Dmitri Kessel had a long career in photography spanning some 60 years and while at LIFE he shot a series of photographs at the Willys-Overland plant in Toledo. They remain some of my favorite photos in the LIFE collection. They show the regular men and women involved in assembling the MB in the early years of our involvement in the war. Shot in June 1942 they show the way that we lived and worked 70 years ago. Seventy years ago these men and women were contributing to the war effort in a very important and lasting way, the building of the jeep. I doubt whether they were trained engineers, but probably regular working class, blue collar Americans. I wonder if they had any idea of how valued and appreciated and sought after the fruits of their labors would be become a generation later. Enjoy and come back tomorrow.
PS. On a side note. I noticed that the data plates in this photo are in Cyrillic. Perhaps it was built for export only? The D.O.D. appears to be 1/ 14 or 24/ 41.
I had also noticed something drawn onto or in the dust on the windshield of the photo on the left. I reversed it, but still can’t quite make it out. Any ideas? It looks like ‘Br...t...d’. Hmmm...
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