I was wondering, what the bar on front of the jeep was for, I've seen jeeps in movies, and in photos with that bar and always wondered what it was for, not all of the jeeps had it but I've seen quite a few with it. I don't have a photo but it's just a bar that is on the front end and it extends upwards about three feet. I've read somewhere that it was used to catch wires that were tied accross roads but not sure if thats the real reason. If it was, was the wire put their by the Germans to try to kill or injure someone in a jeep, I've never heard of that being a problem, a big enough problem for them to actually modify the jeep to counter that problem. I also have another question! I've seen many photos of Japanese ships with what looks like cloth wrapped around the bridge and stuff on the deck. It is white, they kind of look like sand bags. What were the purpose of the cloth, just for cosmetic reasons or did they actually provide a purpose? Sorry for these trivial questions, they just always bugged me when I saw them in movies or photos. Finnaly decided to register to this site after about a year of reading it as a guest! I figured if i'd ever get my questions answered it would be here!
Yes, thats a wire bar as best as I can tell (and google). I imagine those grooves are designed to cut the wire.
Yupper, that is what that bar is, the "anti-decapitation" device. It wasn't the first time that tactic (wire or thin rope) had been strung across existing roads either. The Roman Legions reported that their cavalry had encountered the same tactic used in Dracia (I think).
Its effective, and a lot of those Jeeps didn't have the front windshields installed as the glass was prone to break from artillery burst, glider landings, easily getting dirty (windshield wipers werent great back then).
