Regarding “Jeep pride: Butler’s proud moment in history” (June 12, page 12).

I wish to add to the account that the title of my talk is not of my own effort but rather that of local business man, Bob Brandon, former editor of the National Austin-Bantam Club newsletter and Austin-Bantam car, truck and Jeep enthusiast. He coined that phrase several years ago and it is the perfect nail-on-the-head expression. I always try to give Bob the credit for that phrase in speaking of the history of the Bantam Jeep.

In June of 1940, the Bantam factory had shut down, employees were sent home. Bantam was on the verge of bankruptcy, only the plant manager, two mechanical engineers, the chief mechanic and the night watchman stayed on. It was the officials there, that tried to put a design plan into effect from the Quartermaster Corps specs to complete a bid for a pilot-prototype recon car, using as many Bantam parts as possible. Finding that impossible to do, they needed a professional auto designer to help them meet the bid presentation and cost estimates in very few days for presentation July 2, 1940, in Baltimore at Camp Holibard (QMC. HQ)

Karl Probst of Detroit was finally convinced to step up and the bid was presented on time.

Only two bidders appeared: Willys-Overland and Bantam. Willys underbid our cost by $13 per unit, but they had no design, just the cost figures. Bantam had a design, cost figures and a 49th day build timeline. Willys needed 75 days to present a pilot model. We got the bid due to a short 49 day build bid and the fact that the need for the recon vehicle was an A-1 priority for Army usage as a possible war in Europe was in sight probably within one or two years at the least.

QMC did not care for Bantam, they thought we were only an “assembly plant” not aware that we were building small cars for 10 years (Austin then Bantam) not knowing we had a state of the art, fully operational modem automobile/truck manufacturing facility. They thought we were small-town. In the end we won the bid, built our pilot car in 48 days and it passed all the tests the Army had it perform. Other “jeeps” as it came to be called, were built by Willys and Ford (some 600,000 from 1941-1945) but in the end both Gens. Marshall and Eisenhower said “We couldn’t have won World War II without the Jeep.” Gen. Stillwell in the South Pacific, his army totally surrounded by the enemy, had to make his way out of the jungle, not by trails or roads, but by cutting through the dense undergrowth, they came out to a British outpost and the “Brits” asked how he finally made it to safety, Stillwell replied. “We had “Jeeps!” Period.