Off Topic Obituary, but very important


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Posted by john k. seidts on Tuesday, November 19, 2002 at 7:55PM :

The following is copied verbatim from an email by William Spear, who is particularly affectionate for the Bantam Jeeps built during WWII. There is a lot of very historic information here for your consumption, and I am posting it here because this guy if not now, will one day be considered one of the patron saints of all Four Wheel Drive History! Ralph Turner HAND BUILT the first prototype Jeep, and thence grew our passion.

Very sorry to report to you BRC people that Ralph Turner passed away
yesterday after a long period of debility. You can see a small obit at

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2002111190192

Ralph was one of the three guys, along with Chet Hemphling and Harold Crist
who actually built the #1 Bantam. In addition he functioned as more or less
the "groom" for the car during it's early testing and was with it 24 hours a
day throughout September, October and on into the fall of 1940. (That's him
you see in the black fedora in the old Holabird pictures). He was the one
for instance who called Crist down to Holabird when he found Bob Brown of of
the QMC letting the Willys guy down in the grease pit to do their reverse
engineering. Crist sped down from Butler, and Brown and Crist had a blow out
argument with Brown coming up with the phony "we own the plans" subterfuge,
but who tried to mollify him with a "Don't worry boys, we'll take care of
you". As Ralph pithily observed, "They sure did". He also witnessed the
subsequent tests of the other prototypes and their difficulties,
particularly the first Willys which kept throwing rods.

He drove the car back to Butler with Captain Eugene Mosely, the test driver,
and then they drove it down to Ft. Knox to demonstrate it to the fledgling
motorized Cavalry unit there. Ralph was thrown clear of the car when it hit
the truck returning to Butler. Although the little car made it back with a
broken axle, that was the last anyone heard of it, so, I guess Ralph and
Moselely would have been the last guys to have a ride in it.

Another thing widely unknown is that Ralph personally accompanied the BRC's
built for Russia on the trip over there. His description of circumstances
there were far from complementary and he basically had to "escape" and
"hitchhike" on a returning freighter. He also described the three Russian
soldiers who were stationed in Butler for "quality control" while these cars
were being built.

Ralph and Chet Hemphling became the "roving mechanics" for the Army and put
many miles on the road going from Fort to Camp explaining the facts of life
about motor vehicles to the various Army bases. In one case he drove out
many states away to address a complaint that the BRC "wouldn't run". When he
got there he quickly analyzed the problem for the embarrassed blowhard
Sergeant. There was a big wad of bailing wire wrapped around the driveshaft.
Those Bantams just never held up did they?

Ralph was justifiably bitter most of his life about not only the treatment
of Bantam at the hands of the Army, but at the subsequent inability of "jeep
historians" to ever get the story right. He was interviewed again and again
but the writers, even "pro Bantam" types, all preferred to write it up their
way, or ignore the operative facts.

At the 50th Anniversary of the jeep the three of them were invited to the
ceremony but no one even acknowledged their presence, let alone gave them
any recognition or the podium. In the mean time Charles Probst (Karl's son)
made a long speech from the podium about the great contributions of his
father, never mentioning the fact that the jeep had been effectively
conceived of a month before Karl got there to draw it up for the bidding
procedure. Crist and Brown drew up the Army specs using in large part Bantam
factory drawings. No one who credits Probt's "genius" in designing the jeep
ever seems to ask why that the #1 Bantam is a dead ringer for the spec
drawing, replete with a Alexis de Sahknoffski dashboard. Nor do they mention
that the Continental engine had already been modified and selected before he
got there. No mistake, Karl did a great job laying out the actual
construction plans for purpose of getting the bid (and to his credit he
never personally claimed more). He was, as Fenn said, "an exceptionally fast
layout man", and that was the reason he was hired. The actual construction
of the car (and the resulting plans) was another matter. Crist and Probst
were often at odds about design details during the construction (with
Crist's practical experience almost always winning out) and many times
Probst's drawing team would come down in the morning to draw up what Crist,
Turner and Hemphling had done the night before.

The ultimate insult for Ralph is that the plaque that was put up in Butler
commemorating the Bantam effort featured (and still does) a Willys Jeep!!!
No one ever bothered to talk to them about it.

I am sorry I never got to meet Ralph. I know several of you have. I'm sure
he took many interesting details with him, but fortunately he left enough
leads and trailers around that we still might to piece together a more
complete story. If anyone has any stories about him, I'd sure like to hear
them.

RIP Ralph. We'll get the straight story out yet.




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