Military Vehicles, March 1997,: Re: Fw: NATO Jeeps (sic)

Re: Fw: NATO Jeeps (sic)

Auke Dijkstra (auke.dijkstra@pi.net)
Sun, 09 Mar 1997 00:23:26 +0100

Nicholas E. Friduss wrote:
>
> ----------
> > From: Nicholas E. Friduss <nefco@ij.net>
> > To: mil-veh@skylee.com
> > Subject: Fw: NATO Jeeps (sic)
> > Date: Thursday, February 27, 1997 1:04 PM
> >
> > I'n not sure this message was received since I received no responses. I
> am
> > resending just in case..Nick
> >
> > ----------
> > > From: Nicholas E. Friduss <nefco@ij.net>
> > > To: mil-veh@skylee.com
> > > Subject: NATO Jeeps (sic)
> > > Date: Monday, February 24, 1997 12:45 PM
> > >
> > > I recently had the opportunity to purchase for $7500.00 (US) one of
> > several
> > > (total quantity unknown) 1942/1943 Willys GP's in near mint condition.
> So
> > > the story goes these units had been in storage in France for lo these
> > many
> > > (50) years and had certain NATO conversions made to them. I backed out
> on
> > > the purchase at the last minute however a friend has one and is very
> > happy
> > > with it. We would like to know however if these are Hotchkiss Jeeps or
> > > some other hybrid or are truly US manufactured and were actually in
> > storage
> > > all this time. The speedometers are in kilometers however this could
> been
> > > part of the NATO. conversion. Whatever anyone can add to this story
> would
> > > be greatly appreciated. Nick Friduss Tampa, Fl. USA Nefco@ij.net
> > >

Hi Nicolas,

Overhere in Europe there are lots of ex-French jeeps for sale.
The French used them for a long time, they rebuild them, and they
rebuild them again, then they decided to manufacture a copy of the
MB/GPW with some modifications (24 Volts)(Hotchkiss). They used the
Hotchkiss for a long time and rebuild them, and rebuild them again,
and by rebuilding I mean that they picked all the bad Hotchkiss's,
GPW's and MB's, they totally stripped them, rebuild all the parts,
and put them back together again. The only problem (for us)was that they
did not care if the parts were GPW, MB or Hotchkiss, so most ex French
jeeps are a mixture of MB, GPW and Hotchkiss parts. You could try to
buy the "Jeep" book by Emile Becker (I don't know if it's on sale
overthere), they have a chapter on the Hotchkiss (M201) in it.
Are you sure that the jeep is ex-French??, the French mostly painted
them green or used a green/black camouflage pattern.
It seems that recently a batch of ex-Greek jeeps were sold to someone
in the States, these are very nice, complete and original jeeps (I
have seen them a few times, they were from a dealer in Holland).
The ex-Greek jeeps were painted in a camouflage pattern green/black/
sand.

Regards,

Auke Dijkstra

Holland