Frank Robertson
Memphis, TN. USA
"Miss Dixie" "Tha Thing"
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|\ /| / [___][___] \
|_\[o]o____[o]/_| /\_ [o] [o] _/\
|w||_________||w| |w||_________||w|
|w||u_______u||w| |w|\u u/|w|
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[w] [w]
M5A1 Stuart Light Tank M20 Armored Car
Tankdriv@gte.net
http://home1.gte.net/tankdriv/index.html
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-Mil-Veh@skylee.com [mailto:owner-Mil-Veh@skylee.com]On
Behalf Of Chris Davis
Sent: Friday, September 24, 1999 6:48 PM
To: mil-veh@skylee.com
Subject: Re: [MV] The meaning of GPW
Regarding the name "jeep", I found an interesting piece of first hand
knowledge at:
http://www.fcsa.org/articles/50hist1.htm
The author, John M Williams is actually recalling uses of the .50 Cal
machine gun, but he talks about the "peeps" and "jeeps":
"Toward the end of the war in Europe, we were lucky to get some new
equipment--namely the M4A3E8. This was a Sherman Tank with a new Ford V-8
liquid-cooled engine and the new 76 mm rifle (we had to call them rifles).
The 76 was a great gun with penetrating power and muzzle velocity almost as
good as the German 88. Along side and coaxially mounted was the good old
0.50 caliber (the 50).
When the gunner pointed the 76, the 50 was pointed there too. We kept the 50
full of tracers and if you wanted everybody to zero-in on a target, the
command was "watch my tracer". You'd get go about 50 rounds of tracer 50 and
then start on that area with the 76 (which had armor-piercing, HE, HVAT,
WP). On the back of the turret was a pedestal-mounted 0.50 caliber which
seldom got used. Lets face it, nobody was dumb enough to get out of the tank
and stand on the back deck to fire the thing. No Alan Ladds or John Waynes
in our outfit.
In the reconn platoon, all the peeps (armored outfits called a jeep a peep
and a 3/4 ton weapons carrier a jeep) had pedestal mounted 50s (like in the
TV series, Rat-Patrol)."
I guess "Peep" didn't go over real well in corporate board rooms….
Chris Davis
'52 M37 (jeep?)
MVPA# 20000
Lake Forest, CA
>Jim Gilmore has presented some different information on the origins of
"GPW"
>and the ancestry of the jeep etc., and I too look forward to seeing some
>proof. I'm trying to keep an open mind and am constantly learning.
>
>Speaking of keeping an open mind - MVPA members may recall the photo I
>published in Army Motors a while back of the Canadian Army's first "Jeep" -
>a 1936 Ford-Marmon-Harrington half-track. In my museum <snip>
=
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