A Lifetime Of Willys Jeeps in the Netherlands

I was born in The Netherlands in the last period of the Second World War, February 1945 also called “the Hongerwinter”. In The Hague where the Peace Palace was build. After the war my father became a soldier in the Dutch Army and in approx. 6 weeks he was the “Duty Officer” of all the settlements of the Army in The Hague. I remember that he was picked up at our home by a soldier in a – what we called –  “Jeep”. It must be in the fifties and it must have been a Willys MB or a Ford GPW because there were no other light 4×4 vehicles at that time. I was able to get an “around the block”- ride and fell in love with such a vehicle.

When I was conscripted into the Dutch Army in 1968 – I was an administrator for battery by a Aircraft Defense Unit -they still had a Willys MB in service! I had no driving license but an officer taught me how to handle such a vehicle. He also taught me to drive a 6×6 DAF YA 328 – in army surroundings called “the Rolls Royce” under the military vehicles!

I left the army in 1969 and became a school teacher – never lost the love for a “Jeep” and in 1976 I bought my first Ford GPW from 1942…. probably a collection of WW2 parts of several Jeeps. I became a member of the community “Keep them Rolling” in the same year. The engine broke down and I sold the Jeep. An opportunity occurs when an acquaintance had a DAF YA328 for sale; I bought that vehicle for several years I was no longer a member of the “KTR”-community but a donor…. until I could lay my hands in 1985 on –  although it was a wreck –  a Willys MB from 1942. I sold the 6×6 DAF and purchased the Jeep.

In 1989 I had a stroke, lost my job as a teacher and in 1992 I started my own little company in second hand washing machines and parts. Over the next 4 years I worked on the Willys with an old friend and in 1996 I was ready to get “on the road” again.

In the meantime my little business grew and in 1999 I purchased a Willys-Overland “Panel delivery Truck” 1963  (from then on called “The Red Jeep”) from a museum; that was meant to be my service wagon instead of my private Volvo 245 from 1975. I used the Wagon several years but in 2003 the starting engine broke down… and the vehicle sat beside my home….. for many years. It became a “wreck” – especially the body – and I searched for another body on the internet. I found one – a 1955 vehicle without an engine – in Texas. I was able to buy that vehicle and it was delivered in 2015 to the city where I have lived in since 1988. 

In 2018 I found a VW-minded ( Volkswagen) man who wanted and helped to get the “Red Jeep” (the chassis, engine, axes , etc. were already in good shape) into the “new body from 1955” and the result should be ready this year.

Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – Theo Ernst

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