To Top

1945 Article About Americans Out of Luck on Buying Jeeps

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This article appeared in the June 19, 1945, issue of the Tucson Citizen out of Arizona. One bit of info mentions that a Chicago junk dealer bought “a small mountain” of smashed jeeps. Could that have been the King of Jeeps himself Hyrum Berg?

1945-07-19-tucson-citizen-jeep-buyers-out-of-luck-lores

 

4 Comments on “1945 Article About Americans Out of Luck on Buying Jeeps

  1. Joe in Mesa

    That’s a cool play on words, Dave… auf Deutsch: “Berg” is the German word for “a small mountain”!

    Or maybe that’s how the article’s author was suggesting to the readers the identity of the Chicago junk dealer: with a carefully crafted phrase… hmmm!?

  2. colin peabody

    What is ironic, one month after this article was written, Willys held an event at Willys VP Charlie Sorenson’s farm in southern Michigan to introduce the civilian Jeep, using leftover MBs and experimental CJ models for the demonstrations on how the Jeep could perform as a tractor, power unit and family transportation. The introduction of the CJ2a had to ease the shortage of new vehicles available for purchase across the board in the US. When my dad got home from the service in early, 1946, he couldn’t buy a new car, but he did buy a new CJ2A, equipped with field weights and used it to plow fields for local area Galesburg, Illinois farmers, and that’s how he paid for it.

  3. Bill Norris

    Dave,

    I would guess it is Berg’s. I have a copy of a picture of an army surplus Jeep yard. I don’t recall the caption on the photo but assumed it was Berg because it must have been early as there was a Ford GP and a Bantam 40 and a 70.

  4. David Eilers Post author

    Bill: That would make sense then.

    Colin: Now that’s a creative way to pay for a jeep!

    Joe: I didn’t make the connection between the two. That may have well not been a coincidence.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe without commenting