Badly damaged / scrap jeeps were less lucky as they were completely stripped down to component parts. These parts were reconditioned in specialist facilities within the factory then 'like new' jeeps were reassembled on a production line or 'chaine'. Unfortunately these jeeps lost their original chassis identity and were given a new ITM chassis number and date of birth. ITM stands for 'Inspection Technique du Material' which indicates that the jeeps were not given their new identity until they had been accepted as meeting the required standard by the army.

The ITM series of numbers includes both jeeps and jeep trailers which were also completely reconditioned at the la Maltournée factory making it difficult to accurately date an ITM jeep from its number. When finally sold at auction ITM jeeps were also often described generically as '42 Willys MB' , 'Willys MB', Willys US 1948 model. References to specific years 1942 - 1945 does not necessarily indicate the origin of the WW2 chassis in question it was simply a generic term used to describe the type of vehicle.

If you own an ITM jeep and have always wondered about when it was actually made the you may find the following details useful:

ITM      year 10059 - 1947 16143 - 1947 16233 - 1948 17871 - 1949 17923 - 1950 18521 - 1950 21002 - 1952 24660 - 1952 33529 - 1953 37225 - 1953 37764 - 1954     ITM      year 40164 - 1954 40232 - 1955 41072 - 1955 41113 - 1956 41129 - 1956 41931 - 1958 42322 - 1958 42338 - 1959 45846 - 1959 52121 - 1960 53094 - 1960

These details can be used as a rough guide remembering that the series includes trailers. Interestingly, I have found no examples of ITM jeeps made in 1957 and it would appear that WW2 GPWs and MBs were losing their original identities to become ITM jeeps up until 1960.

In 1955/56 Hotchkiss began manufacturing M201 jeeps under licence in France. Until 1960 these were all 6 volt models and by 1957 badly damaged Hotchkiss M201s were starting to turn up at la Maltournée in increasing numbers to be rebuilt. These retained their M201 chassis number but the Hotchkiss parts started to merge with the pool of reconditioned WW2 parts and from this time onwards all rebuilt jeeps leaving the works contained a mix of Willys, Ford and Hotchkiss parts. It is therefore not surprising that french army jeeps can be puzzling when it comes to identifying their origin. The descriptions given in the auction catalogues also add to this confusion as the extract below demonstrates.

Lot 495 is a post-war Hotchkiss M201 despite the reference to 'Willys' as are lots 496, 497, 498, 499, 500 & 501. Sometimes the chassis number is shown with lots of leading zeros, sometimes not - don't read anything into this. Lot 502 is, or more correctly was, originally a Willys MB dating from 1942 - note the six digit chassis number. It was however rebuilt in 1970 (605 registration number) and so the chassis would have been the only part remaining from the original vehicle, the rest of which would have been reassembled from a mix of refurbished WW2 and post-war French parts. Lot 503 is a VLTT. Note its ITM chassis number and date. It was constructed from a complete mix of refurbished WW2 jeep parts in 1956 and the origin of the chassis lost. It was rebuilt again in 1970 (the 605 registration number) and at the time of sale would also have contained a good mix of refurbished Willys, Ford and Hotchkiss parts.

Four special MALT jeeps

Jeeps re-manufactured from WW2 parts at La Maltournée are often referred to as 'Malt jeeps'. However, the term more correctly applies to four specially prepared jeeps, Malt 1, 2, 3 & 4. These were used at shows where they would be driven into the arena by a team of four men who proceeded to dismantle the jeep. The parts were then passed through a small opening before being reassembled on the other side and finally driven back out of the arena - all in less than ten minutes! Various special modifications made this possible, e.g. the bodywork being divided into two parts.

The M201 in the photo MALT 3/4 was actually M201 No. 5079 and began life with the registration 074 725 before being rebuilt for display work.

One last point to make is that whilst the majority of rebuilding work was carried out at la Maltournée some jeeps were rebuilt at other regional workshops like Clermont Ferrand and contract work was also carried out by workshops outside France e.g. ITM jeeps were also produced in the 1950s by WERK HATTINGEN (RUHR).

Continued in part 2