We have many old wartime Willys Jeeps running around in villages in India. These Jeeps were also mfd. here in India by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. under collaboration with Willys. May be they can throw some light on this topic.

after submitting the winning design, didn't the government awarded Ford the contract to built the jeep, and willy's just got the pull behind trialer?.......Because the government did feel that Willy's could not ramp up production tooling for the jeep.

p911

Actually, Bantam is historically credited with the original design of the Jeep, though the Army requested a series of design changes that led to their acceptance of the revised design that Willys put forth. Willys was awarded the contract, but to meet demand, Ford also built the Willys design (designated the GPW). Bantam was the one stuck building trailers during the war.

dan