During World War II, Ford assisted the US Army in the manufacture of the versatile Willys Jeep in 1941 when it became obvious that Willys could not meet demand for its successful design. Ford made some 280,000 jeeps in World War II but, when hostilities ended in 1945, it dropped manufacture of the tough little GI favourite. Willys, however, saw the peacetime potential in the design and developed the CJ-5 and other versions into the 1950s. For many years, the US Postal Service model was the only right-hand-drive vehicle made in the US for road use, as it made it easy for drivers to slip out kerbside for their deliveries. Ford, however, decided the jeep was not for it; cars and trucks were the future.
CIVILIAN OFF-ROADERS
Away from the devastation in the Pacific region, a relatively unscathed US homeland thrived in post-war prosperity. The 1950s was a time of enjoying life out on the road. A flurry of new designs replaced ageing ’40s designs. The arrival of the pickup and more powerful engines ushered in the US love of V8s, and there was an increasing influence of the new jet age. National parks meant new opportunities to explore the wide open spaces, complete with piggyback trailers for pickups and a boom in ‘trailers’,
