The Jeep By Sea, Air And Land, Part Three

Today brings us to the third part of the legendary jeep getting around through various methods during wartime. It wasn’t all out of the ordinary, sometimes the jeep was just plain on the ground doing what it did best as the most versatile vehicle of the Second World War. The jeep did just about anything from the day to day duties of serving as a portable litter for the wounded and providing transportation for medics as you’ll see in the “Medics In Dungarees” article to helping to provide training to GIs (though I don’t think that I’d like it myself.... riding in a jeep is one thing and learning to somersault and roll out of one moving at 40 mph is quite another...). In its day, the jeep was hauled by cable down cliff sides, travelled the Burma-Ledo road, helped clean up gas spills and a slat grill served as a model for its ‘stepchild’ powered by an icebox motor. Notice

the two small models sitting its hood as well. Pretty cool!

I still have a ton of PopMech and PopSci articles to go through and present here. Next week I’ll focus on some of the great little ads that were found in the back that advertised everything from replacement F-heads for cheap, to do-it-yourself duallies. For now you can find all of the above articles in the Miscellaneous section of the Popular Mechanics and Science Archive.

I hope that everyone had a fine Thanksgiving and are enjoying your Black Friday weekend. Now that the holiday season has officially begun, the This-Old-Jeep.com online marketplace has tons of deals and sales running through the weekend and into Cyber Monday. I’ve spent the past week going through and re-arranging the entire store, updating it, deleting duplicate products and improving the look of existing ones. I’ve also come out with three new t-shirt designs based on classic ads from the 40’s through the 60’s, new holiday ornaments and holiday cards. You can check out the store here and be sure to come back for more deals through tomorrow!

The Jeep By Sea, Air And Land, Part Two

Today we’re going to continue with the Popular Mechanics files with the next part of the jeep’s many ways in which it travelled and was used during and after the war. The ubiquitous land vehicle, the jeep that could get through and over nearly anything on land was also adept at getting through the air. In addition to needing to be gotten to areas throughout the world during wartime by sea, the jeep needed at times to be airlifted in. The most common way was through the use of a glider, such as during the airborne part of the Normandy D-Day invasion. Here is a link to a glider pilot of the 434th Troop Carrier Group’s tale of the D-Day invasion that makes for an interesting read. The gliders supported both the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions. But that wasn’t the extent of the jeep’s time aboard aircraft as you can find in the articles above. The jeep was transported via bombers as well as the Douglas C-74 Globemaster. The Globemaster was one of the military’s first uses of large transport aircraft and was used during the Berlin airlift up to the Korean War until they were de-commissioned in the mid-50’s.

The jeep also found a role at airbases and landing strips, such as the ‘Follow Me’ jeeps with their unique checkerboard pattern that was painted on their backs and used to help guide planes to parking spots or to the appropriate landing strip. The jeep was also used to ferry flight crews and to resupply planes. It literally was a vehicle of a thousand and one uses. Check out the rest of the PM articles and photos here.

Come back next week for the third part of the continuing search through the pages of Popular Mechanics magazine for the eternal jeep. And keep watching here for the new soon to be released t-shirt designs available through the This-Old-Jeep.com online Zazzle marketplace. I plan on releasing them Black Friday weekend or even on Thanksgiving day if I can find the time. The new 2013 calendar is also now available. All new never before seen photos of the jeep grace its pages. Check it out today!

Also, an update to last week’s November calendar photo in which I had spotted a unique setup on a CJ2-A of the spare tire being mounted on the driver’s side of the body.

        

My friend Roberto posted a few links on the This-Old-Jeep.com forum and informed me that they were a limited modification created by local DOT laws and referred to as ‘Leftys.’ Here is also a clipping that I found on the CJ2-A Page from a W-O service bulletin that explains its drawbacks and why it was later rescinded.

While researching this I also found out that not all stateside CJs were manufactured in Toledo. A small percentage (but still impressive, a total of 5% of all CJ3-As...) were produced in Maywood, California at a re-opened production plant to help make up for excess demand on the west coast. It began rolling 2As off the line in November 1947 and a year later, trucks and wagons as well. It churned out ‘West Coast’ CJs until 1954! You learn something new everyday!

Come back next week for more at the This-Old-Jeep.com page.

The This-Old-Jeep.com 2012 Calendar- October/November

Today you get a double entry for the This-Old-Jeep.com 2012 calendar pages as I completely spaced on the October page last month! Its also Veteran’s Day so of course we have a calendar page that is in honor of the many veterans who have sacrificed for the greater good. Please take some time today to remember, honor and/or thank a veteran today for their service and never forget what they have done.

For October I found this lovely photo of a young lady standing next to just one example of an MB with a hardtop. Its one of a slew of hardtops both commercially available and homemade that cropped up in the post-war years. I hope to have an article up about hardtops and the varieties that I’ve found one day soon. The sheer variety of them have interested me for awhile now. Not sure where the photo was taken either, (though the seller told me that the photo came from Washington State...) and it does remind me of many beautiful landscapes from either Alaska or the Pacific Northwest. 

The November page is a touching photo of a young woman spending some quality time with her favorite veteran, a sergeant behind the wheel of a civilian flat fender. Its an interesting photo because of the little details like the canvas half top and the relatively rare rear seat. Notice also that the spare is on the opposite side. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a setup like that. The couples names,  Jim Simmons and Gerry Martin are listed on the reverse. Anyone happen to know of them?

One month left to go in the 2012 calendar but you can still get a nicely printed calendar for all of the beautiful reproductions that would make great garage, barn or man cave photos to hang. You can find it right here. And take note that through tomorrow calendars are 50% off! Coming up for the holidays I have new t-shirt designs in the works and of course, a 2013 calendar! Come back next week for the continuation of the Popular Mechanics articles!

The Jeep, By Sea, Air And Land

Its a well known fact that the jeep was one of the best known land vehicles of the Second World War, but what isn’t as well known are the many ways in which it got around by sea, air and then by land. In going through these Popular Mechanics articles from the 1940’s what comes to light are the many different methods of transporting the jeep by sea and air power to get them where they needed to be anywhere in the world. In the days before it started to seem like you can get any w

here in the world effortlessly and immediately, the military and later, the civilian world came up with many unique ways in which to transport or modify the jeep in order to get it to where it was best used. From highly waterproofing it in the article “Submarine Jeep” to purpose built vehicles such as Ford’s GPW based ‘Seep’ GPA model to the GMC produced DUKW (and yeah, I know not a jeep, but I included since it was also generically referred to as a ‘jeep...’), the jeep had a way of getting around. 

Of course, the jeep didn’t stop having to reach inaccessible places outside of or after the war. The GPA performed home front duty as a rescuer of flood victims. And the sometimes the methods employed for crossing water were simply practical, such the old floating the jeep across a river crossing by guide wire or employing a bulldozer to tow them across or just getting the army engineers to build you a bridge, the jeep managed to find its way there! 

In the photo to the left it just hitched a ride on a boat! I’ve enjoyed finding these articles and photos immensely. There are alot more to come and next week we’ll get caught up on the jeep flying its way to the war zone. For now, check out the newest additions to the Miscellaneous article and photo section right here.

I’m working on a number of new t-shirt designs as well that I hope to have up for Black Friday, so keep checking out the This-Old-Jeep.com Zazzle store and I’ll keep you posted right here and in our Facebook and Twitter accounts when new products and designs come out! I’ve re-designed the popular grill shirt design and you can find it right here. You can also save 15% today in honor of daylight savings. Come back next week for more and hope that you made the most of that extra hour of sleep! Don’t forget to change your smoke and carbon monoxide detector batteries!