Description
The True Story of the Original Jeep
On September 21, 1940 in Butler, Pennsylvania an awkward looking miniature truck emerged from the toolroom of the American Bantam Car Company.
Stunning even its creators with its performance it was delivered for Army testing two days later, where it was recognized immediately as a tactics changing weapon of enormous significance and was dubbed a “jeep” by its testers. It went on to become one of the most decisive weapons of WWII, and the Army was not to be without one for decades to come. Displayed in some of the world’s most famous art museums the jeep is considered one of the most elegant American industrial designs of the 20th century and some regard it as the the most significant and influential automobile in American history.
Despite all this, in the 76 intervening years which have been filled with thousands of books and articles, internet sites, and films extolling the virtues of the jeep, the complete story of the jeep’s origins have remained largely a mystery, shrouded by fragmentary, conflicting and incomplete evidence, conjecture, supposition or outright guessing.
At long last in William Spear’s definitive new book WARBABY is set out the true story of how the jeep came to be.
The history is not only revealed in full, but emerges as one of the most interesting and exciting stories in automotive history, from beginning to end filled with dozens of compelling characters in dramatic, high risk situations.
Whether your interest is in industrial design, history, politics, biography, research, simple curiosity about the cars themselves or just interest in an old fashioned good story, WARBABY covers the territory.
