Bill spotted this article from Hemmings about the possibility that the jeep design was partly influenced by a Volkswagen predecessor. The article draws heavily on Bill’s Spears great book Warbaby: The True Story of the Original Jeep.
Here’s the article: https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/04/29/did-an-obscure-beetle-predecessor-influence-the-development-of-the-jeep?
My back hurts just looking at the photo! Ouch
This article is such stretch, yes possible, but written more for the sake of story writing, (nothing wrong with that) not much here in factual information to connect a pre war VW to the Willys Jeep. In my past reading , the German Kubelwagen, had more of a connection to the Willys Jeep in WW2. I’m not an authority on the subject , just stating my opinion.