Wheels & Tracks #8: Jeep

Willys Jeep advertisement.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - CIRCA 1942: A view as two African American Army soldiers drive a jeep at the Las Vegas Army Air Force Airfield in Las Vegas, Nevada. Circa 1942.

BERMUDA - CIRCA 1943: US MB "slat grille" Jeep (reg no. 2040126) chat with U.S. Navel service men riding in a horse drawn buggy at the U.S. Navel Air Base in Bermuda.

BENGHAZI, LIBYA - AUGUST 8, 1943: A view as U.S Soldiers relax on the base at the U.S Air Force base in Benghazi, Libya. Sand-colored jeep numbered USA 201425.  

GOOSE BAY, LABRADOR, CANADA-DECEMBER 1942: A U.S Airmen drives a jeep with chained tires on the U.S. Air Base in Goose Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. The tools on the side of the jeep are unpainted.

GOOSE BAY, LABRADOR, CANADA-DECEMBER 1942: U.S Airmen stop to talk on the U.S. Air Base in Goose Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. The Jeep on the right is a script Ford GPW.

NATAL, BRAZIL - JUNE 1943: A view of a C-87 Liberator Express Transport plane at the Parnamirim airport at the US Army and Air Force base in Natal, Brazil. Notice the much darker shade of OD used on the Jeep and Dodge Command Car. Registration numbers on both vehicles were done in lusterless blue paint.

NATAL, BRAZIL - JUNE 1943: A view as US servicemen at the Parnamirim airport at the US Air Force base in Natal, Brazil. The Jeep is painted in a dark OD with blue lusterless registration number. The forklift in the background appears to be painted in strata blue.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - CIRCA 1942: A convoy of Army trucks drives at the Las Vegas Army Air Force Airfield in Las Vegas, Nevada. Circa 1942. The suppressed Jeep with registration number 2061437 in lusterless blue paint on the hood leads a column of 1/2-ton Chevy G-506 trucks.

BENGHAZI, LIBYA - AUGUST 11, 1943: Members of the 376th Bombardment Group talk in a jeep at the U.S Air Force Base in Benghazi, Libya. Note the blue circular background of the star on the rear panel of the Jeep.

BERMUDA - 1943: A sailor from the US Naval Battleship USS Iowa passes a script Willys Jeep (W-20332x) while on shore leave in Bermuda.

ALGIERS, ALGERIA - AUGUST 1943: A view as an US Air Force pilot looks out his window during take off, flying from Algiers to Tunis, Tunisia. Jeep sports lusterless blue registration numbers.

An American soldier sits behind the wheel of a Willys MB jeep, shortly before the United States joined the war, 1941.

Three German prisoners are brought in on the hood of an Army Film and Photographic Unit jeep by Sgt Bert Hardy, AFPU official photographer, Hamont, 21 September 1944.  The AFPU frequently operated in the very front line of the British advance.  Bert Hardy, a staff photographer for Picture Post, served with No 5 Section in North West Europe until the end of the war.  He later went on to cover the Korean War for Picture Post.

Military trucks, jeeps and planes (including C-47s) at the Lae Airstrip, New Guinea (present day Papua New Guinea). Lae was a Japanese occupied airstrip until 16 September 1943, when it was liberated by the Allied Forces. 13 January 1944.

Soldiers and a jeep inside a C-46.

Jeep coming out of the front cargo door of a Waco CG-4A glider after landing, Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base. 1942.

Paratroopers of 1st Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles, 6th Airlanding Brigade, 6th Airborne Division, aboard a Jeep and trailer. They are cruising past a crashed Airspeed Horsa glider, Landing Zone ‘N,’ north of Ranville, Normandy, France. 6 June 1944.

Willys Jeep T14, 1942.

Two officers from the 89th Infantry Division (I Company, 353rd Regiment) attempt to negotiate the surrender of Eisenbach, Germany with local officials on April 4, 1945. Flying a white flag from their jeep, Major Irving Shepard and Lt. James Towne drove into the city to see if they could spare this historic location from the destruction so many other European towns had suffered during the war. Note the addition extending the front fender.

M5 Light Tank and jeep.

Captured German soldiers, look startled to see British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery drive by in his jeep. Note 4 star placard on right rear bumper.

Chennault briefs some of his pilots from the hood of a GP, an early version of the famed jeep.

As landing craft, manned by Coast Guard crews, bring in streams of supplies to the American base on Guadalcanal, a Coast Guardsman directs traffic with his signal flags. In the distance, a transport and a cargo ship stand on the horizon. From the landing barge in the foreground, a jeep emerges and runs down the ramp on the beach.

THE BRITISH FISHING VILLAGE OF BRIXHAM, DEVON IN 1944 (TR 1865) British naval officers with a jeep in the street of the fishing village. (Imperial War Museum photo)

German troops with captured US equipment including a Jeep and M5 towed anti-tank gun in late 1944.

British troops loading a  jeep is loaded onto a Waco Hadrian glider for the assault on Sicily. July 1943.

A reconnaissance unit of the RAF Regiment patrols round the perimeter track at Bradwell Bay, Essex. A Morris Light Reconnaissance Car bearing the officer in charge, is followed by four airmen in a jeep as they pass a Douglas Havoc in a sandbagged revetment.

Pushing through New Guinea jungles in a jeep, General Douglas MacArthur inspects the positions and movements of Allied Forces, who would push the Japanese away from Port Moresby and back over the Owen Stanley Mountain range, November 3, 1942.

GIs push a stalled jeep ashore from an LST during the Normandy invasion, 6 June 1944.

Operation MANNA was one of the Regiment's smaller achievements and was undertaken by members of the Independent Squadron. In brief, its aim was to land troops and equipment at Megara to assist in the liberation and occupation of Athens. On this day, six CG-4As (Hadrians), four of them carrying bulldozers, landed successfully. The following day, a further thirty-four CG-4As did the same with more troops and jeeps. There were no casualties but some interesting experiences. 13/14 October 1944.

A Jeep with the 48th Armored Medical Battalion, US 2nd Armored Division stop to look at a sign thanking them in Le Molay-Littry, Normandy, France, July 4, 1944.

Sitting in a jeep, the 4th Armored Division commander, Maj. Gen. John Wood, talks to the head of Combat Command A, Col. Bruce Clarke, during the fighting in Lorraine in October 1944.

US soldiers on jeep crossing Moselle River France fall 1944.

US medics in jeep with wounded soldier on stretcher near Rome Italy 1944.

U.S. soldiers, some i n jeeps, on the road to Rome Italy 1944.

US soldier examining jeep blown in half.

US soldiers in jeep with German POWS Germany 1945.

US solders 1st Infantry Division and jeeps with trailers Germany.

General Maxwell Taylor US 101st Airborne Division in jeep.

US jeep.

 The 37 mm anti-tank gun could also be towed with a jeep (in this case an American Bantam).

Four soldiers around a jeep; canvas covered trucks crossing a pontoon bridge; and two planes flying overhead.  This appears to be a mock airplane attack. First Army Maneuvers, October-November 1941.

Sunday morning 'A' Squadron Officers' Mess, 1944. Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe, 1944. Five members of 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (named as Derek Hawkins, Jimmie Manners, Pat Brodie, Mike Smethurst and Pim Mantell) enjoy a beer as they gather around a jeep.

'Derek, Pat, Jimmie, Mike and Pim', 1944. Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe, 1944. Members of 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) (named as Jimmie Manners, Mike Smethurst and Pim Mantell) enjoy a beer as they gather around a jeep.

'The knocked-out Panther tank and destroyed church at Bretteville-en-Orguilleuse', June 1944. Photograph by Major W H J, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe (1944-1945), 1944. Within a few days of landing in Normandy in June 1944, and during a lull in fighting, a group from the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) traveled to the village of Bretteville l'Orguilleuse. They inspected a destroyed German Panther tank on the right in order to get an idea of some of the tanks they would be fighting against. A jeep is parked in the foreground. Canadian forces had occupied Bretteville-l'Orgueilleuse on 7 June but had to contend with fierce counter attacks by German forces including tanks of the 12th SS Panzer Division.

Ambulance jeep gets a helping hand on a tutted winter road during the Bulge. An M8 armored car is on the other side of the road.