The story of James Carroll and how the people of the town honored him is the epitome of heartwarming.

Some of the video clips show the Bantam towing an ant-tank gun, with the Bantam and the gun off the ground. I grew up less than a mile from the Bantam factory, and an aunt & uncle worked there during the war. There is an annual Jeep rally in the town, which is now the largest in the world.

This video is fantastic. It tells the stories that you never knew or heard about. James Carroll and how he was thought of and honored was very moving.

A few thoughts. The Jeep often had a piece of angle iron mounted vertically to the frame or front bumper, extending up to the height of the roof. This was due to the enemy's habit of stretching piano wire across roads and trails at neck level, to decapitate anyone in the jeep if the windshield was down. The windshield was left down if in a combat zone to prevent flying glass injuries. The wires could be very hard to spot in shade or at night. The Citroën did not have four wheel drive. I've not seen one with a winch either. The DUKW would easily swamp in rough water, especially if overloaded as they often were.

If you've never heard of the Jeep, you must have been living under a very big rock. As for the 2 and a Half ton truck. They where only called "Jimmies" if they where made by GMC. The actual field name was Deuce and a half. Had to clear that up.

This IS Our Greatest Generation! Honored to know so many and some Family as a Younger Man! Loved Every Story they had the Grace to tell me!

24:30 Oil recirculation on air cooled engines really goes a long way too, especially if you've got a sizeable reservoir. I wouldn't be surprised if it decreased case temps by at least 20%. Absolutely vital if you're slogging around at low speed. Never knew about the chain driven gearbox. That isolates even more heat from the engine. Its hard not to miss more primitive designs, I'd readily take the lower power output if it meant easy and infrequent maintenance. Sourcing parts and rebuild kits for modern offroads is a pain , and the small supply makes prices ridiculous if you're on anything older than 5 years or so.

The Belgium 🇧🇪 people honoring James Carroll made me tear up and think about how horrible it must have been during the 4 year occupation.

Very good documentary. Thanks a lot. Congratulations. 🎥⭐

The Bantum/Willy's "Jeep" was a 1/4 Ton GP truck...GP stands for General Purpose...

Loved this film, it’s actually brilliant.

i laughed when he said the HD WLA was easily maintained by its rider oh HOW far you have fallen HARLEY that is probably the only time anyone would say that

Very nice documentry👍

There were a number of other convoys that were operated besides the Red Ball , they operated at different times and different routes all played an important role in getting supplies where they were needed

Thanks for sharing 👍😀

To correct a misnomer "JEEP", does not mean "General Purpose". Their Acronym is a testament to Their simplicity and the reason for being easy to maintenance. It really means "Just, Enough, Essential, Parts", that is the "Real Meaning", of the Acronym "J.E.E.P.". Oh, to give you an idea of how were manufactured up through the 1950s and early 1960s. The US Armed Forces still had warehouses full of what was known as "Pickled Jeeps". These were unassembled Willis Jeeps whose parts were still crated in Their Original Cosmoline ( The genericized trademark for a common class of brown, wax-like petroleum-based corrosion inhibitors.). You could buy a "Pickled Jeep" for $50.00. The only "problem" was You had to assemble Them Yourself.

At the end the narrator said they called the big trucks “Jimmy’s” when I served we called them “deuce and a half’s”. I’ve never heard them called anything else lol

A friend of my father and his comrade who served for Rommel, captured 2 Harley Davidsons from US-soldiers and their comrades captured a lot of American halftracks and a lot of weapons and equipment. Brave German soldiers!

There is a company in Pittsburgh PA that uses several of these "DUKWS" to take river/city wide tours of Pittsburgh. they are still running well!!

Thanks!

I learned about The Red Ball Express from DC Comics back in the '70's. They ran a feature on them in one of the Sgt. Rock Editions.

great!

What about the Studebaker trucks that motorized the Red Army? They deserve a documentary of their own.

Very cool vehicles. I can't decide which I like the most. Maybe the DUKW. Not mentioned was a much lesser known amphibious version of the Jeep, the Ford produced GPA. The Germans also had an amphibious version of their Kübelwagen, known as the Schwimmwagen.

Thank you for your treatment of the Red Ball Express and the CCKWs. My father and several cousins served in it and from the first half of the presentation, I wondered if this would be another white-washed presentation that just showed white faces. In the 1970s I bought a couple of military surplus CCKW for a few hundred dollars each in hopes of making a couple of 6x6 house truck campers but soon realized how poor the gas mileage was even with the little six-banger 270 cubic inch engine. They ended up going local restorer-collector who restored at least one and used it or them in parades, I feel good about my small part in their preservation. Again thank you for this video, it brought good memories and feelings, and I shared it.

My dad drove a Willys 6x6 during the battle of the bulge. I'd love to get my hands on one and restore it.

The title contains, "Vehicles you might not have heard of", precedes and continues with well known vehicles. In eighty years they are well known to people who cared.

“Might not get any the glory as a Sherman.” Oh boy, how you’re wrong. Only in the past 10 years has the Sherman been rectified being one of, if not the best tank of the Second World War. Admired by the Russians, Americans, British, Poles that drove them. The Israelis used them very effectively too. Sherman vs. T34 debate was over after the Korean war, after the Sherman’s pummeled the T-34’s. The spitfire, Tiger, and Mustang got all the glory in the war. When in reality, the Hurricane, P-47, and Sherman, and Stug did the work to their respected nations.

Great video! Just a few minor glitches noticed... Certainly this has already been pointed out dozens of times already, but just in case it hasn't... The Jeep was considered a "GP" vehicle. That does NOT mean "Government Purpose" as explained in the video. The term "GP" stands for "General Purpose." Again, a great video with a ton of good information!

Would love to have a deuce and a half and the Harley. The DUKW not so much. Kubelwagon would be beyond cool.

Nowadays, 78 years later, at least one DUKW has been transformed to carry tourists off the coast of Belgium (and maybe at other coasts also). The true performance of a war vehicle changed into a pleasure vehicle!

Down on the farm we've got a Bantam lawn tractor....I live in Butler Co. Pa.,the county seat is in the town of Butler.....where the very first jeep was made.... And that's that for today's trivia tid-bit..

Let us not forget the "Jerry" can. One of the greatest fuel inventions of WWII. The British later copied it, and helped the Allies in their victory.

Whenever I've gone through Boston I see these DUKW car boats all around brightly painted giving tours of Boston harbor I think,

I was never in the Military, but I've lived most my life on two wheels on a bit of steel and chrome! That epic history about "The First American" James Carrol and his Harley Davidson really got to me. Thanks for this very well made video. Ride on!

it's a pity that current day Jeep in the civilian market are no longer what they used to be . . . infact modern iteration of the Jeep such as the WRANGLER are flawed in terms of reliability . . .

Cool. City of Boston, Mass. have a number of DUKWs owned by a local company still running for the Tourists.

26:10 small correction , the R75 has an OHV-engine , not sidevalve. The Harley , same as the Indian , of that day (WLA , 841) had sidevalve -engines.

Yes the German motorcycle drivers were heroic!

Something strange about the squared-off rear end of the Jeep at 14:11! Anyone have an idea?

There is a Duck still in service in Seattle, Washington that provides water tours.

Throwing a cigarette on the ground is strictly forbidden, they must be field=striped. and any filters are put in your pocket to be disposed of later. When i was in the Army, those trucks were called, "deuce and1/2".

I hope that this episode make armchair generals think about it. Wars are not won or lost by the man who manage the sophisticated weapons systems at the front and fire the guns. Wars are won or lost by the quality of your logistics. Napoleon was not only a master strategist at the battlefield , he was also a superior logistics manager as his counterparts. Look at Austerlitz and how the french reached to the battle and compare it with Alexander II and the russians (which had superieur numbers ) .

not a single mention of the opel blitz xD

My father drove a 2 and 1/2 ton Jimmy for the combat engineers,

the name jeep came to the designation as a GP vehicles, just like the high mobility multi purpose wheeled vehicles known as the humvee or the hummer. It not government purpoe its General Purpose Vehicles

Theres another unsung hero of the 2nd ww - and no one even mentions it- the weasel all track all terrain vehicle scout - WHY???

Something that never gets mentioned Is how the Soviets not only pressed much of their own people into the gulags through a paranoid, ultra-repressive dictatorial society strategically for slave labor, their top-down, fear-based system of control ensured inefficiency and vast holes in the most basic of logistical support for the war at hand. They were boastful of what appeared to be an efficient implementation of labor in their industrial output, but it was exactly the opposite. After having American oil companies and American industrialists essentially set up their entire oil drilling/refinery and machinery operations pre-war, they intentionally focused their factories on tanks, tanks, tanks, aircraft, tanks and more tanks. They used mules for logistics, leaving those too old for war and women to literally use hand tools for food production, which led to plummeting yields of 1/3 pre-war production and intentionally starved millions upon millions of their own people (27 million in total died in total, but more died due to the communist system than died fighting Germans, which is so TRAGIC (Stalin and Molotov stayed plump though, so much for ‘communism’). The necessary material to fight their way back to Berlin didn’t come until the US provided Lend-lease material such as food, logistical vehicles, weapons, etc. Without allied assistance, there would’ve been no turn about at Stalingrad. Hitler would’ve steam rolled that vast country as he did early on, though the German’s weren’t good at logistical support either. The deeper they got into Russia and hadn’t even equipped their soldiers with winter attire. The German forces were only logistically sound enough in comparison to an ill-equipped USSR, who had recently killed off his top generals due to the necessarily paranoid disposition of a tyrant in Stalin, who was one of the most blood-soaked monsters of all time, willing to throw life after life at the German meat grinder. If Hitler’s ideology weren’t so psychopathically morally bankrupt, he could have easily turned the people of the conquered portions on their way to Moscow AGAINST Stalin, but then the entire point was to dispose of them ultimately anyway. Makes you wonder why not just kill them later, if you’re gonna be such a dick anyway, but time after time, Hitler was his own worse enemy when it came to strategical blunders throughout the entirety of the war so there’s no surprise there. He must’ve been one charismatic, frightening dude. The entire era is bewildering and important for everyone to continually revisit, as I’ve seen whatever that evil is on a much smaller scale rear it’s head, that pack-animal, tribalist effect that overtakes the thoughtless, most self-unaware among us. It’s frightening.

I was a passenger in a VW Bug and my friend driving it like a Porsche, rolled it over all 3 sides, it was a slow roll as I remember dirt from the floor getting in my eyes. As we're rolling it back on it's wheels, a lady stopped and asked if we wanted her to call help, my buddy was quick, he just said "no mam, I'm a mechanic", the two of us rolled it onto it's wheels and drove off, not a straight sheet of metal on the car, RORL (Rolling on Road Laughing)!

How ironic that BANTAM was considered too small.

I wonder who designed the tire's of Jeep's and trucks, simple but seemed effective

its hard to believe that a dukw could could stay afloat in rough seas considering that one was sunk by a thunderstorm on a lake in branson mo a few yrs ago

James Carroll a man that did the right thing.

* Our society, is swimming in a Sea of information, yet DROWNING in IGNORANCE *(Rush Limbaugh)[3rd hour 6 April 2002]

Jeep was shorthand for GP :)

That's the music from steel division 2 I knew i recognized it

"The BMW was a sidevalved engine". And so was ALL the WLA, and a lot of BMW was overheadvalved, had a hand cluch and footshift, so one did not have to let go the handlebars to chance gear. Quite an adwantace offroad, in my expirience... I realy think the "The Red ball Express" was a great achevement, but it could not have happened without a shitload of speed i pill-form. For the USA mainly effidrin, the germans used methamfetamin called "Pervatin". It is still used all over the world, but nobody talks about it...

I don't know about today, but in the early 2000s the Corps and Navy still used Ducks!

It's raining here. I like turtles.

Please make the text LARGER!!!

Why isn't anyone talking (in detail) about the Landing Boats most G.I.'s rode in durring the "Beach Storming"? The boats are not talked about at all... Sincerely, -T🖖 Western Washington State, USA

GP stands for General Purpose

Kinda funny but the VW wheels and Ford shared the same bolt pattern

Pause at 8:10 see the dirt and fingerprints looks like a soldier.

GP was not "Government Purpose" it was "General Purpose". Geez. Peez. But otherwise a pretty good discussion of the jeep.

Would love to find a ww2 Jeep and restore it, also a bmw bike.

Also known as the deuce and a 1/2

This "Kübelwagen" unfortunately isn't a real Kübelwagen but an imitation (not most exact) on a much younger Beetle chassis. Not good for giving an example of a historic vehicle.

GP does not mean "government purpose"... rather, it mean "General Purpose"... FYI

Duece and a Half = 2 1/2 Ton Truck

23:25. Harley won the contract over Indian by cheating: the military asked for a 500cc (do not know how many inches is that) motorbike. Indian did exactly that, being robust and dependable pieces. H-D made a 750cc motorbike, which gave more power and better performance, when operational, cause they tended to fail a lot more. But they only had to make more bikes, and the extra performance from a 50% bigger engine made them more suitable for the European roads and the allies war strategy. Indian could not deliver a 750cc prototype in time to respond, and the postwar surplus of HD flooded the bike market, being the last nail in Indian's coffin.

Made in the USA. Need 10 thousand, No problem, A few days.

The only way you may have not heard of any of these vehicules is by being totally ignorant of WWII ...

koje Zapadno proseravanje. Kako bi mi zanali i ulicu da predjemo bez njih?

The truth is the German Wehrmacht was never fully mechanized as the USA was. Propaganda news at the time showed what looked like hundreds of tanks and trucks rolling towards the battlefields in France during Germany's Blitzkrieg period in the early years of the war was really a tactic of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels who would show the first few platoons of the German army which was mechanized before cutting the real and playing it on a loop so no one would see the thousands of soldiers walking on foot and horses carrying supplies trying to catch up. Throughout the entire war the German Wehrmacht was completely supplied by horses mostly because production of trucks and barrels of oil was never able to reach the numbers they needed. Now on the other side of the war the American industry was so immensely successful that we could not only fully equip our own military but also our allies the British and Soviet Union with whatever they needed. It's probably the most important reason for why the Allies won the Second World War.

You're giving these vehicles to boys that are barely old enough drive. Of course shits gonna get broken lol 😄

Duece and a half

Human Brains Designed These Machines, And Human Muscles Built Them!!!.......Then, Humans Carried Out Their Orders!!!

Deuce and a half sounds so much more American than 2 and a half ton .

General purpose, not government purpose vehicle.

First

Au contraire of the Harley Davidson information. Indian is an older and more innovative and successful company than HD. In fact HD is simply a poor copy of an Indian and would come years later after HD hired Oly Evinrude (boat motor fame) to sort out their engine designs.years later. All the items claimed for the WLA were invented by Indian first. Even before HD was created as a company, Indian had invented the motorcycle carburetor, suspensions, belt drive, electrical, the internal handlebar controls, the motorcycle transmission and wheel designs for production motorcycles. Indian invented an electric start, with electric lights, and used a front and rear leaf spring suspension motorcycle in 1914! HD did not make an electric start until 1965. HD also did not use a rear suspension at all until the 1960's. Indian was the largest manufacture of motorcycles in the world just before WW1 and supplied most of the motorcycles for that war, not only for the U.S. but for European countries, Australia and more. Indian also made more engine and frame sizes than HD for 350, 500, 600 (the worlds fastest Indian used a 600cc Indian Vtwin), 1,000 cc and their famous 1,200 cc, finally a 1,300 cc after the war. Indian won the incredible Isle of Man TT races 1st, 2nd, and 3rd before WW1, HD did not even make a race motorcycle. A few years later Indian made their famous 8 valve - overhead valve racing engines between WW1 and WW2. HD did not have any technology comparable. Before the famous Harry Ricardo developed the squish area rule for piston to head performance, it was already being used in Indian 8 valve Over Head Valve racing motorcycle engines. HD and Indian both made motorcycles for WW2. The contract with the gov't was for a 500cc motorcycle. Harley did not make one of that size in a flathead like Indian did, so they offered their existing 750 cc bike for the same price. If 750cc had been competitively offered from Indian, their 750cc Scout was one of the leading and most popular and powerful bikes it's size in the world. In fact resizing an Indian engine was remarkable simple. Cylinders could easily be bored out considerably larger and the sleeves inside them replaced. I have seen someone do this and use a cast iron drainpipe machined down to work. To stroke the bike does not require new rods, they are simply relocated to a different spot on the existing flywheels. My bike was easily stroked and bored from a 74 cubic inch engine to an 88 cubic engine. (in fact we bolted on a new Keihin CV carb to the Indian intake manifold with no modifications whatsover to the bike or carb. Timing moved from 38 degrees tdc to 19 degrees tdc, from the superior atomizing modern carbs do. We dyno'd the power at 57 hp and 67 torque. Not bad for a 75 year old flathead bike on regular gas that only weighs in at 500 lbs wet.) Field maintenance for the Indian was also twice as easy as that for the HD. All the Indian handlebar controls could easily be switched to either side of the handlebars, right or left hand throttle, as the ends of throttle cable and the distributor timing cable were identical. The hand shifter could be moved to either side of the gas tank easily. All Indians used standard automotive parts in most of the motorcycle. A belt driven generator from nearly any car would fit, HD's was a built in mess. Indian used a standard automotive coil, and spark plugs. The front headlight can use a standard automotive sealed beam headlight. I use one on my own 1946 Indian Chief. They used a small car battery. If you wanted to convert to 12v for better headlight power, you only need to change to a 12 v car generator, 12 v car coil and 12v sealed beam car headlight. All the nuts and bolts are standard American SAE sizes available anywhere. All of them. All the bearings in the front forks, front and rear spoked wheels are standard automotive and we now use sealed bearings. It could also use the current 1940's FORD flathead pistons from any Ford vehicle in use on the battlefield with very slight modification for the crank pin, and the distributor could be replaced with the one from a few models of a John Deer tractor. I have used cut down sodium filled valves from a Cummins diesel engine in my '46 Indian Chief. The front and rear tires and wheels are exactly the same size and are interchangeable. The wire wheels are held on with standard automotive lug nuts, and axles sizes and the rear wheel can even be removed without taking the chain off. The side car will use an identical wheel and tire and rear brake to the rest of the bike. You can easily take off either side of the two piece gas tank, and the bike will still run with just one. If you ran out of gas, you can take either tank half off , or even both, and take it with you to fill with gas back at the supply dump, bring it back, bolt it on and use it. You always had two "gas cans" at any time you needed them for the bike or even for a jeep. The gallon of oil was also held in the front of the right tank in it's own compartment, the 2 gallons of gas behind it. The other tank held 3 gallons. This offered much better oil cooling than HD used. It runs on straight automotive/truck 50 weight throughout the bike, primary chain and separate transmission. The carb on an Indian was the same used on tractors, lawn mowers and more, was on the left side on purpose. Same side as the kickstand, so the bike would protect the breather and chances of water, dirt or snow getting into it when parked. it also helped pre-flood the gas float chamber for easier, faster starts. The most useful maintenance in case of a severe accident or combat damage is that the entire frame was BRAZED together instead of being welded. The gas tank was soldered together. This meant that to change any part of the frame that was bent, you merely have to heat up the two end joints to loosen the braze and simply pull the frame tube part out, then put in a new one. The GIRDER front end was far superior to the HD pogoing two piece springer front end with it's uneven side loading death wobble issues. And it was simpler. The front girder also used a standard delco automotive shock absorber in between it's springs. The rear of the bike had spring shocks as well. The seat post had 5 progressive wound springs inside the seat post, as well as adjustable over ride, and load balancing springs on the back of the seat. The Indian was also made, from the factory, to accommodate a side car at any time, to either side of the bike as all the frame connection ports are built in from the beginning. There were no hydraulics used anywhere on the bike. The front and rear brakes were mechanical. You could stop as fast as you were strong. The foot clutch was mechanical, and the tank side hand shifter is mechanical. Simple, effective and brilliant. There was only one Chain on the war model motorcycle, used for driving the rear wheel, instead of a multirow primary chain between engine crankshaft and the transmission shaft like HD, Indian used helical cut gears instead. Stronger and trouble free. HD was able to supply motorcycles mostly for the European theater, and Indian who did not have as big a manufacturing base at the time supplied bikes for the rest of the world military use. The Indian motorcycle was the single most practical and useful motorcycle in WW2 and beyond. It was also cheaper because of its standardized Automotive SAE parts. Via bad management Indian went bankrupt in 1953 leaving HD as the only existing large motorcycle company in the U.S. HD remained an antiquated low power, heavy design falling far behind motorcycles made in Europe until the 1970's. Addendum: For the North African Desert War the Gov't requested a "desert" motorcycle. This was attempted by HD, their under powered 750cc used up in Europe, with the "fore and aft cylinder" arrangement not cooling the rear cylinder enough. Also the special XA springer front end, with NO rear suspension, could not pass the tests for desert. HD was also asked to then make a copy of the Germans BMW shaft drive machines, but they demurred. Indian went ahead and developed a very simple and brilliant design by turning their Vtwin Sideways in the frame for better cylinder cooling and rider leg protection, adding a foot shifter and hand clutch, then an excellent shaft drive, in 750cc. The front end was an amazingly stable girder design, used on Indians after WW2 as well. It's girders can be changed for longer or shorter, in the top or bottom positions the change the rake and trail of the front end, for sidecar, or terrain - in a matter of minutes. This "sideways" vtwin completely influenced the Italian MotoGuzzi motorcycle corporation (the oldest continuous and most successful motorcycle company in Europe) who then became world famous for the sideways v-twin, with shaft drive, and they are still made today.

41:00. What a ridiculous observation: most of the allied forces' war machinery came from the US up to a high percentage. If France surrenders and Checoslovaquia is absorbed by the Germans their factories are German too: Citroen was German, Skoda was German. Period.

The duck is junk,. Rode one in Pittsburgh... We got in the water n it was very low in the water... N 2 weeks later then ppl died in Missouri... I would never ride in that shit heap again... Thank God they shut them all down

All the very best. American made vehicles ! Anything British could have gone straight to the scrap yard, so bad it was.

*This period don't only spend your money💰💰 also invest it so you can have multiple streams of income 💵💵*

31:10 BUT THAT WAS A LONG LONG TIME AGO, OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY. AND SINCE THEN THE U.S HAS BEEN GOING DOWN HILL, THE U.S HAS LOST EVERY SINGLE WAR SINCE 1945. THE U.S LOST A WAR AGAINST A COUNTRY THAT HAD NO ARMED FORCES, THAT HAD NO GOVERMENT.

"Most of the Americans on the Red ball express were African Americans. Their vital role has been over looked for decades". Total BS, the mostly Black Red Ball express has been rightfully acknowledged, very well know and respected in my 60 odd years! Knock of the BS social justice virtue signaling, stop bowing to the latest fashion. The Liberator segment about the James Carrol was extremally well done. And overall a great vid, thumbs up, just understand adding woke-ism is not history, it's the problem.

It would not take very long to destroy the human race. One miscalculation or one mistake in a lab is all it takes to have a disaster but thankfully these kinds of disasters are not going to happen at least not before Christ makes his appearance to bring his church home because he protects his people !!!

Regarding Filli Fox, and all the other fake accounts that start these threads with the fake replies saying "yeah! give him all your money and he'll give you cant-miss stock/crypto tips. i did and now I'm rich."... Can this channels start deleting posts by crooks like the one above(or below, not sure where my comment will land)along with his entire series of fake replies. it's spam and it's fraudulent, not to mention, annoying as f.

ENOUGH WITH THOSE ANNOYING ORANGE FLARE EFFECTS!!!

European made war in the money of colonial resources 😂

Says military vehicles we have not heard about. Jeeps, trucks, motorcycles? No machine that are unusual. Click bait trash.

It takes the whole team to win or just to be able to play. Every man counts that's what makes us such a great country. Anyone who doesn't see this isn't a true American. We're all different yet the same. In Russia you're all expendable. That's why Trump believes their leaders a genius. Goes to show us who he is. Couldn't imagine if he'd of been the president when Putin invaded Ukraine. Might of seen America secum to Manhatten palms lated un front of that Judas by his idiot sypporters