Jeep Willys (other names: Willys MB, Jeep) is an American off-road car from the Second World War and the post-war period. The first prototypes of the car were built in 1940, and serial production was carried out in 1940-1945. Nearly 650,000 copies of it were created in its course! The weight of the cart was about 1.1 tons, with a length of 3.36 meters and a width of 1.57 meters. The drive was provided by a single engine with a power of 60 HP. The maximum speed was up to 105 km / h.
The Jeep Willys was developed to order and demanded by the US Army, which in 1940, faced with the war, asked for a completely new 4x4 passenger car with a load capacity of up to 250 kilograms, which could be mass-produced. It is worth adding that initially the American Bantam Car with the Bantam BRC was the clear favorite in the tender. However, the US Department of Defense, striving to ensure the best possible car design and trying to ensure trouble-free series production, handed over the plans for the Bantam BRC to the Willys and Ford plants. Based on these plans, Willys developed a Jeep that had a much better power unit than the original Bantam BRC, as well as being mechanically more perfect. Ultimately, it was this car, the Willys Jeep, that won the tender for the US Army. The presented car was actually mass-produced and went to almost all Anglo-Saxon armies fighting in World War II, and thanks to the Lend-and-Lease program, also to the Soviet Union. He took part in hostilities in North Africa, Italy, Northwest Europe and the Pacific. It is often assumed that the Jeep Willys is one of the symbols of American triumph in World War II.
The M3 was an American 37mm anti-tank gun from the Second World War. Its first prototypes were made in 1938, and serial production was carried out in the period 1940-1943. In total, about 18,500 copies of this weapon were produced. The initial velocity of the anti-tank missile oscillated around 850 m / s, and the rate of fire was up to 25 rounds per minute, with a maximum range of 6900 meters.
Until 1937, the US Army's anti-tank units operated mainly with heavy machine guns, the usefulness of which in combat - due to the intensive development of armored weapons at that time - was more and more questionable. This state of affairs led to the commencement of work on the first anti-tank gun in the history of the US armed forces, built from scratch, although in a way modeled on the German PaK 36 cannon. Finally, after a period of trials and modernization, in 1940, the 37 mm M3 cannon was put into production . The new gun was characterized by good ballistic properties and low weight, which allowed it to be towed by a Willys Jeep. The M3 cannon was also small in size, which made it easy to conceal in the field. Moreover, by the turn of 1942/1943, it was able to provide decent anti-tank cover for American troops. Later, however, it began to be withdrawn from units fighting in North Africa and Europe in favor of the British 6-pounder cannon. However, it continued to serve in the Pacific region, actually until 1945. After modernization, it was also installed in such vehicles as the M3 Lee and M5 Stuart tanks and the M8 Greyhound armored car. Significant amounts of these weapons found their way to China under the Lend-and-Lease Act program.