Military academy cadets and U.S. Army soldiers ride in a jeep near Fort Benning
Eugene Jeep and World War II
Carl Probst, an American engineer working for American Bantam, designed the Bantam BRC open-top all-wheel drive vehicle in July 1940 as part of a US Army tender. The design was later refined by the larger companies Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Co, which as a result received major orders for the supply of these vehicles to the armies of the United States and its allies in World War II, including the USSR. Very soon, these cars received the informal nickname “Jeep”, which later became an official trademark.
Willys-Overland President Joe Fraser claimed that he was the one who coined the word “Jeep” when he heard the military call the car “GP”, referring to one of the Ford GPW versions. However, the word “jeep” was used in the United States during the First World War, as army slang used to call untrained recruits and new, untested mechanisms and vehicles. In March 1936, the Thimble Theatre comics about the sailor Popeye introduced a new character, Eugene Jeep, a mysterious animal with magical powers. The funny animal became very popular in the United States and breathed new life into a forgotten word - they began to say “a real Jeep” about a man with good ingenuity and able to solve any problem, in addition, “Jeep” was called a new impressive equipment: in 1936, the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company civilian all-terrain vehicle was called Jeep, and in 1937, Minneapolis Moline, Goline army tractors were called Jeep The press also called the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. And, of course, in the early 1940s, the new army SUVs “Bantam”, “Willys” and “Ford” began to be called Jeep.
In February 1941, Willys-Overland demonstrated the new cars off-road capabilities by forcing it to climb the steps of the US Capitol, driven by Willys tester Irving Hausmann, who had recently heard soldiers at Fort Holabird in Baltimore calling the car a “jeep”. When a passerby near the Capitol asked him what the name of this car was, Hausmann replied, “This is a jeep.”
In the photo, military academy cadets and U.S. Army soldiers ride in a jeep near Fort Benning, Georgia, USA, 1942.
Previously in Old Photos: The First Miss America, the chimpanzee survived in space.
Carl Probst, an American engineer working for American Bantam, designed the Bantam BRC open-top all-wheel drive vehicle in July 1940 as part of a US Army tender. The design was later refined by the larger companies Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Co, which as a result received major orders for the supply of these vehicles to the armies of the United States and its allies in World War II, including the USSR. Very soon, these cars received the informal nickname “Jeep”, which later became an official trademark.
Willys-Overland President Joe Fraser claimed that he was the one who coined the word “Jeep” when he heard the military call the car “GP”, referring to one of the Ford GPW versions. However, the word “jeep” was used in the United States during the First World War, as army slang used to call untrained recruits and new, untested mechanisms and vehicles. In March 1936, the Thimble Theatre comics about the sailor Popeye introduced a new character, Eugene Jeep, a mysterious animal with magical powers. The funny animal became very popular in the United States and breathed new life into a forgotten word - they began to say “a real Jeep” about a man with good ingenuity and able to solve any problem, in addition, “Jeep” was called a new impressive equipment: in 1936, the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company civilian all-terrain vehicle was called Jeep, and in 1937, Minneapolis Moline, Goline army tractors were called Jeep The press also called the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. And, of course, in the early 1940s, the new army SUVs “Bantam”, “Willys” and “Ford” began to be called Jeep.
In February 1941, Willys-Overland demonstrated the new cars off-road capabilities by forcing it to climb the steps of the US Capitol, driven by Willys tester Irving Hausmann, who had recently heard soldiers at Fort Holabird in Baltimore calling the car a “jeep”. When a passerby near the Capitol asked him what the name of this car was, Hausmann replied, “This is a jeep.”
In the photo, military academy cadets and U.S. Army soldiers ride in a jeep near Fort Benning, Georgia, USA, 1942.
Previously in Old Photos: The First Miss America, the chimpanzee survived in space.
Contributed by OldPik on January 6, 2025
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