How Americans got to meet the Jeep in 1942

With all the hoopla over Jeep's 75th anniversary this summer, I was reminded that many years ago, my mom found a stack of ancient Reader's Digest magazines at a garage sale and bought them for me.

One article that drew my attention was called "Meet the Jeep," a story condensed from Scientific American that appeared in the January 1942 Digest.

The author, Jo Chamberlin, had written a lively, vintage account of what the Digest called "the homeliest and most useful item in the Army's rolling stock -- the midget combat car." He described the vehicle's triumphant debut in battlefield maneuvers in Louisiana in 1941. He also went to Camp Shelby in Mississippi to check out the "jeep" for himself.

Lt. Patrick Summerour demonstrated "the Army's youngest, smallest, toughest baby" to Chamberlin, beginning by pointing out a towing hook on the back end.

"You pull an anti-tank gun here," he told the writer. "Civilians often ask why we don't fight tanks with tanks. Well, a jeep costs $900, a tank $35,000. And these tank-destroyers, towing anti-tank guns, can swarm round enemy tanks and give 'em hell."

Reader's Digest was the best-selling consumer magazine of the day, so you could say it was Chamberlin who introduced the "jeep" to the American public.

With great enthusiasm, he wrote: "Tests showed that the jeep could go places a motorcycle couldn't. A single sniper can cut down a motorcycle dispatch rider, letting orders fall into enemy hands. A jeep is a tougher proposition, for it carries armed men and machine guns. Besides, it is a clawing, climbing hellion in reaching good places to shoot from. 

"The jeep can also be used for reconnaissance and command work. It can serve as a radio patrol car, or to lay a smoke screen to hide the movement of heavy artillery. It can take ammunition, first aid or food to outposts, can evacuate wounded or get a gun crew out of a doomed position. It can cross bridges too weak for heavier cars, can reconnoiter rougher terrain. With a mounted 50-caliber machine gun it can help protect troop columns from airplane strafing." 

Summerour took Chamberlin for a spin through rough terrain. 

"Ahead of us was a huge live oak with gnarled branches close to the ground. "Duck!' he yelled. We roared under the lowest branch -- the top of our car missing it by inches. We crossed a small stream, water flowing over the floor. But electric units are placed so that the 40-inch-high jeep can keep going through water 18 inches deep. We clawed our way up the 30-degree bank -- twice as steep as you'll meet on the road." 

When the ride ended, Summerour got out of the bantam car and asked the reporter: "Think we've got something here?" 

Chamberlin certainly did. And not just for the battlefield. 

"When war ends," the writer predicted, "jeeps will still be useful."