpZombie. In this pic, you can see on the sign ‘Wally Klingele’, who was one of the founding members of the Ridge Runners. Some of the pics at JpZombie appear to be pics capturing the Life Magazine Folks who put together these classic videos (ridge runner video 1 & ridge runner video 2).
This is also courtesy of JpZombie.com via Youtube:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5eIbxvuKJQ
Jeep4ever’s Black and White Photos
Thanks to Wes at offroadaction.ca for creating a post about this great collection of black and white photos (how I haven’t stumbled across it is beyond me) at Jeep4ever’s website. Click here to see nearly 200 b&w photos, some you probably have seen and some you haven’t seen courtesy of Jeep4ever.ca (I’ve posted a variety of these previously, but found them through the library of congress).
I particularly like this one.
1940 Camp Holabird Photos from Life Magazine
There are some new Bantam and MB testing photos at Life Magazine. There are some great closeups of the Bantam. Note the first pic — I believe that is the first ‘jeep’ ever stuck in the mud; it surely wasn’t the last! All six of these photos were taken by David E. Scherman in 1940.
Two ‘new’ DJ-3A Surrey Images
Bruce forwarded me links to two images of Surreys he has posted.
The first one is from the Virgin Islands in 1958 and shows a DJ-3A in the center of the picture and a DJ-3A Surrey at the lower left. The second image shows 5 or more Surreys sitting at rental lot Hawaii, the surrey in center front
is a 1963 with 13″ tires and babymoon hubcaps.