Is It True That Hitler Is Responsible For The Land Rover As Well As The VW Beetle?

Well, only indirectly, he didn't actually order the development as he did with the People's Car VW.

Although, it may be stretching it a bit, it is accurate to say that Hitler did bring about the conditions whereby the Land Rover came into being. And the reason the aluminium-bodied Land Rover utility came into existence at all was a post-War shortage of steel.

Rover was happily making family saloon cars and so they would have remained but for Adolf Hitler and the Second World War. In the immediate post-War period, steel was severely rationed. As a UK car manufacturer with seemingly few export opportunities, Rover was not exactly head of the list when steel was being handed out.

To keep themselves in business, Rover was forced to look to new markets and resolved to produce a four wheel drive utility vehicle inspired by the Willis Jeep that had operated so successfully during the war. As aluminium was relatively abundant compared to steel and easy to work, the Series One Land Rover was aluminium bodied.

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