Not the best quality, but this first photo appeared in the February 13, 1941, issue of the Spokesman Review. The photo shows Bantam BRC-60s laying down a smokescreen. The caption calls the vehicles “midget trucks” and then claims the trucks are called “bugs” by the troops.
However, by May 7th, 1941, the Spokesman Review was referring to the vehicle not as a truck, but as a command car called a “jeep”.
The headlights on those Bantams do give them a bug-like look.
I still smile when I read about these old jeeps being about to do speeds like eighty mph. Even that cruising speed of fifty is a stretch of the imagination. Nothing like war-time propaganda 🙂