To Jeep or Not to Jeep, That is the Question

"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit) 11/11/2015 at 14:09 • Filed to: veterans day, jeep, land rover, land cruiser, military vehicles

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Happy Veterans Day! Enjoy your day off and/or free stuff if you’re serving/have served. Veterans Day (or Armistice Day) commemorates the recognized truce ending the First World War, the first war considered to be truly transformative beyond regional geopolitics and even through how human society had been consequently shaped. Speaking of serving, it was also the first war where mechanized vehicles began to transform the tactics and logistics of warfare, and how that experience also shaped the conduct of human society.

Image by Frank Murman via Wikipedia

The concept of a horseless, independently-propelled military vehicle was still brand new when the United States declared war on Germany and its allies in 1917. Most thought and use had been given to heavy moving equipment that could haul artillery, general supplies or whatever else be needed either through rough terrain or relatively well-manicured roads (and it really was an either/or situation - wheeled vehicles hadn’t matured nearly enough to be able to conquer the types of terrain even many civilian vehicles can today, while heavy-duty caterpillar tractors likewise hadn’t matured past being too slow and cumbersome to be useful except when absolutely nothing else was up to the task). Unlike future conflicts and general use, logistical haulers were disparate and all over the place with many brands and types represented but generally similar to the early Mack truck pictured above (in WWI British service the Mack would earn the bulldog logo/mascot as British soldiers likened their dependability to a bulldog). These were little modified from how they would look and serve in civilian commercial service save for the obligatory olive green paint and maybe some cost-cutting here and there (such as maybe having cabs deleted). Heavy trucks, tractors and caterpillar-tracked vehicles for both hauling and direct combat would become more refined and capable in short order. Military heavy duty trucks like the iconic “Deuce and-a-half” and tractors in particular started to diverge and become more specialized compared to their civilian counterparts, particularly being more optimized for poor or no road conditions, but would still share the same general configuration of engine, cab, and either fifth wheel, flatbed or whatever was needed on the back.

Image by...well, you can read the little caption thingie, public domain

Still, very little thought had been given to a small motorized utility vehicle that could do general utility work, patrol/security missions, light reconnaissance and serve as personal transportation. Through practically the entirety of WWI, that task had been left to the same thing that had been doing such tasks since the days of Genghis Khan - the horse. During the interwar years, motorcycles started to displace the horse, again mostly adapted from civilian models (in the US, Harleys and Indians were especially popular, of course - in fact in European military service, pretty much whatever’s popular today was popular back then as well, with some BSA thrown in). A single rider on two wheels is pretty limited in terms of what that person can do (especially while still trying to maintain control of the bike) and sandy uphill terrain was especially problematic in the age of when the words “dirt” and “bike” simply never met.

Which of course leads us to the Willys MB, the ur-Jeep. After the war, the thousands that were left behind by the victorious Allies, especially in the Asian theater of operations, became coveted by the civilian population as daily drivers. In Burma, India, the Philippines and elsewhere, what was considered a well-manicured road in some places might more resemble a Moab challenge trail stateside. The dense city-centers of Japan had their streets covered in rubble - but moreover, traveling to another city or into the countryside where a large chunk of the population still lived often meant a poorly-rutted dirt path. Meanwhile, back home, Willys actually thought the dependable, 4x4 Jeep would make an excellent alternative to small tractors and marketed them to farmers equipped with power-takeoffs. Demand for the Jeep as a general-use recreational or “fun” vehicle or even as a daily driver outstripped what Willys’ own marketing had imagined - but when they caught up, well, the rest is history of course and the Jeep CJ became the only civilian vehicle regularly sold in the US with true military roots until the relatively short run of the Hummer decades later. The Chevy Blazer and C-10 trucks and Jeep’s own Gladiator as the M715 would wear camo patterns for Uncle Sam, but no other design would turn itself into such a highly adaptable plowshare (including just about literally) as well as the Jeep. Ford’s attempt to replace the Jeep, the M151 MUTT (Military Utility Tactical Truck) was never officially sold for civilian service due to safety concerns about it suspension over typical highway roads after a rash of rollover accidents - any civilian MUTTs you see for sale either simply slipped through the cracks or actually had their bodies chopped up as a condition prior to sale only to have said bodies be painstakingly welded back together which, in the eyes of the government, is good enough of a magical voodoo process to absolve them of liability.

Image by Magnus Manske via Wikipedia

The Jeep and the Hummer may be the only true American civilian vehicles with real military DNA in then, but globally they’re far from the only ones. Remember that thing about Jeeps being incredibly popular in Japan and elsewhere postwar as a means of transversing terrain that, between the wars, would’ve required a long hike by foot? During the Korean War the American occupation forces sent all their Jeeps from Japan to the war front, in the process depriving themselves of the one vehicle that can get them anywhere on the islands guaranteed. The best solution was to solicit bids from local manufacturers for a Jeep copycat, and just about every auto manufacturer left did just that. Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota and others submitted their own interpretation of the Jeep idea which for the most part looked little different from the genuine article. These quickly evolved and became legends in their own right - the Toyota Land Cruiser, the Nissan Patrol and the Mitsubishi Pajero. After enough generations, they lost their Jeep copycat looks altogether and assumed an appearance more comfortable for civilian roads, sometimes even gaining that dreaded third-row seat. Still, they remain capable off-roaders and military utility vehicles serving armies across the world. The Toyota Land Cruiser in particular gained fame as the primary attack vehicle of Chadian rebels using bed-mounted French-supplied MILAN anti-tank missiles to decimate Libyan armor, lending the battles to be called “ !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .”

Image by Tyler Brenot via Wikipedia

Europe also has quite a few civilian vehicles with genuine military DNA in them. Perhaps the most prevalent by badge-engineering is the Mercedes-Benz Gelaendawagen or “G-Wagen”, the Gelaenda part referring to the vehicle’s ability to transverse nearly any terrain (“over-land-uh-something-or-other”). Originally developed as a pure military vehicle, it is manufactured by Steyr (on behalf of Mercedes-Benz), Peugeot, and a host of other manufacturers for the militaries of Germany, France, Canada, the U.S., various other nations and big-time ballers with bling to spare alike. As much as the Hummer became an obscene status symbol at the height of 90s excess culture, the G-Wagen was rocking it well before. Hell, even the name G-Wagen just sounds more baller than being told by the salesperson, “no, I assure you, it’s a military name, it has nothing to do with the sex act.”

Image from the Internet Movie Car Database because nothing says “tough military vehicle” like Corey from Pawn Stars

Volkswagen’s less-than-successful attempt at their own G-Wagen is, of course, The Thing. Military vehicle first, preferred ride of beach bums and pawn shop owners second.

Image by Harald Hansen, Public Domain via Wikipedia

And of course who can forget the Land Rover? Not us, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ! Originally conceived as an aluminum-bodied superior alternative to the Jeep for army general and bush explorer alike, Land Rover Defenders still serve as troop carriers, mobile missile launchers, small utility/cargo trucks, mobile command centers and even special forces attack vehicles. Not to be confused with the Land Rover Range Rover which primarily serve as a means to transport Doug DeMuro to the Carmax lobby coffee machine.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 11/11/2015 at 14:21

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Well... while military contracts entered fairly early for the Land Rover, first priority in initial development wasn’t even foreign export, but farming. In short, it pulled the reverse of the Jeep->farm Jeep transition.

Here’s a bonus vehicle: the Kia K131/KM420:

AfromanGTO > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 11/11/2015 at 15:59

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Very good read!