Jeep vs Bronco | Battle Hardened | 1

0:12July 1942 in the Egyptian desert. A convoy of 18 American-made Jeeps rumbles its way through the sandy terrain on a hot, moonlit night. The convoy is headed for a Nazi airbase for a surprise attack, but something's wrong. In the passenger seat of the lead Jeep, a tall, thin British officer named David Sterling signals the convoy to stop. Sterling hops out of his Jeep and stands up straight, all six foot six inches of the Scotsman. Sterling shuffles through the sand and reaches a jeep where his unit's navigator, Mike Sadler, is squinting at a dog-eared map. Lieutenant Sadler, do you have any bloody idea of where we are?

0:57We've been driving in the dark for hours. Well, sir, it's hard to make out much by this old map. And these jeeps with heavy guns not helping much. What's wrong with the jeeps, Lieutenant? I'd say they've done a fine job getting us all over the rocks and cliffs and sand dunes we've encountered the past 50 miles or so. Major Sterling, sir, it's just that these little tin buckets weren't made for combat. But by my reckoning, sir, we're probably just a mile short of the airfield. Sterling turns to address the soldiers arrayed behind him. Men, make a final check of your weapons. We're almost at target.

1:36Like Sterling himself, they're part of a ragtag group of regular army castoffs making up a unit known as the Desert Rats. Most of the men are unshaven. Some have long, dusty beards. Others wear Middle Eastern headdresses instead of helmets. Their jeeps are unusual, too. Sterling has heavily customized these jeeps, transforming a vehicle originally intended for reconnaissance and light duty into one that's ready for direct combat. He's added bulletproof windscreens, armor-plated radiators, extra fuel tanks, and mounted massive machine guns in the front and back. As the men finish their work, Sterling gives them one last pep talk.

2:20Men, you're about to make history. We're going to show everyone, especially the enemy, that we and these jeeps we're riding in can be quick and nimble killing machines. Just then, bright lights appear on the horizon. The airfield's runway has been lit up. A German bomber, a Junker 52, is coming in for a landing. Sterling issues a final order. Mount up, Ben, and begin the attack! The jeeps surge toward the base like a charging cavalry unit. Open fire! 68 machine guns blaze simultaneously, each one firing 1 ,000 rounds a minute. The soldiers mow down Nazi guards and rip apart planes. Fuel tanks explode.

3:10Within minutes, the desert rats lay waste to 70 German bombers. Sterling fires off a flare signaling the attack is over and the jeeps speed back into the darkness of the desert, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. It's the first major combat victory for the Jeep But more action lies ahead for the Jeep Both in war and in peace And the biggest battle of them all Will come years later Against a foe called Bronco Bronco

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5:31From Wondery, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars.

5:59These days, America's highways overflow with carefully engineered, highly aerodynamic cars that often make one brand indistinguishable from the next. But go off-road and you'll find something quite different. The four-wheel drive powerhouses are easy to tell apart, and the granddaddy of all the beefy, boxy brands out there is the Jeep. Created to save the nation in wartime, the Jeep was the first of its kind, small and nimble to get around or over most any obstacle, and fast and strong enough to take a beating. It became a kind of symbol of American ingenuity and reliability. In peacetime, it attracted thousands of drivers who needed a rugged work vehicle, and the Jeep's success spawned countless competitors.

6:47But in the 1950s and 60s, when the economy boomed, the suburbs blossomed, and Americans young and old were ready to ride high both on and off the highway, one challenger emerged that would take on the Jeep like no other. It came from Detroit, and its name was Bronco. In the decades ahead, the Bronco and the Jeep would shapeshift, bit by bit, transforming themselves to capitalize on changing American tastes. For a while, it looked like Jeep ran Bronco off the road. In fact, Bronco was given up for dead until Ford brought it back in fighting trim. This is Episode 1, Battle Hardened.

7:41It's July 1940 in Detroit. Frank Fenn, the 43-year-old president of a small automaker called American Bantam, enters the office of Carl Probst, a freelance car engineer. Probst, at 57, is well known in the business for his innovative designs, and Fenn desperately needs his help. Carl, thank you for seeing me on such short notice. Happy to do it, Mr. Fenn. You said you wanted to talk about a reconnaissance car the Army wants, that right? Yes, that's right. Well, what's your hurry? Hasn't the army been working on something like that since the end of World War I? They have, Carl. They've been trying to come up with some kind of small vehicle to literally replace the horse, and everything they've tried has failed.

8:28But look at what Hitler's doing in Europe. The German army's highly mechanized, so the army's needing something to counter the man fast, and I think Bantam can deliver what America needs. Fan leans forward and points his finger playfully at Probst. And Carl, I want you to design that vehicle for us. Probst sits back in his chair and looks Fan over skeptically. He's concerned that Bantam doesn't have the money to pay him for this complex work. I don't mean to be rude, Mr. Fan, but isn't your company in some awfully dire financial straits? I mean, wouldn't it be better if a bigger carmaker like Ford made this vehicle for the Army?

9:10Finn fixes a stern gaze on Probst. Carl, I'll be honest, Bantam is broke. Americans want big cars, I know, like the ones Ford makes, but that's beyond our manufacturing capacity. But it turns out the Army just so happens to want a small, strong vehicle. They call it the LRV, light reconnaissance vehicle. and I think Bantam can build that LRV right on top of our existing small car chassis. Reaching into his desk drawer, Probst pulls out a pencil and paper and starts scribbling notes. All right, well, tell me what the Army's looking for, Mr. Fenn, and I'll tell you if I can help. Okay, well, the specifications call for a vehicle that has four-wheel drive, a four-by-four, and it has to pull a quarter-ton payload, and it says it has to be rugged enough to move troops and equipment over difficult terrain.

10:02And there's a weight specification, no more than 1 ,300 pounds. Probst's eyes widen. No vehicle that he knows of fits all those requirements. But he's intrigued by the challenge of designing one. There is, however, a catch. Bantam can't afford to pay him unless it wins a contract from the Army. Finn, who's been selling cars all his adult life, realizes he needs to give Probst the hard sell now if he's going to land the talented designer. Carl, you will get paid. Eventually. Do you know how many companies the Army solicited on this project? No. How many? One hundred and thirty-five. Of those, just two companies said they'd submit bids.

10:48Let me guess. You were one of the two? Correct. Now, I need this army contract to save my company. But if you join me, you wouldn't just be saving American bantam. You'd be saving American lives. If we can build what the army wants, we'll have created an entirely new kind of vehicle. Something the Germans couldn't even dream of. That might even save Europe from Hitler. Please, Carl, join me in that mission. Probst takes a deep breath. Let's do this. Three days later, the Army sends its final specifications along with a seemingly impossible deadline. It wants a design submitted in just five days.

11:35Working around the clock, Probst meets it. But weeks later, another impossible deadline arrives. Now the Army wants Bantam to produce a prototype in just 49 days.

11:53It's September 1940 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Just before dawn, Probst and Finn meet inside American Bantam's factory. They take turns circling around a squat car with rounded headlights. No doors, no roof, and just three seats. Most of the car's body is made from junkyard sheet metal, including its seven-slot radiator grill. Well, Mr. Finn, we did it. 49 days exactly since the Army approved our blueprints, and we have our working prototype. You and the Bantam team have done incredible work, Carl, but we still have to get this thing to the Army base in Maryland by 5 p.m. That's 250 miles from here.

12:36We better get going. The pair hop into their invention with Probst at the wheel. He turns a key and starts up the 45-horsepower engine. Probst gently steps on the gas pedal and slowly heads toward the road. We've barely tested this engine, so I'm going to keep it to about 20 miles an hour for a while, make sure we break it in slowly. The pair trundle along for hours at that slow pace. Once they cross over the state line into Maryland, Fenn checks his watch. Carl, it's 2 p.m. We've got to deliver this by 5 p.m. or we'll lose our contract. Can you step on it a bit? Probst swallows hard. He has no idea if the engine is ready to run at full throttle, but he's worked too hard with no pay to lose the army contract on some timing technicality.

13:25Okay, Mr. Fan, we'll see what this baby can do. Sweat beads on his forehead as Probst puts the pedal to the metal and leaves it there. The engine holds. With just a half hour to spare, the unusual little car reaches the gates of the Army's Camp Hullabird outside of Baltimore. Probst and Fenn are approached by an Army major, who eyes their vehicle skeptically. You're from Bantam? Is this the LRV? Uh, yes, sir. We're actually calling it the Blitz Buggy. You can call it whatever you want, because I've never seen anything like it before. Looks like it could take a beating, though. All right, you fellas hop out.

14:08I'm going to take it for a spin. Probst and Finn get out of their makeshift prototype and the Major speeds away. He heads for a testing course where Bantam's blitz buggy is put through its paces. Nearby, Army Brass and Bantam's officials gather to watch. Probst notices that executives from Ford Motor Company are also there. So too is Ward Cannaday, the head of Toledo-based automaker Willys Overland. Willys was the only other company to submit a bid for the Army's LRV contract, but Willys couldn't deliver a prototype on time. Probst nods at Cannaday, a graying 50-something with a broad smile. Hiya, Ward.

14:49Nice to see you here. Cannaday is known for his integrity in business dealings, so Probst is surprised to see him in attendance at what he thought was a private test for the Army. He asks a nearby general what's going on. Mr. Proffs, the Army loved the design you sent with your blueprints, and we hope your prototype performs well today. But Bantam is a troubled company, and we need to be sure we can produce this vehicle if war comes. So we took the liberty of sending your blueprints to Willys and Ford more than a month ago and asked them to design their own version of your blitz buggy. Proffs' jaw slackens and his mouth opens.

15:28He manages only a few words in response. You stole my design? The general stiffens at the accusation. Mr. Probst, your work was done for the U.S. military. We own that design. Probst feels ill. He knows the Army's duplicitous decision to give its business to Willys and Ford will eventually spell doom for bantam. But what no one realizes at that moment is that the Army's decision has also set Willys and Ford on an off-road collision course.

16:08It's February 1941 in Washington. On a cold, overcast day, a crowd of bundled-up onlookers has gathered at the U.S. Capitol. They're here to see one of the newest weapons in the U.S. Army's arsenal, a small quarter-ton 4x4 that's been manufactured by Willys Overland for the U.S. Army. Willys calls the vehicle the Quad. A burly, red-headed test driver for Willys Overland named Red Hausmann is at the wheel of the vehicle, and he's invited a couple of curious newspaper reporters to hop inside. You know, Red, the Germans have their own version of this car. They call it the Kubelwagen. That one was designed by a guy named Porsche.

16:52How was your Quad doing a fight with that thing? Well, our Quad has four-wheel drive and three times the horsepower. Red stares the vehicle toward the Capitol steps, and then he guns the engine. The reporters gasp. In a flash, and with little effort, the Willys quad climbs nearly to the front entrance of the Capitol. Red stops it on an incline and waves to the crowd gathered below. I knew those steps would be no problem. This vehicle could climb a grease pole. The Nazis can't beat it. One of the stunned reporters in the car stammers out another question for Red. Well, Red, what do you call this thing anyway?

17:35I hear the soldiers have been calling it the Jeep. Within days, the name Jeep is making headlines nationwide as Red and other Willys employees buzz the nation to show off their vehicle's remarkable versatility and durability. A go anywhere, do anything seems like just what the country might need if it gets dragged into a war that's spreading across the globe. And that war arrives on December 7th. A date which will live in infamy. Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declares war on the Axis powers, including Japan and Germany. Now, the Jeep is about to get tested under fire.

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20:38It's the summer of 1944 in France. During a break in the fighting following the Allies' D-Day invasion of Normandy, a 44-year-old square-jawed Scripps Howard war correspondent named Ernie Pyle sits down at his typewriter to bang out a new dispatch. Troops could be seen moving forward. Pyle has followed American troops for weeks from Normandy into the middle of France. He mumbles the words as he types them. A private walks into Pyle's tent as he continues typing. Hey Pyle, what you writing about? Just a funny story involving a jeep. Yeah, maybe you should be writing a love story. I know a lot of guys who want to take their jeeps home with them.

21:23I can see why they do, soldier. Good Lord, it's as faithful as a dog and strong as a mule. It's got American toughness all over it. And these jeeps are getting famous back home, too. No kidding. Yeah, it's showing up in newsreels carrying soldiers. Even generals like Eisenhower. I heard Hollywood just came out with a movie about this troupe of USO singers. It's called Four Gills and a Jeep. But the Jeep isn't just making waves in show business. The jeep is also saving tens of thousands of lives.

22:01It's the winter of 1944 in Germany's Hürtgen Forest. On a brutally cold day, a U.S. Army platoon is under attack by Nazi forces. 19-year-old American paratrooper Phil May is running for cover when shells explode around him, knocking him backwards into a foxhole. Dazed, he looks around and sees a dead American paratrooper lying next to him, then looks down and sees a gaping wound in his own thigh. Medic! Medic, my leg! May's femur bone is shattered. The pain is excruciating. May mumbles to himself, I'm gonna die here in this damn forest. But he's wrong. Two medics skid to a stop near the foxhole, jump in, drag May out, and put him on a stretcher that's been custom-fitted to attach to the side of the jeep.

22:57He's whisked to a field hospital nearby. He'll live. The Allied forces will also win the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. They have now advanced deep into German territory, which has made the end of the war seem inevitable. The maker of the Jeep, Willie's Overland, prospered in wartime, but it worries about survival in peacetime.

23:28It's late in 1944 at Willie's Overland's Toledo headquarters. In his office overlooking the assembly floor, 59-year-old company chief Ward Cannaday is trying to figure out how to transition to a world at peace. Cannaday turns to see that a freelance 33-year-old industrial designer named Brooks Stevens has just arrived. Mr. Cannaday, you wanted to see me? Yes, Brooks. Come in. Have a seat. Brooks, I know you've been working on a post-war vehicle passenger car we can build on top of the Jeep chassis. Yes, sir. We're calling it the Willys 666. Well, Brooks, I'm scrapping the 666. Stevens starts to sweat.

24:13He unbuttons all the buttons on his double-breasted suit jacket. Mr. Cannaday, please don't fire my firm. We're good designers, and I believe good design pays for itself. Oh, for Christ's sakes, I'm not firing you, Brooks. I need your help. Thank you, sir. Well, what can I do? You can figure out how to turn the Jeep into a line of passenger cars we can build right here. Stephen squints at Cannaday. He knows that Willys has always outsourced the building of its passenger car bodies, which are bigger and more complex than the body of a Jeep. Mr. Cannaday, can't we have a bodybuilder do the manufacturing?

24:51Cannaday shakes his head. Everyone in the car business is expecting the industry to boom after the war, so most of the nation's automotive subcontractors are already too busy with business from Detroit's biggest carmakers to take work from small outfits like Willys. Candidate rises to his feet and points out his plate glass windows to the factory floor below. I want to build an entire car on our own, right here, with the limited equipment we've already got. Equipment that was specifically designed to build a Jeep. But I just don't know how we can do that. Brooke stands and walks over to join Candidate at the window.

25:31Looking around the factory floor, he sees dozens of the seven-slot grill grates that adorn the front of every Jeep. He's hit with inspiration. Mr. Cannaday, the Jeep's the most famous vehicle in the world right now. So if all this factory can build is Jeeps, well, then we'll just build a whole line of civilian Jeeps. We'll bring the Jeep from the front lines to the front door. Within months, Stevens presents Canada designs for a Jeep pickup truck, a Jeep Roadster, and an all-steel Jeep family station wagon. Each one features the same seven-slot grille and rounded headlights of the Willys Jeep, which is also being converted to civilian use and named the CJ2.

26:16And that Jeep is finally about to come home from war.

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