Having commissioned Willys, Ford and Bantam to build 4,500 jeeps (1,500 apiece) in March 1941, the US Motor Transport Board set up a project under the direction of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) to be designated QMC-4 1/4 ton amphibian. The Marmon-Herrington Co. -- specialists in building military vehicles -- in conjunction with boat builders Sparkman & Stephens and the Ford Motor Company, undertook this work for the NDRC, which involved designing a conversion based on the 1/4-ton road vehicle. The aim was to have the vehicle in service in time for the first landing operations planned for a September/ October 1942 timeframe.

Unfortunately, the GPA amphibian proved to be too slow, heavy, and clumsy on land, not to mention too small a craft to be of much use on open water. The GPA did see important use with US forces during the landing on Sicily on September 9th, 1943, but most of the vehicles ended up being passed to the Russian Army under the Lend-Lease scheme. Ironically, its river crossing capabilities were found to be so useful by the Russians that the design was developed further for their own post-war variant.

Pictured here is a 1:32 scale replica of a US Army GPA amphibian jeep that was attached to the 3rd Armored Division, then deployed to France during 1944. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 5-3/4-inches
Width: 2-inches

Release Date: December 2013

Historical Account: "Hedgerows" - The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between Nazi Germany in Western Europe and the invading Allied forces as part of the larger conflict of World War II. Over sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in then German-occupied France. It is most commonly known by the name D-Day.

The primary Allied formations that saw combat in Normandy came from the United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada. Substantial Free French and Polish forces also participated in the battle after the assault phase, and there were also contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway.

The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval bombardments, and an early morning amphibious phase began on June 6. The 'D-Day' forces deployed from bases along the south coast of England, the most important of these being Portsmouth. The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads, and concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Falaise pocket in late August 1944.

The Battle of Normandy was described thus by Adolf Hitler: "In the East, the vastness of space will... permit a loss of territory... without suffering a mortal blow to Germany's chance for survival. Not so in the West! If the enemy here succeeds, consequences of staggering proportions will follow within a short time."