Butler’s American Bantam Car Company Builds 1st Jeep
In 1929, Sir Herbert Austin, hailing from England, founded the American Austin Car Company in Butler.
His goal was to build small cars for the American market based upon his successful line of vehicles sold in Europe. The venture proved a failure.
Three years after its founding, American Austin went bankrupt, owing to the effects of the Great Depression.
The remains of Sir Herbert’s company were bought by entrepreneur Roy Evans of Bartow, Ga., and renamed the American Bantam Car Company.
While these events were unfolding, the United States Army was searching in vain to find one mechanized vehicle that could meet the widely varied requirements of all the branches of the Army. By late May 1940, a suitable vehicle had still not been found, and there were no plans or ideas on how to find or create one.
In a series of remarkable events in the late spring of 1940, American Bantam, working with the Infantry branch of the U.S. Army, developed a general set of specifications for the long-sought vehicle.
The details were summarized in a memo dated June 6, 1940, exactly four years before D-Day in Europe. It was the first time, but it would not be the last time, the words “remarkable, amazing or miraculous” would be applied to the creation of the Jeep.
The Army, having no idea how to develop a set of specifications for the proposed vehicle, visited the Bantam plant on June 19 and 20, 1940.
From that conference, a working plan for the new truck came into being, including a concept drawing that represents the first sketch of a Jeep-like vehicle.
The Army, with Bantam’s assistance, worked feverishly into early summer 1940 to develop more detailed drawings based upon the ideas developed in Butler. Amazingly by July 2, they had the documents ready to send to manufacturers for bids.
The Army sent specifications and drawings to 135 manufacturers, but at the bid opening on July 22, 1940, only four companies bothered to participate.
Two of the factories declined to bid based on their belief that the arbitrary 49-day deadline to deliver a finished vehicle was impossible to meet.
Only American Bantam and Willys-Overland submitted bids. After drama worthy of a Hollywood thriller, Bantam was awarded the contract — and enormous challenge — to build and deliver a prototype in seven weeks.
The intrepid Bantam team began building their vehicle on Aug. 5, 1940; that meant they had to deliver a finished vehicle ready for testing no later than Sept. 23.
During that time, the amazing met the miraculous.
Overcoming all obstacles, the Bantam team completed their prototype on Sept. 21 and christened their creation the Bantam Reconnaissance Car.
After a harrowing drive to Washington, D.C., the Bantam group delivered their revolutionary new prototype with a half an hour to spare on Sept. 23, 1940.
Upon receiving the vehicle, Col. Lawes, commanding officer of the depot, declared “I have driven every unit the services have purchased for the last 20 years. I can judge them in 15 minutes. This vehicle is going to be absolutely outstanding. I believe this unit will make history.”
The Bantam Reconnaissance Car passed every test the U.S. Army subjected it to from September to October 1940, and was approved to begin production.
After a while, a new name was applied to the Bantam vehicle and other similar prototypes — Jeep.
While companies other than American Bantam eventually mass-produced the Jeep for service in World War II, it was Butler’s American Bantam Car Company that helped design and build the very first Jeep.
Gen. George C. Marshall, chief of staff of the U.S. Army, declared that the Jeep represented, “America’s greatest contribution to modern warfare” and it was Butler’s American Bantam Car Company that built the first one.
Paul Bruno has spent more than 20 years researching, writing and studying early Jeep history. He has told this story to the world, first for the big screen and three times in book form — “Project Management in History: The First Jeep” in 2014; “The Original Jeeps” in 2020; and “The Original Jeeps in Pictures” in 2022.
Bruno has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of project management and information technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in management and computer software, as well as master’s degrees in business administration and history.
