THE JEEP IN THE FRENCH ARMY VOLUME 1: 1943 - 1954

«My first jeep, I saw it on 23 August 1944 in Toulon. It belonged — I would learn this much later — to the 3rd squadron of the 1st Naval Fusiliers Regiment, which had infiltrated towards the districts of Cap Brun…»

It was in this way that the author discovered this marvellous little vehicle, which served sixty years within the French Army, taking part in three major conflicts and numerous overseas operations.

Designed in less than six months shortly before the United States entered the war in December 1941, 650,000 units were built, of which nearly 175,000 were delivered to the Allied armies under Lend-Lease agreements. The Free French paratroopers were the first to use Jeeps — during raids carried out by the Special Air Service in the Libyan desert. But it was from April 1943 onwards that Jeeps arrived in mass at the ports of Algiers and Casablanca under the rearmament agreements. 

These «funny little cars» won over the French from their very arrival in Algeria in 1942, thanks to their manoeuvrability, robustness and ability to overcome the worst obstacles. It was therefore with these remarkable vehicles that the Corps expéditionnaire français set off for Italy. Then in France and later in Germany, Jeeps were omnipresent, sometimes hampered by the harsh climate of the Vosges and the Alsatian plain, but always ready to surge forward as soon as the weather was more favourable.

With peace restored in Europe, the Jeeps remained with the occupation troops in Germany and accompanied those repatriated to North Africa or sent to Indochina. During the nine years of the Indochina conflict, facing an aggressive enemy that continually strengthened its forces and over terrain generally ill-suited to wheeled vehicles, the use of Jeeps was in most cases limited to liaison duties and convoy escort.

Overseas, where roads are scarce and climatic conditions often harsh, Jeeps — as in the early days in the Libyan and Tunisian desert — regained their importance thanks to their ability to overcome obstacles and their lightness, which allowed them to go where a truck or an armoured car could not.