What happened to Ford and Bantam?

Bantam and Ford were frozen out of the action for the moment, though events would soon alter that. On December 7th 1941, Japan launched a murderous sneak attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, sinking or disabling several of the Navy's largest ships and killing hundreds of young American boys in uniform. Despite American efforts to remain on the sidelines, they were suddenly placed into the war.The need for the new military car was now going to be greater than the most optimistic had envisioned. Besides the US Army needs, thousands of new scout cars would eventually be supplied to allied armies in virtually every theatre of the war.
As events picked up speed the previous Jeep orders, which had seemed so lucrative, now seemed insignificant. Even the 16,000 unit order that went to Willys paled in comparison to what the Military was now calling for (which was of course the slat grill, of which some 25,808 were made). Along the way, and acutely before the attack on Pearl, Ford won the right to also produce Jeeps for the Military. The Quartermaster still wanted a second source of supply. A compromise was reached by having Ford agree to produce the Willys design under licence. Willys would turn over copies of all the designs so that Ford could now build the standardised Jeep. The Ford product would be designated the GPW (for General Purpose Willys or G for Government and P for 80 inch wheel base, W for Willys) which indicated that it was a Ford GP, but built to the Willys standard design. Willys, however, never received any fees or remuneration for this. The standardised stamped grill Willys MB appeared on 12th June1942 and finished in September of 1945. However Ford's GPW came from its factory on 6th January 1942 and ended on 30th July 1945. The reason for Willys MB's 'standard grill re-design' late arrival was due to the fact that they were still building the slat grill model.
One of the major differences in both early Willys and Ford models was the script logo on the rear body tub, just below where the Jerry can holder sits. This stamped out 'Ford' or 'Willys' logo featured on around 17,000 early Fords, and around the same numbers on Willys models. But by late 1942 these were removed by Government order.
Bantam, however, was now out of consideration for Jeep production.The Army reported that Ford offered to expand the large amounts of money necessary to set up production of critically needed Jeep components, particularly the constant velocity joints needed for its front-end drive; items which had created a bottleneck in production lines. Bantam was financially unable to do the same, although it did submit a plant, to have additional suppliers put the components into production. Again, Bantam's small size and precarious financial condition served to deny the company its rightful role in Jeep production. As the Army saw things, with two large production sources, Willys and Ford, building Jeeps, there was no need for a third supplier. There is a hint in all the official papers that some military officers were just plain determined to see that Ford be a part of the project, despite Bantam's role as the designer of the original prototype. Looking back, it seems blatantly unfair that Bantam didn't get to share in the abundant Jeep contracts after working so hard to see the thing through its birthing, but back then the people involved were consumed by the urgency of the times. Bantam was given contracts to build Jeep trailers. This work kept them in business for the time being, but did nothing to help keep them in the auto business in the post-war market.
By the end of the war, Willys had built some 359,489 units, while Ford built some 277,896. As both companies were using the same design and parts, this meant that all parts were interchangeable. Both Jeeps had the 2.2 litre flat head 4 cylinder Willys or Ford side valve engine (named as the Go-Devil), and both were mated to the 3 speed manual gearbox. For most of their war days they both came with 6 volt electrics, although some were made with 12 volt towards the end of the war, or may have been converted by individual armies depending on their needs and usage.There are a number of differences between the Willys and Ford Jeeps, and most 'so called Jeep experts' would tell you that it is the front chassis cross member. On the Willys it was a round tube section and on the Ford it was an inverted U channel section. In most cases this is true, but during the war both companies were running out of spares to build the Jeeps quick enough to meet the demands of world-wide armies. A company by the name of O.H. Smith was producing chassis for Willys and by 1943 Ford were also buying from that same company, hence Ford was using the Willys style chassis and not its own, so the two differences may or may not be correct. But one major difference between the two was the fact that Ford used only bolts with the T' stamp on them, and they also stamped a number of panels with the letter 'F'. It seemed altogether fitting then that when officers representing the military forces of Imperial Japan set out to sign the articles of surrender in September 1945, they were driven part of the way in a Jeep. The war in Europe was already over, in fact World War II was now completely finished, and at this point so was the production of the military Jeep, although it was to continue life as a civilian version.
Later on, there would be arguments about exactly who invented the Jeep. Senate hearings were even held to look into the claims made by the parties involved, as well as to investigate the military contracts that were awarded for its production. But during the war, Willys' then president Joseph W. Frazer shrewdlyhad the Jeep name copyrighted as a Willys brand and that copyright settled who would be selling Jeeps after the war (this was later registered in 1950). For Willys it was the coup of the century. They would never again have to worry about sweating out a profit on economy car sales. With the Jeep as their main post-war product, they could at last conduct their business in an end of the market that had no real competition. Ford never really had a chance anyway, since the Ford GPW was a copy of the Willys. Poor little Bantam never re-entered the automobile market and eventually faded away. So credit for the original design can only go to Karl Probst and Bantam. Karl later wrote: "There was no way I could have visualised the succession of events which would see Willys and others get credit for the Jeep's development, as well as production contracts, while we at Bantam would get little of either."

As for accessories, the Jeep did not have many; axe, shovel, tilt canvas top, Jerry can, spare wheel, fire extinguisher, tools, rifle rack and that was about it.Although in later years, armies and enthusiasts have fitted side screens, radios, machine guns and mounts, and some come with the added bonus of a Bantam Jeep trailer. As for markings, well this will vary from Jeep to Jeep as owners may have put their chosen markings on them or even painted them in unusual colours i.e. US Navy, 101 Airborne, SAS, Ambulance, Paras etc.