La jeep dans l'armée française. Tome 1. 1943-1954

"I saw my first jeep on August 23, 1944 in Toulon. It belonged - I would find out much later - to the 3rd squadron of the 1st marine rifle regiment that had infiltrated the Cap Brun neighborhoods..."

This is how the author discovered this wonderful little vehicle that would serve sixty years in the French army, participating in three major conflicts and numerous external operations.

These "funny little cars" seduced the French, from their arrival in Algeria in 1942, with their maneuverability, their robustness and their ability to overcome the worst obstacles. It was therefore with these wonderful cars that the French Expeditionary Force left for Italy. In France then, then in Germany, jeeps were omnipresent, sometimes restrained by the harsh climate of the Vosges and the Alsace plain, but always ready to pounce as soon as the weather was milder. Once peace had returned to Europe, jeeps remained with the troops occupying Germany and accompanied those who were repatriated to North Africa or sent to Indochina. During the nine years of the Indochinese conflict, faced with an aggressive enemy that continued to strengthen and on generally unsuitable terrain, the use of jeeps was limited in most cases to connections and convoy escorts. Overseas, where roads are rare and climatic conditions are often difficult, jeeps – as in the early days in the Libyan or Tunisian desert – are regaining their importance thanks to their ability to overcome obstacles and their lightness which allows them to go where a truck or an armored car cannot.