The beginning
When I saw the jeep for the first time in July 2010, the car only consisted of the chassis, the body was not available.
- My first glance at the jeep
The original ID-plate from the frame near the bumper was available and stated that the jeep had the frame number "MB158963".
The same number was also stamped on the top of the left frame member near the front axle. This is clearly a post-war stamp, since these stamps were not used during the war.
Nevertheless the stamp is a further hint, that the number from the id-plate should be correct.
- Chassis number plate
- Chassis number stamped
The following picture shows the kind of ID-plate for "chassis number on the Jeep Standard MB, chassis number 125809 up to 288687 (February 1942 - December 1943)" (BeDe94, p.94)
and therefore correct for MB158963.
- (Source: BeDe94, p.49)
The caption of the picture states: "zinc plate with the chassis number on the left side rail - inside behind the bumper".
This description fits to the ID-plate on the jeep.
Also other details of the chassis fit to the frame number. The batterie-holder is made of a single piece. This fits to the description
in the book of Becker and Dentzer (BeDe94, p.48). The book states, that for the chassis of the Willys 'Standard' and 'Composite' (February 1942 - September 1945)
chassis number 120600 - 459874 "the battery holder is composed of a single simple metal base" (BeDe94, p.48).
This description fits to the battery-holder on the frame like the following picture shows.
- Battery-holder on the right side
All these informations indicate that the frame number is plausible and fit to the other details of the frame.
Determination of the date of delivery (dod)
In a first step I wanted to find out the date of delivery (dod) of the jeep. For this purpose I used several books.
In the book "The standardised War-time Jeep 2" by John Farley a table denotes the delivery dates on a monthly basis. In this table is stated (Farl09, p.305):
| Date | Chassis No. | |
|---|---|---|
| [...] | [...] | |
| July 1942 | 155499-163000 | |
| [...] | [...] |
The book of Becker and Dentzer contains a more detailed table with serial numbers and the according dod on a daily base. From this table I took the following information about the serial numbers closest to MB158963 (BeDe94, p.51):
| Serial Nr | Date of Delivery | |
|---|---|---|
| [...] | [...] | |
| 158268 | 13.07.1942 | |
| 160665 | 21.07.1942 | |
| [...] | [...] |
With this information in a first step I could isolate the dod of MB158963 to a range between 13th and 21st July 1942.
Since I did not have the original data plates, I had to order repro data plates. I ordered them from Robert de Ruijter. Before production of the data plates he sent me pictures of the two original dataplates which were closest to MB158963. These were in particular:
-
MB157574, dod 7-13-42
(Source: www.dataplates4u.com)
-
MB159901, dod 7-17-42
(Source: www.dataplates4u.com)
These two dataplates indicate that the dod of MB158963 lies somewhere between Monday, 13th and Friday, 17th July 1942 and thus I could further narrow the probable range of dod. Based on this information I did a linear interpolation of the dod, based on the Chassis numbers.
- Linear dod-interpolation
The result shows that the interpolated dod of MB158963 is
Wednesday, 15th July 1942.
Of course it's only an interpolated value, but finally I decided to use this date as the dod of MB158963.
The dod has several implications on certain details of the jeep, since several changes happened to the jeep over time (for this topic also see section
dod-related details).
Further information on the history of MB158963
The following information is taken from the 2nd jeep book of John Farley (Farley09). According to this book, the dod of MB158963 lies in July 1942 and was part of an US Army contract DA-W-398-QM-189 S/M2428.
The Chassis Range of this contract was MB155499 - MB163000. The registration numbers of this contract for July were 20209017 - 20215518 (Farley (2009), p.60).
The first volume of the series "The evolution of the Willys-Overland MB Jeep" by Lloyd White provides further information about this contract:
"Contract DA-W-398-QM-189 pertained to the British, Russian and Chinese jeeps which were basically an export version of a standard MB jeep. [...]
The 'DA' of this contract stood for 'Defense Aid' and was part of the pre-war Lend Lease efforts by the US to aid our Allies by fulfilling their
light vehicle needs." (WhV114, p. 368).
The text further states that "the British contract jeeps were ordered on their primary contract, SM 2275. [...] There were also a series of subsequent
smaller quantity contracts as the need was refined." (WhV114, p. 369).
In the book of Becker and Dentzer also some information about the contracts is provided:
| Contrat | Numéro d'enregistrement | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| [...] | [...] | ||
| DA-W-398-QM-189 | 2078691 - 2083803 | ||
| [...] | [...] |
The information from the Farley book together with the book of White indicates that MB158963 belonged to a Defense Aid contract which was used to deliver allied forces (British, Russian and Chinese).
I have not been able to find further information about the history of the jeep, e.g. where and which units it was used during the war and the history after the war. If someone has any clue to get more detailed information about the assignment of the jeeps to parts of the army, I would be very thankful.