page_title: Willys MB
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Willys MB / History
caption_attribution_description: Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower in his jeep in the American sector during the liberation of Lower Normandy in the summer of 1944. The lieutenant general in the backseat looks like Omar Bradley. ID: p013329
context_page_description: The Willys MB and the Ford GPW, both formally called the U.S. Army Truck, ​¹⁄₄-ton, 4×4, Command Reconnaissance, commonly known as Jeep or jeep, and sometimes referred to as G503, were highly successful off-road capable, light, military utility vehicles, built in large numbers to a standardized design, from 1941 to 1945, for the Allied forces in World War II.
  The jeep became the primary light wheeled transport vehicle of the United States Military and its Allies in World War II, as well as the postwar period, with President Eisenhower once calling it, "one of three decisive weapons the U.S. had during WWII." It was also the world's first mass-produced four-wheel drive car, manufactured in six-figure numbers. About 650,000 units were built, constituting a quarter of the total U.S. non-combat motor vehicles produced during the war, and almost two-thirds of the 988,000 light vehicle class produced, together with the Dodge WC series.
context_section_description: The design of the World War II jeep was the result of a long process, involving the contributions of both U.S. military officers and civilian engineers. The idea of the jeep originated with the infantry, which needed a low, powerful vehicle with four-wheel drive — the latter were mostly tied to three companies: Bantam, Willys and Ford, and the development has repeatedly been called a "design by committee". In fall 1941, Lt. E.P. Hogan of the U.S. Quartermaster Corps wrote: "Credit for the original design of the Army's truck ​¹⁄₄-ton, 4×4, may not be claimed by any single individual or manufacturer. This vehicle is the result of much research and many tests."  Hogan credited both military and civilian engineers, especially those working at the Holabird Quartermaster Depot.
caption: General Dwight D. Eisenhower in his jeep during the liberation of Lower Normandy, summer of 1944. The lieutenant general in the backseat is Omar Bradley. Eisenhower later wrote that the jeep was "one of the six most vital" U.S. vehicles to win the war.[nb 4]
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