[Ads-l] more on early "jeeps"

Fri Apr 25 17:48:35 UTC 2025

One more. Presumably the ordinary "jeep" (quarter-ton payload) but with
*two* machine guns?

1941 _Spokane Daily Chronicle_ (Apr. 5) 1: A jeep is not an animal....The
[two jeeps], sent directly here from the Ford factory, are quarter-ton
trucks....Designated as light [n.b.] reconnaissance and command cars, they
carry four men and one .30-caliber and one .50-caliber machine gun.

JL

On Fri, Apr 25, 2025 at 12:21 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I haven't re-scrutinized all the early exx. of "jeep = motor vehicle newly
> designed for various rugged uses," but these are worth reviewing. The
> first, at least, has been cited here before. A "combat car" wasn't a "car"
> at all:  the term was preferred by mechanized cavalry units over the more
> prosaic "tank." The vehicles described are pretty clearly light tanks.
>
> And the general public has never always distinguished between a tracked
> "tank" and a wheeled (or half-tracked) "armored car."
>
> 1938 _Salem [O.] News_ (Sept. 19) 1: Infantry...at Ft. Meade, Md., set up
> a .50-calibre anti-tank gun, capable of penetrating the heavy sides of the
> "jeep wagons."  [Possibly an armored car, not a tank.]
>
> 1939 _Cincinnati Post_ (Feb, 18) 1: No foreign power could have "captured"
> Cincinnati Saturday. There were too many "jeeps" on Fountain Square. The
> jeeps were brought here from Ft. Knox, Ky., to show Cincinnatians what
> Uncle Sam will fight with if he gets in a war. ...[A]verage Cincinnatians
> thought the jeeps were tanks and armored cars. But they were jeeps, all
> right, Chuck said, and if you wanted to get fancy about it, you could call
> them "jeep wagons," like they do on the military reservation....One jeep
> cost $35,000 without its armaments. It is a new model combat car - they
> called them "tanks" in the last war....There was a scout car [n.b.], more
> combat cars, all kinds of artillery pieces....All the jeeps came from Ft.
> Knox, the artillery pieces from Ft. Thomas.
>
> 1939 _Honolulu Star-Advertiser_ (Aug. 27) 2: Time Out for "Jeep Wagons" A
> tank convoy, on route to army maneuvers at Plattsburg, N.Y., is shown here
> at rest in a roadside field near Ludlow, Vt. [The only e. where "jeep
> wagon" clearly means "tank."]
>
> 1939 _Portsmouth [O.] Times_ (Oct. 3) 5: Try shooting a machine gun from a
> ditch-jumping U.S. army combat car lunging along at 55 miles an hour. It's
> a  10-ton, 275-horsepower piece of equipment. ...Private Dick Prasek...was
> in the combat car as it arrived here with a detachment of the seventh
> cavalry brigade (mechanized) from Ft. Knox, Ky., making a tour of Ohio to
> stimulate recruiting. "It's my jeep wagon," Prasek said affectionately. [To
> judge from the speed, the weight, and the machine gun, the vehicle
> described is a (very large) armored car.]
>
> 1939 _Cincinnati Enquirer_ (Oct. 29) II 1:The recently organized 22nd
> Reconnaissance Squadron....Equipment consists of 10 scout cars, 10
> motorcycles, 2 trucks, and 2 jeep wagons.  ["Scout cars" of reconnaissance
> squadrons were four-wheeled armored car similar in appearance to the
> familiar WW2 half-track (also technically an "armored car." The "jeep
> wagons" mentioned may be "command cars," often called "jeeps" in WW2.]
>
> 1940 _Antlers [Okla.] American_  (Apr. 4) 4: USED CAR BARGAINS... 1-1932
> Chevrolet Panel Delivery...$125.... 1-1928 Chevrolet "Jeep Wagon"...$35.
> [I can't guess,.]
>
> 1941 _Akron Beacon Journal_ (Jan. 17) 13: Mess was delivered to the range
> in the "jeep wagons".... "Jeep wagon" is a slang word used when speaking of
> the new small but powerful one-half ton, four-wheel drive truck that is
> equipped with dual equipment on all four wheels.
>
> 1941 _Akron Beacon Journal_ (Feb. 12)  13: FORT McCLELLAND, Ala.....eight
> new reconnaissance scout cars - [i.e.,] jeep wagons.
>
> 1941 _Adair's Odessa, Missouri, Democrat_ (March 14)  2 The army called
> the Bantams that are armoured [sic] "Jeep Wagons," they pull 37mm.
> howitzers.
>
> 1941 _Courier-Post_ (Camden, N.J.) (March 23)  5: Fort Dix...Powell Drives
> "Jeep"   Driving one of the Army's new four-wheel drive "jeep wagons,"
> Maj. General Clifford R. Powell [etc.]....[T]he "jeep wagon" [is]
> officially known as a "command car."
>
> 1941 _Columbus [O.] Evening Dispatch_ (Oct. 3) B-1: Camp Shelby,
> Miss....Jeep Wagon: Reconnaissance Car.
>
> 1941_Norfolk Virginian-Pilot_ (June 5) 19: The men rolled through Richmond
> on heavy trucks, smaller "blitz buggies," and tiny "jeep wagons."
>
> 1941 _Seattle Post-Intelligencer_ (Oct. 5) 22:  [Caption]...an army Jeep
> wagon [sic]....[Photo shows the familiar ww2 jeep].
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 9:16 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: more on early "jeeps"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> HDAS I includes the phrase, allegedly from WWII but not documented till
>> later.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 8:00 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> > Subject:      Re: more on early "jeeps"
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > On Dec 8, 2011, at 2:15 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>> >
>> >>> (1) Was the military yardbird basically likened to a domestic bird
>> >>> (policing the camp for butts etc. like a pecking chicken), or what?
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >> Could be. I have no idea, though I'm well-acquainted with "post
>> >> police." ["Start bendin' 'n' pickin'! I don' wanna to see nothin' but
>> >> assholes 'n' elbows!"]
>> >
>> > And so much worse for anyone who can't tell the one from the other.
>> >
>> > LH
>> >
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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