Curious Pto Winch History Lesson Please

As I get ready to move on to a new project of adding the PTO winch, I developed a curios question which I'm looking to see if anyone here can answer it. Since the Dana 18 transfer case was quickly created during the war for this hastily created new vehicle, was the rear PTO cover designed for a PTO attachment or was the plate there just to access the gears for removing the TC from the tranny (as I understand it)? I don't ever recall seeing a WWII jeep with a winch on it. Did they? Was the winch and PTO really just the brain child of someone as these shifted to civilian use and the Dana engineers of WWII era so smart they saw the future use of it for a PTO or were there smart engineers that saw a way to create the PTO with the TC.

 

They were definitely used on some of the special ww2 jeeps like the gpa. Pretty sure that it was a pto port from the start. Lots of other uses besides turning a winch over the years.

 

My 1945 GPW that was purchased by a neighbor at Ft. Lewis, WA in the 1950's had a PTO winch on it.

 

Mechanical engineering was pretty well developed before WWII. Maybe better than today.

 

I think sometimes we ( I ) forget that, in our modern computer and hi-tech world. And they did it without the aid of what we have today.

 

See....I'm learning more each time.

 

I have seen MB/GPW's with capstan style winches on the front in WWII photos. I'm not sure if they were crank or pto driven.