The very first attacks of German tank formations on Poland and France demonstrated that the era of protracted trench wars was in the past, now lightning offensive operations dominated the battlefield and were not inferior to them in terms of counter-attack speed. The tracked base of tanks and other combat vehicles was perfect for this, but there was no passenger car similar in cross-country ability that could keep up with the advanced units when moving off-road. The armies of many countries felt an urgent need for the appearance of such vehicles.
The first developments in the field of creating light army off-road vehicles began to be carried out in the period between the two world wars in several countries of the world at once. However, mass production and supply of such vehicles to the troops began already during the Second World War. For example, the legendary American Willys MB began to enter the army in 1941. Perhaps it was this car that became the most popular SUV of the Second World War, taking part in military operations in all theaters of war. Under the Lend-Lease program, this car was supplied in large quantities to the USSR and Great Britain.
At the same time, another SUV produced in the USA, the Bantam BRC-40, was just as passable, high-speed and light car, which, however, did not bring the car as well as the Willys. It was the Bantam BRC-40 that, with a fortunate coincidence, could take the place of the Willys MB, which during the Second World War was built in hundreds of thousands of copies, tens of thousands of which were delivered to the Soviet Union (about 52 thousand off-road vehicles).
In the competition for the creation of an army four-wheel drive reconnaissance and command vehicle, which took place in the United States in 1940-1941, there were 3 winners, each of whom received an order for the manufacture of a trial batch of vehicles in the amount of 1,500 copies. Against the background of its competitors, Willis and Ford, the American Bantam car, which received the BRC 40 factory index, looked at least as good, but when it was launched into mass production, the American military was not preferred to this car - it also affected that the American Bantam plant had an incomparably smaller production capacity, the military doubted that the company would be able to cope with large orders. As a result, Bantam produced only about 2,600 SUVs, the vast majority of which were transferred under the Lend-Lease program to the UK and the Soviet Union. It was the Bantam BRC 40 that became the first American off-road vehicle, which, together with the northern convoys, entered the USSR at the end of 1941 - six months earlier than the famous Willys began arriving in a massive flow through the ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
Small in number in the USSR "Bow", namely this affectionate nickname stuck with this American off-road vehicle in our country, did not go unnoticed in the Red Army. It is known that it was in these cars that Marshal Zhukov's guards drove. Perhaps the explanation for this was the fact that the Bantam BRC 40 had a wider track and a lower center of gravity than its arch rival "Willis", which means it was completely rid of its main drawback - the tendency to roll over.
History of the Bantam BRC-40
The first attempts to create an SUV were made by Captain Carl Terry and his friend engineer William F. Beasley, they were made back in 1923. In fact, they also own the term "jeep", which originally meant "General Purpose", the phrase could be translated as a general purpose car. The concept has been tested on the Ford-T model. For this, everything that was possible was removed from the car, having managed to bring its weight to 500 kg. The problem arose with the selection of suitable tires. Then Karl Terry had the idea to use tires from an airplane. With great difficulty, the wheels of the car were nevertheless managed to adapt to small-sized aircraft tires, as a result of which the vehicle's permeability increased significantly. Two seats were installed in the cockpit, covered with canvas, the basic design of the jeep was received, but this project was not completed, the time for such cars had not yet come.
The car company Marmon Herringthon was also approaching the creation of a similar car. So Arthur Herrington, having learned about the attempts of the military to develop a light vehicle in off-road conditions, offered an all-wheel drive one and a half ton truck, its tests were carried out at the beginning of 1938.
Around the same time, Bantam offered the Austin American military roadster for a tour of the vehicle and a demonstration of adapting it to any requirement. The initiator of the development was Charles Payne, who was responsible for the sale of equipment to the American army in the company. The military became interested in the developments of the Bantam company, and in July 1940, a delegation of the US Army visited the plant of this company, located in Butler, to get acquainted with the production, personnel and their capabilities. At the same time, a more specific list of requirements was determined that the future car had to meet - four-wheel drive, three seats, the placement of a 7, 62-mm machine gun and ammunition stock, speed when driving on the highway - 50 mph (about 80 km / h), off-road 3 mph (about 5 km / h). At the same time, the weight of the all-wheel drive vehicle should not exceed 1200 pounds (no more than 545 kg), and the payload should have been 600 pounds (at least 273 kg). The wheelbase is 190.5 cm and a height of no more than 91.5 cm, together with good ground clearance and angles of 45 ° entry and 40 ° exit, provided the car with excellent off-road characteristics. In addition, the car stood out for its rectangular body and folding windshield.
Bantam Reconnaissance Car No. 1
At the same time, after all the technical requirements for the future car were formed, the military announced a competition to which 135 automakers were attracted, sending invitations to almost all companies that were associated with this business. The conditions of the competition were quite strict: the participant of the tender in 75 days from its beginning had to transfer 70 ready-made vehicles to the military, and after 49 days had to provide a ready-made prototype. The cost of the order was estimated at 175 thousand dollars. All companies received notifications about the competition, but only two American firms, Bantam and Willys, responded.
After the terms of the tender were received, Francis Fenn, the owner of the Bantam company hired Karl Probst, who led the project to create the jeep. At first, Probst refused, as he doubted the technical, financial and production capabilities of Bantam, but Francis Fenn showed a serious interest in the specialist and he relented. On July 17, 1940, they signed a contract, and the decision to participate in the tender for the American army had to be made before 9 a.m. on July 18. As chess players like to say, the game was "on the flag". By signing a contract with Karl Probst, Francis Fenn gave his consent to participate in the tender. Thus, all the participants in the creation of the future jeep came together: his “mother” - the Bantam company, “father” - Karl Probst and the “midwife and matchmaker” at the same time - the American army. However, this was only the beginning of the story, which later became overgrown with real drama.
Karl Probst began work on the new vehicle by signing a contract with Spicer for transmissions and axles. He decided to take the bridges from the Studebekker Champion as a basis, while the weight of the car was 950 kg. The problem of overweight Probst was not yet worried, since he believed that no one in the United States would simply be able to solve it in the current realities. He decided to use the Continental-V 4112 as the engine, the transmission was supplied by Warner Gear, the transfer case was the Spicer. Everything else was picked up directly at the Bantam production site. In the course of work, a car was born, equipped with a 45 hp gasoline 4-cylinder engine, which worked in tandem with a three-speed gearbox, a two-speed transfer case and a switchable front-wheel drive. The car received an open body, designed for four people and has no doors. The car stood out with a flat windshield, rounded fenders and a radiator grill. The SUV received the designation Bantam Reconnaissance Car Quarter - Ton, becoming the first SUV in history, subsequently transforming into the Bantam BRC 40 model.
The jeep was assembled on time; on September 23, 1940, Karl Probst personally drove the car to the test site. The SUV overcame the distance of 350 kilometers quite confidently, arriving at the military training ground half an hour before the deadline expired. The Bantam car was the only prototype to be submitted for testing in accordance with the terms of the tender conducted by the US Army.
Upon arrival for testing, the military put the jeep under a series of short but very severe tests. The car managed to safely endure all the tests, leaving only positive impressions about itself. The only unresolved issue was the weight of the car, but the rest of the qualities confidently took up, and the Bantam company received official permission to supply the remaining 70 cars for carrying out full-fledged army tests. The prototype was left for a test run of 5,500 miles, 5,000 of which the military was going to overcome in off-road conditions.
Stolen triumph or American-style robbery
This planned triumph turned into a real disaster for the small firm. Despite the approval of the Bantam project, the American military was skeptical about the capabilities of this Pennsylvania enterprise to organize the production of SUVs in the quantities necessary for the army (difficulties with production, personnel, financing). In order to be on the safe side, Willys and Ford were allowed to participate in the tender, with the latter being dragged into the competition literally by the ears. Since the models of these two companies were still not ready, the military simply handed them the full technical documentation for the Bantam BRC car. Karl Probst was just furious with this decision, but there was nothing he could do. After Bantam signed a contract with the US Army, the intellectual property rights for the prototype passed to the military.
Bantam BRC 40 with 37 mm M3 anti-tank gun
It took 1, 5 months before the Willys company presented its prototype called Quad, and after another 10 days the Ford Pygmy car arrived at the military training ground. Both cars were almost complete copies of the Bantam, the only difference between the Pygmy was its flattened hood. The main and decisive advantage and difference of the Willys Quad SUV was its more powerful engine, the engine developed 60 hp. - immediately by 15 hp more than the later version of the Bantam, which received the designation BRC-40. Superiority in engine power - and with such a small mass, the extra 15 horsepower was very important - provided the Willys Jeep not only with a higher top speed and better acceleration dynamics, but most importantly, the Quad was more effective off-road. On the slope, which the Bantam SUV had to overcome with difficulty, Willys climbed almost effortlessly.
Evaluation tests of all three vehicles presented to the military ended in a predictable victory for the Willys Quad, the Bantam model came second, and the Ford Pygmy SUV finished third with a large gap. Despite the test results, each of the three firms received an order for the manufacture of 1,500 vehicles, which were planned to be sent to real army formations, where they had to undergo a series of tests in conditions as close as possible to combat ones. The final decision was to be made by the US Army based on the results of the operation of vehicles in units. This is how the Bantam BRC 40, Willys MA and Ford GP jeeps were born. Their tests were carried out on a vast territory from Hawaii to Alaska, but circumstances developed in such a way that none of the 4,500 vehicles of these parties ended up in the American army. All of them under the Lend-Lease program were sent to the UK and the Soviet Union (more than 500 Bantam BRC 40 vehicles reached the Red Army).
Willys MA
Ford Pygmy
All tests carried out by the American military demonstrated the advantages of the Willys SUV in engine power, while the price for this car was the lowest. As a result, it was Willys MA who became the winner of a large-scale competition. The final report of the American military command in July 1941 recommended the launch of a standardized model based on the Willys Quad for mass production. If the first army order, placed at the Willys plant in Toledo, provided for the assembly of 16 thousand SUVs, then after Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor and the states entered the Second World War, the Pentagon decided that these production volumes would not be enough. The second contractor was decided to make Ford, which received a complete set of documentation for the car from Willys. Ford produced a jeep under the abbreviation GPW (General Purpose Willys). In total, more than 640 thousand jeeps were produced in the United States during the Second World War. At the same time, while Willys and Ford were making huge profits from military contracts, American Bantam remained practically at a broken trough.
The merits of Karl Probst, who managed in a very short time to create a fully functional prototype meeting the competitive requirements, which at least 60% was the main standardized later jeeps, no one remembered. A total of 2,642 jeeps were assembled at the American Bantam plant in Pennsylvania, not counting the prototype. And the order from the military for the production of 10 thousand trailers for SUVs was a real mockery. The money from this order of the company was only enough to hold out with a sin in half until the end of the war, after which the Bantam company forever disappeared from the American market, and did not bask in the rays of the well-deserved glory of the creator of the first military jeep in history.
The performance characteristics of the Bantam BRC 40:
Overall dimensions: length - 3240 mm, width - 1430 mm, height - 1780 mm (with an awning roof).
The ground clearance is 220 mm.
Weight - 950 kg.
Powerplant: Continental BY-4112 with 48 hp
The maximum speed is 86 km / h (on the highway).
The capacity of the fuel tank is 38 liters.
The power reserve is 315 km.
Number of seats - 4.
