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Library » Subject Guides » Jeeps, Planes, Tanks, and Trucks


COLLECTIONS

Jeeps, Planes, Tanks, and Trucks

Jeeps

Maj. Walter Bedell Smith approached Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall with a proposal for a small all-terrain vehicle. Marshall asked Smith what he thought about it, and Smith said that pursue it, so Marshall ordered what became the Jeep. First built by the American Bantam Car Company, Ford Motor Company soon joined in, but Willys-Overland Motors built the most – more than 350,000 of the 600,000 or so built.

While there are many stories of how the Jeep got its name, the most likely is that “jeep” was a term soldiers used for an untried piece of equipment, and the name was adopted during trials of the new vehicle at Camp Holabird, MD.

Planes

B-17

The Boeing B-17 was first in combat in 1941 with the Royal Air Force.  It carried nine machine guns and a 4,000 pound bomb load. They were nicknamed “Flying Fortress,” and their ability to keep flying after massive damage is legendary. More than 12,000 B-17s were built for use during the war.

P-51

The P-51 “Mustang” first flew in 1940, and was designed for the British for medium-altitude use, but was also flown by the Army Air Corps, and proved adept at nap-of-the-Earth flying as well as bomber escorts. It bested every German plane from the Junkers to the Me-262.  More than 15,000 were built.

Tanks

The first M4 (Sherman) tanks were sent to the British Army through Lend-Lease and fought in Africa. Up to 2,000 tanks a month were produced at 11 factories. More than 6,700 M4s were produced during the war.

During Normandy, outfitted with Culin hedgerow cutters. Gen. George Patton led his tanks so quickly through France that truckers known as the “Red Ball Express” were needed to transport fuel to support the tank push.

Trucks

The most common truck during the war was the 2.5-ton 6×6. Most of the 200,000 made by Studebaker and REO were sent by Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union. More than ½ million were produced by GMC and used by U.S. forces. Max speed of 45 mph. .30 or .50 caliber Browning machine gun.

To find other items that the Marshall Foundation has on transportation, search “Jeep,” “plane,” “tank,” or “truck” in the library catalog: https://www.marshallfoundation.org/library/results/

Digitized items in the George C. Marshall archives:

50 famous tanks / by George Bradford and Len Morgan
A few great captains : the men and events that shaped the development of U.S. air power / by DeWitt S. Copp
Allies Strike Out From Beachhead
Atlantic Pact Nations Rearm for Defense: Speed Blueprint for Unified Armed Force
Engineers of victory: the problem solvers who turned the tide in the Second World War
Epley Letter – 1943 – Jeep
From bird cage to battle plane the history of the R. A. F. [by] Ralph Michaelis
GCM00199 General Marshall riding in a jeep with General Almond to a forward observation post in the 92nd Division area.
GCM00201 Marshall in Jeep in Italy
GCM03853 German jeep that was captured at Tunisia, North Africa, February 24, 1943
General George C. Marshall in Italy
General George C. Marshall Visits in Italy
General George C. Marshall Visits Unit Jungle Training Center, Hawaii
George C. Marshall Meets With Air Corps
George Catlett Marshall, father of the United States Air Force : his contributions to air power / by Robert E. Pecoraro
German tanks of World War II: the complete illustrated history of German armoured fighting vehicles 1926-1945, by F. M. von Senger und Etterlin; translated [from the German] by J. Lucas, edited by Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis
Great tank battles of WW II: a combat diary of the Second World War. Maps by Lorne Williams
H. S. Hansell Interview Details July 8, 1959
Hail to the jeep a factual and pictorial history of the jeep
Hostile skies; a combat history of the American Air Service in World War I [by] James J. Hudson
Japanese tanks and tank tactics / Military Intelligence Service, War Department
Jeep goes to war / William Fowler
Jeep, the unstoppable legend / by Arch Brown and the auto editors of Consumer guide
Major General Henry H. Arnold, Chief of Air Corps, shown at his desk in the War Department, Munitions Building, Washington, D.C
Patton’s tank drive : D-Day to victory / Michael Green
Photographs of President Roosevelt in jeep at Casablanca Conference
Photographs of President Roosevelt in jeep at Casablanca Conference
Tanks : an illustrated history of their impact / Spencer C. Tucker
Tanks & transport vehicles, World War 2 / compiled by the Olyslager Organisation ; edited by Bart H. Vanderveen
Tape 08 – National Guard, 1939-41; relations with the British and the Army Air Corps
Tape 10 – Mobilization problems, 1940-41; draft; relations with the Congress and the Army Air Corps
The Army and its air corps : Army policy toward aviation, 1919-1941 / James P. Tate
The dragon’s teeth? : the creation of United States air power for World War II / Benjamin S. Kelsey
The official pictorial history of the AAF/ by the Historical Office of the Army Air Forces
The thousand plane raid [the story of the first massive air raid – 1000 bombers against the city of Cologne
The Wrong Track: The Inferiority of American Tanks in World War II
White mammoths the dramatic story of Russian tanks in action, by Alexander Poliakov, translated from the Russian by Norbert Guterman ..
William D. Pawley : the extraordinary life of the adventurer, entrepreneur, and diplomat who cofounded the Flying Tigers
Xerox 0091 Bedell Smith to Mrs. Marshall Regarding Jeep history
Xerox 0493 Aircraft Production 1942-1943
Xerox 0710 Training of British Pilots in the United States
Xerox 0972 Stimson to Roosevelt Tank Production
Xerox 1492 North Atlantic Ferry Route
Xerox 1516 Defects in American Tanks
Xerox 1722 Performance of P-39 vs Spitfire
Xerox 1839 Swedish Release of British and American Airmen in exchange for fighter aircraft
Xerox 2471 Marshall to Eisenhower Coping with German Panther & Tiger Tanks
Xerox 3630 Development of the Jeep in the Army
Xerox 3698 Tank Recovery System

Collection Formats:

War Department Chiefs and Executives, October 19,
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Documents


Organization Chart Offices of the Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff & Secretary, General Staff, September 15,
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Documents


Organization Chart Offices of the Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff & Secretariat, General Staff, March 1,
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Documents


Statistics Branch War Department General Staff organization chart
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Documents


Secretariat, War Department General Staff, June 7,
Call Number: GCM 7890 Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection, George C. Marshall Photographs

Photographs


Handshake after award from Gen. George C. Marshall, 1945
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Photographs


Legion of Merit awarded by Gen. George C. Marshall, 1945
Collection: F. Gorham Brigham Collection

Photographs

Legion of Merit awarded by Gen. George C. Marshall


Newspaper clipping of Pershing attending Brown-Marshall Wedding, October 12,
Collection: George Catlett Marshall and Katherine Tupper Marshall Collection

Notice of Marshall-Brown wedding


Invitation list to wedding of Katherine T. Brown and Lt. Col. George C. Marshall, 1930
Collection: George Catlett Marshall and Katherine Tupper Marshall Collection

Documents

Inivtation list to the wedding of Katherine T. Brown and Lt. Col. George C. Marshall


Marshall Day at Virginia Military Institute, May 15,
Author: Virginia Military Institute
Collection: George C. Marshall Collection

Documents

Marshall Day Virginia Military Institute


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