THE M715 The ‘Other’ Military Jeep
There’s a line in the song “Sugar Magnolia” by the Grateful Dead that goes: “Well, she can dance a cajun rhythm, jump like a Willys in four wheel drive.”
I’ve wondered how Jerry Garcia or some other member of the band came to have a Jeep experience, and obviously off-road, because those words describe so well a Willys in the wild. This is yet more proof that there aren’t many vehicles in the world as well known as a Jeep. In fact, there are very few countries in which most children wouldn’t recognize a Jeep; and the name has found its way into almost as many languages as the word Taxi.
On the other hand, the Jeep name is often misapplied to any small utility four-by-four in the same way that many people call any self-service laundry a “Laundromat,” which is actually a trade name, or refer to a certain type of adjustable wrench as a “Crescent Wrench” no matter who actual manufacturer may be. Unless one is in the writing game, it’s not generally known how much money is spent by various companies trying to keep their trade names from becoming generic. Many years ago, the Murphy Bed Company lost the exclusive right to its name, which had become generic because people called any folding bed a “Murphy.” Many companies take out ads in writing magazines and other literary publications to remind authors (for example) that “Coke” is a registered trademark of the Coca-Cola Company and should at least be capitalized when used in a story or an article. While most of these companies would prefer that the words “Trademark Registered” and/or the TM symbol be used in conjunction with their product’s name, it would be distracting in a novel to have a hero’s Jeep (TM Trademark Registered) break down and he drinks a Coke (TM Trademark Registered) from a Thermos (TM Trademark Registered) chest before fixing his vehicle with a Crescent (TM Trademark Registered) wrench.
Similarly, most people who’ve been involved with a certain occupation, career, sport or hobby are annoyed when someone lectures them on the history of their interest and gets it wrong. Just as doctors tend to wince when a layman uses medical terms, most Jeep enthusiasts get a pain when encountering someone who thinks they know all about Jeeps. Of course, Jeep history can be confusing when you consider that Jeeps have been built for over 80 years, not only by the original manufacturer Willys Overland (which later became Kaiser Jeep), but also by the Ford Motor Company, American Motors (formerly Rambler), and by Daimler-Chrysler Corporation. Not to mention all the foreign manufacturers such as Mitsubishi of Japan, Hotchkiss of France, and Mahindra of India. Before we get to the real subject of this article, the Kaiser Jeep M715, it might be interesting to have a brief look at the history of the company that designed and built it.
In the beginning ...
Read 20 different Jeep books, or visit 20 different Jeep websites, and one will likely find 20 different variations on the history of the Jeep. I can’t claim that the short-form version presented here is any more accurate than many others, but I do believe it’s close enough to give the reader sufficient background information for the purpose of this article.
In 1903, the Standard Wheel Company of Terre Haute, Ind., a manufacturer of bicycles, expanded its operation by adding the Overland Automotive Division to build motor vehicles: its first model was the Overland Runabout. In 1908, John North Willys purchased the Overland Automotive Company, which by then had been relocated to Indianapolis. The Overland Runabout proved to be successful, and Willys purchased the Pope-Toledo automobile manufacturing plant in Toledo, Ohio. In 1912, the Willys-Overland Company was formed and, in addition to the Runabout, began producing the large Willys-Knight automobile. Willys also made smaller cars, such as the Overland
