<<
I cannot speak to British jeeps in particular, but it was my impression
that 1942 GPW's did not have any rifle holder, except perhaps a leather
scabbard strapped to the side of the windshield. It wasn't till later
that the rifle rack came into being... Where's Todd Paisley or Ron
Fitzpatrick when you need them... >>
Is GI jeeps good enough? As per rifle racks mounted to the windshield frames
of jeeps. The rifle racks and their mounting brackets were most commonly
ordered and applied by the units that used the vehicles in the field. From
what I have seen they could hold an M-1 rifle, an M-1 Carbine, a Thompson
Submachine gun, a 1903 Springfield, or, with a minor modification, an M-3
"Grease Gun". I have no reason to believe that they would not hold an Enfield
rifle and I'll bet a lot of captured Mauser 98Ks got to ride around in them
as well. It would be common to see them on stateside jeeps as well as jeeps
in the combat zones because stateside jeeps are still called upon to
transport soldiers and their weapons from one place to another. I'm not
exactly sure when they became available but they could be found applied to
jeeps from any manufacturer in any year because they were applied by the
using organization and not the vehicle manufacturer. (meaning that a 43 MB
could very easily have received a rifle rack in 1944) Ford and Willys never
knew which jeeps were going to go overseas and which would remain in the US
so they most likely didn't do much of the work of applying this equipment. As
a sidelight you may have noticed that vehicles used by combat units often
don't have windshields at all. In the combat zone it was all but forbidden to
drive a jeep with the windshield up. They were removed completely or were
fixed to the hood and covered by a canvas cover. (many GIs retained the
windshield and used the cover to store extra blankets, overcoats, captured
German helmets and such) If the windshield frame was removed then a steel
wire cutter was often fitted to the front bumper to prevent the vehicle's
occupants from being decapitated by piano wire booby-traps stretched across
the road. yikes!
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