This Berg’s brochure is interesting in that it contains no references to the CJ-2A or a civilian jeep, suggesting that it came out between 1944-1945 (to me it looks a little earlier than this Berg mailer). Within the flier, Berg claims Berg Truck & Parts Co. was begun in December of 1942 to sell JEEPS. He also notes that the company had appeared in news reels, magazines, and Life Magazine.
Here’s the front page of the brochure:
When opened, you’ll find this third small page. Since Berg is offering standard jeep parts for sale, it can be assumed that this flier is at least from 1944. Note the trailer chassis ad, too.
When flipped over, the brochure offers an array of Ford, Willys, and Bantam jeep parts.
When fully opened, there are even more military-related parts, but no word of civilian parts:
This is how the back looks when fully opened.
Interestingly, while Berg’s Truck Parts may have opened in 1942, Berg didn’t receive any jeeps until November of 1943 and it was only 16 jeeps (likely aall were prototypes). Here’s a report of those first jeeps from the November 27,1943, issue of the Chicago Tribune:
A month later, in December of 1943, this press photo showed the ‘King of Jeeps’ himself Hyman Berg loading up one of those jeeps, a Bantam BRC-40:
Berg’s first sale was reportedly to the Mayor of Lucas, Kansas, Fred Heine. His purchase was captured in a January 3, 1944, story in Life Magazine:
You can read more about this Life Magazine article in this post.
“And think too of the novelty and advertising value of being among the first to use jeeps – its advertising value will be tremendous.” I suppose every early war surplus jeep owner must have been mobbed and questioned about it every time he went out for a drive. It’s too bad we can’t ask any of them what it was like, they’re probably mostly all deceased by now.