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Immediately after the war the French government acquired about
22,000 MB & GPW jeeps from the American government to re-establish its army.
Only about half of these were in good usable order. The
jeeps were either purchased as 'War Surplus' or supplied under
'Lend-Lease' arrangements. Others were simply
recovered as badly damaged scrap vehicles which had been
abandoned.
In 1946 the workshops of E.R.G.M.(
Etablissement de Réserve Générale du Matériel Automobile)
at La Maltournée near Paris began the task of repairing and rebuilding the jeep
stock. In reality it was not just a workshop but a
factory complete with a production line for assembling
'like new' jeeps from refurbished parts. This work
continued until 1978 and the jeeps it produced contained
an ever greater mix of Ford, Willys & Hotchkiss parts as
time went on resulting in much confusion about the
identity of so many French army jeeps.
Details about all of this
are in two parts that can be selected from the data
plate menu opposite. |
