Here are four different custom hardtops built during WWII and used in Alaska:
1. From “Attu WWII Photos” comes this unusually designed hardtop. I don’t think I’ve featured this previously (at least, if I did, I couldn’t find it). (It turns out this and some other photos are at the CJ-3B ATTU Hardtop Page)
http://www.hlswilliwaw.com/aleutians/attu/html/attu-wwii-pg3.htm
2. From Flickr and www.throughtheireyes2.co.uk comes this odd hardtop. The author of the throughtheireyes website collects photo albums from soldiers and publishes the photos. He has some very good photos there.
3. Here’s one more hardtop from a 1944 expedition.
4. Jimmy Stephens and his jeep with hardtop in Adak, Alaska.
http://stanstark.blogspot.com/2011/08/war-in-alaska-pieces-of-puzzle-fit.html
I notice, in the first picture ,the jeep appears to have a body extension or basket on it also.
In addition to above comment on body extension,note what appears to be add on rear bumper hanging down.Also note the front bumper and frame rails extend out further than stock position.
Zack: I wonder if this would be a good project for my Jeep?
Alaska WWII history is interesting.
Some where I read it was DANG COLD up there and building these was almost a matter of survival. Plus time on their hands.
In the first photo you can see an inverted shell casing hanging from a post,marked “GAS ALARM”. Throughout WW2 the possibility that the Axis would resort to chemical weapons was a very real possibility.
The Aleutian islands are an amazing place with abandoned military items scattered across the land. The remoteness of the chain of islands along with the expense of visiting these former military outposts help keep this area firmly in the past, when the world was fighting the Second World War. My work has taken me out only as far as Dutch Harbor but the impact the U. S. military had on these islands is still very visible.