I propose to introduce armored jeeps of the Willys family.
Little history
Gun-armed jeeps
In early 1941, the US Army’s Tank Destroyer Command was
urgently in need of a method to make its antitank guns more mobile, the better
to fulfill its new tactical doctrine. There had been articles published about
the success of the French Army in using light antitank guns mounted on the rear
of trucks during the 1940 campaign, so Ordnance began considering possible
designs. One of the most obvious solutions was to mount the standard 37mm gun
on a Y4ton truck and the first of these, designated the T2 37mm gun motor
carriage (GMC), placed a 37mm gun in the rear-bed of a Bantam 40 BRC with the
gun pointing over the hood. Seven of these were built, starting in May 1941,
but the configuration was awkward and so the pilots were rebuilt to normal
truck configuration. This was followed by the T2E1 37mm GMC, which reoriented
the gun to fire over the rear of the vehicle, and 11 were built for trials.
Although better than the T2, the T2El was difficult to employ since it was hard
to service the gun in such an awkward configuration. Most of the T2El GMCs were
converted back t9 trucks, but at least one was rebuilt by removing the rear
bodywork to lighten the vehicle. The idea was that in this configuration, the
gun would be oriented to fire over the front and the crew could service the gun
from behind the vehicle. Once again, the configuration was awkward, to say the
least, and this project was abandoned.
In July 1941, the QMC had considered developing a lengthened
Y4ton truck with a 6×6 configuration for specialized roles; one of its original
missions was seen as being a gun carrier for the 37mm gun. In July 1941, Willys
was contracted to develop the T13 and T14 37mm GMC based on a stretched MA
chassis. The T13 had the gun pointed forward but, as a result of earlier
experiments with the T2, this configuration was dropped before the pilots were
constructed. Instead, two pilots of the T14 were built and the first was
delivered to Aberdeen Proving Ground in January 1942. Although the T14 was
judged to be the most satisfactory of several 37mm tank destroyers tested by
the Army, the Tank Destroyer Command had already decided to manufacture the M6
37mm GMC based on the 1/4ton truck. This marked the end of considerations for a
jeep-based tank destroyer, but the 6×6 jeep continued development in various
configurations as the “Super Jeep”, which is described below.
There were a number of other attempts to develop armed jeeps
late in the war. The 82d Airborne Division actually mounted a 57mm antitank gun
on the rear of a jeep in March 1945, but the war ended before it could be used.
In 1944, Ordnance developed a mount for the large 4.2in mortar with a large
hinge in the rear compartment that permitted the heavy base-plate to be folded
up for travel, and then deploy behind the jeep for firing. Although a pilot was
tested, there was never enough demand for such a weapon to justify production.
The jeep was regularly used to carry infantry mortars, though these were not
usually fired from the jeep. Some units developed racks for 81mm mortar
ammunition for these mortar jeeps.
Armored Jeep
In reconnaissance operations, the Jeep proved fast, but clearly unprotected. This led to field adaptation of armored plates and, after some time, formulated and officialized as the “1/4 ton 4×4 armored truck”. This was an attempt by the army to set regulations of field modifications, consisting of adding a kind of “armored box” made of three plates (actually a single plate folded in three) protecting the front and sides of the driver compartment, with two small sight openings. The front plate replaced the windshield. The protection was sufficient against small arms fire.
Since the jeep was intended to be used for reconnaissance,
there was interest almost from the outset in an armored version for the scout
role. The Smart Engineering Company offered an elementary armor kit for the jeep
in 1941, but trials at Aberdeen Proving Ground found that the extra weight
adversely affected automotive performance.
The Army had already sponsored the development of a
lengthened jeep for the T14 tank destroyer mentioned above, so there was some
interest in whether this chassis might be more suitable for an armored jeep to
satisfy a Tank Destroyer Command requirement for a lightly armored
reconnaissance car. Starting in April 1942, the second T14 prototype was
converted into the T24 scout car. Although the T24 was deemed successful in
trials, the project was cancelled in the autumn of 1942 as part of an effort to
quash the excessive number of armored car programs that had been undertaken by
Ordnance in favor of concentrating on a single design, the M8/M20 light armored
car.
In parallel to the T24 project, Ordnance was pushed into further work on a 4×4 scout car based on the jeep, owing to interest by Army Ground Forces. Starting in June 1942, Ordnance sponsored development ·of the T25 scout car, which used different configurations of armor in the T25, T25E1, T25E2, and T25E3 models. The added armor plate overloaded the chassis 785-1,265Ib beyond its rated load and, as was discovered earlier, badly affected automotive performance. The program was terminated, but a number of US Army units developed their own improvised armor kits in the European theater in 1944-45.
Thank you for your attention! 