216 different makes and models of motor vehicles to operate, both foreign and domestic, and no good supply system to keep them running. Various light motor vehicles were tested — at first motorcycles with and without sidecars, and some modified Ford Model Ts. But what was needed was a very light, small, battlefield utility vehicle to replace motorcycles (with or without sidecar) — more user-friendly to control, but just as easy to get in and out of. In the early 1930s, the U.S. Army experimented with a bantam weight "midget truck" for scouts and raiders. A , low-slung mini car with a pick-up body, provided by American Austin Car Company, was shown in a 1933 article in Popular Mechanics magazine. One of the pictures showed that the vehicle was light enough to be man-handled — four soldiers could lift it from the ground entirely. But it was still only rear-wheel drive. After 1935, when the U.S. Congress declared World War I vehicles obsolete, procurement for "remotorization of the Army" gained more traction, but pre-war, peacetime budget restrictions meant that the U.S. Comptroller General imposed open bidding on every additional/incremental procurement. Each time, the Army was forced to award the contract to the lowest bid that met requirements or specifications, often different makers – however, saving a small percentage initially, on the procurement, overall proved "penny wise, pound foolish" because it led to problematic diversity of the fleet, requiring too much training of operators and mechanics for maintenance and repairs, and too many non-interchangeable spare parts – bad for war logistics, and preventing the repair of one vehicle by scavenging parts off another. And the Army could still only get multi-axle drive on trucks, "requiring the greatest battlefield mobility". Meanwhile, in Asia and the Pacific, Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931, and was at war with China from 1937. Its Imperial Army used a small, three-man crew, four-wheel drive car for reconnaissance and troop movements, the Kurogane Type 95, produced in limited numbers from 1936. In 1937 Marmon-Herrington presented five 4x4 Fords, and American Bantam (previously American Austin) once again contributed — delivering three Austin derived roadsters in 1938. The U.S. Army itself had also built an experimental light, low-profile scout and gun mover, the Howie-Wiley Machine Gun Carrier, ordered by General Walter Short, then Assistant Commander of the Army's Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and built by Captain Robert