Using the term that has become generic in the English language, this
is the undisputed first "jeep." Built by the American Bantam Car
Company of Butler, Pennsylvania, it was delivered to Camp Holabird,
Maryland, on September 23, 1940. The first vehicle of a 70-vehicle
contract, "Old Number One" was tested thoroughly and then spent the rest
of its short life as a demo vehicle. It was wrecked in a traffic
accident early in 1941, sent back to Butler and disassembled. The
mechanical pieces were probably incorporated into the Bantam Mark II's
that were then in production. Legend has it that the unusable body
sections were buried along with a pile of scrap on the Bantam grounds.
(U.S. Army)
Return to the Pictorial History of the Universal
Jeep or the Universal Jeep Timeline,
1942-1986 on The CJ3B Page.
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