Major General Jacob Devers made multiple appearances in newspapers across the country. On February 05, 1942, he announced at Fort Knox that the armored forces could begin personalizing their peeps, jeeps, tanks, and other equipment with names, though they could not be objectionable names. The order does not indicate approval to put names on the windshields, but apparently that became allowed at some point.
On October 17, 1942 (Appeal Democrat out of Marysville, California) the Major General was photographed with other senior leaders discussing issues while sitting in a jeep:
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Originally Posted March 13, 2018: Interesting discussion on peep vs. jeep within the caption. The caption claims it has been misnamed “peep”, but then claims it has been erroneously called a “jeep” and that a “jeep” is a larger vehicle (Command Car, though in this case it is a Willys MA). As we’ve discussed earlier, there was a great debate about the proper term for the vehicle.
“WWII Maj. Gen. Jacob Devers in Willys MB Jeep Original Press Photo”
Caption is wrong! That’s an MA, not MB…thus, called a ‘peep’ at the time.
I was just going to say the same thing.. An MA.
ugh … I blew that on the MA! Good call.
As I understand it, the peep label didn’t distinguish between MA and MB. It was more of an issue of the branch of the military and their designation for the 1/4 ton vehicles.
The ‘peep’ moniker was used along with ‘leaping lena’, ‘blitz buggy’ for the 3 prototypes as I understand it.
Where is Don Prine when you need him? He could have definitively answered this one.
I suspect there is no one answer on this, as it probably depended on who you asked. In the end, we are confused, because they were confused. 🙂
As an example, returning to the article I reference above (http://www.ewillys.com/2015/01/28/the-official-name-for-the-jeep-the-peep/), the April 16 article shows how confused military editors were about what to call them, but that the majority of camp editors (26%) at that point referred to all 1/4 tons as “Bantam Cars”. Of course, by April of 1942 the MB and GPWs were rolling off the lines. Yet, the article does not distinguish between the prototypes and the production jeeps. It simply differentiates between the 1/4 ton and 1/2 ton (Dodge Command Car as we know it today).
Moreover, the May 1942 article described the peep as a “quarter-ton command and reconnaissance car”. It also does not distinguish between makes or models.
If you have an article or note that points to the Peep directly referring to the prototypes, I’d love to see it.
These photographers are not reporters and frequently get “facts” wrong, especially under deadlines. Heck, reporters get ‘facts’ wrong sometimes!
Did anyone notice the collum shift in the lower poto? That would indicate the Willy’s prototype. Ballentines book about the Jeep says after testing they should make it with the floor shift.
A COLUMN SHIFT T-84 TRANSMISSION ? ? — i have never seen one — very rare like the T-96 floor shift tranny ?