This post began as a single newspaper photo and caption titled “Learn About Blitz Buggies” that Mario posted to Facebook. Just before I readied the post, I figured I’d see if there was a better quality version of the photo he posted.
To my surprise, when I searched for “About Blitz Buggies”, the results returned numerous seemingly press release photos over the summer and fall of 1941. No credit for the photos are provided. Given the titles are mostly identical and all showed various soldiers “working” (but probably posing) in front Ford GPs, I can’t help but wonder if this was a subtle campaign by Ford Motors to encourage the adoption of the Ford GP “Blitz Buggy” by the military.
So, here are some random newspaper photos from 1941 (there are many more during 1941).
June 26, 1941, Manhattan Mercury out of Kansas:
June 17, 1941, Montgomery Advertiser out of Alabama (looks to me like the same person as above, yet the caption shows a different name):
July 13, 1941, Akron Beacon out of Ohio:
August 16, 1941, Star Gazette out of Elmira, New York:
August 24, 1941, Austin American out of Texas (that Ford logo looks a little too obvious):
September 23, 1941, News and Observer out of Raleigh, North Carolina:
October 04, 1941, Pittsburgh Courier out of Pennsylvania:
October 11, 1941, Standard Speaker out of Pennsylvania:
October 15, 1941, Craig Empire Courier out of California (Mario posted this one to Facebook):
October 26, 1941, Montgomery Advertiser out of Alabama:
October 31, 1941, Times Munster out of Indiana:
November 16, 1941, Huntsville Times out of AL:
Sure does look like a propaganda campaign, I guess this was the early version of fake news.
Mike: I sure was surprised to see so many articles!
LOL Mike! But this standardization is the military way. I graduated from more than one Army school and was part of other events where we were handed pre-written press releases for our hometown news. You filled in your name, where you were from and another blank or two and the PAO (public affairs office) mailed them out! Sometimes they didn’t even involve us… they just processed the hometown news releases and I’d get a call or letter from a friend that they saw my name in the paper :-).