Description
The story dates all the way back to 1940 in the early days World War ll - more than a year before the US joined the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
For a long time different branches of the military had needs for a vehicle for use on both ordinary road and in terrain - even difficult terrain. Consequently, a list of requirements to the car's specifications was drawn up by the management. On this list was among other things 4-wheel drive, fold-down windshield, minimum enging capacity, size and a maximum weight when empty - and the list was sent in tenders with a group of car manufacturers.
As were reviewed and evaluated, 3 manufacturers were and each of them were asked to deliver 1500 test models. In July 1941, the Ministry of Defense expressed a desire to standardize the cars, and Willy's Overland was chosen as the manufacturer due to the powerful engine, low silhouette and cheap price on their car and the comapny's production capacity. The first contract was for 16,000 cars. With some minor changes in the design and after incorporating details from the other two cars, the car was renamed "MB". As early as October 1941, a need for greater production arose, and Ford was therefore contracted as a co-supplier. Their car was renamed "GPW", where the W stands for the collaboration with Willy's Overland. The only requirement on the part of the Military was that spare parts from the two vehicles could be used on both models, so that when in the field it would be easy to take parts from broken down cars to repair on other cars independent of supplier and car brand. Therefore, the differences were almost of purely cosmetic nature with "F" stamped in the parts of the GPW and a stamped "willys" in the back panel on the left side of the MB. However, the latter was removed in the spring of 1942 following a demand from the military.
During the war, Willy's Overland produced more than 300,000 MBs, which were used in all branches of the military. Ford produced in addition to that approximately 280,000 GPWs.
