Post your unidintified vehicle photos here.

[Alanmccoubrey]

Looks like an SdAh 30, "single axle trailer for ammunition" to me. Alan

[jmark]

Hi Jason:

Your truck is an Opel Blitz 1 tonner. Bit of a rare bird as I think I remember only a bit over 5,000 were used by the German forces.

Bill

You've done it again, Bill, thanks very much! All I knew is that it wasn't one of the standard German lorries.

Looks like an SdAh 30, "single axle trailer for ammunition" to me. Alan

Thanks Alan. Did the trailer carry a particular kind of ammunition (artillery shells, for example) or was it just a general purpose ammo carrier?

All the best,
Jason

[Larrister]

Hi

Who made these trailers? Was Mercedes-Benz involved? I may be seeing things but the wheels on the trailer above and others I've seen look very much like those seen on the Stuttgart 260.

Cheers
Larry

[Karl B]

Hi

Putting this one here as I know someone will recognize the vehicle on the left.

Cheers

Karl

[S Ballantyne]

vehicle

Hi there,

Your vehicle is the SdKfz 10/4. The SdKfz 10 was a 1 tonne half-track, and the /4 version mounted a 2cm Flak gun on the back, with fold down sides attached to the gun platform. You can see the mesh of the vehicle sides in the up position in your photo.

Your photo is from the West 1940 by the look of it, so this would be the first version of the vehicle with a Flak 30, without a gun shield.

There is loads of info on these vehicles on the net.

Cheers
Steve

[Karl B]

Thanks for the information

Cheers

Karl

[jmark]

First of all, apologies for the appalling quality of this image. I had to scan it from a photocopy of a contact sheet... I'm expecting the hi-res image to arrive from Bundesarchiv in a few weeks but I'm captioning the photos now. Anyone care to have a shot at naming this PKW?

All the best,
Jason

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[Larrister]

Hi Jason

Your PKW looks to be a Mercedes Benz 170 V Cabriolet B.

Cheers
Larry

[Bill Murray]

Nasty Photo That!!

I agree with Larry, all the ID clues that one can see fits that car.

Regarding the earlier question about the trailer.

The only halfway decent reference book I have is Schiffer's translation of the Waffen-Arsenal book on German trailers by Biersdorf and it is pretty sketchy.

In any case, they list the following in the Sd.Ah 30 series.

30 Water Tank trailer single axle
31 Trailer, single axle for ammunition
31/1 Trailer, single axle for ammunition (75 MM assault gun)
32 Trailer, single axle for ammunition (37mm PAK)
32/2 Trailer, single axle for Schwere Panzerbuchse 41 AT rifle
There are a couple more but they get rather far away from the photo in question.

The illustration they have for the Sd.Ah 32 looks almost exactly like Jason's photo and I think that is what it is.

Regarding your question, Larry, I doubt Mercedes built any trailers.

In Germany, like in the US or the UK, there were specialist manufacturers of both wheels and bodies, not only car bodies but also truck bodies and trailers. We had here in the US, the Budd company and they had a subsidiary or sister company in Germany called Ambi-Budd. I don't know what else Ambi-budd built, but I know they did supply a lot of bodies and wheels for Ford Cologne. Kassboehrer was another very well known German body builder of truck/bus bodies and trailers and may also have done wheels.

In any case, I think the wheels on the trailer and the ones that seem to be the same on Benz and other models of the era were probably just a standard design used in many applications.

Cheers
Bill

[Larrister]

Thanks Bill

The reason I asked the question is that I remember in a thread somewhere someone had a trailer and said the wheels were Mercedes.

The same type of wheel can also be found on the 3.7 pak.

Cheers
Larry

[Larrister]

!

[Larrister]

Bill

This is the thread I was talking about. Wheels are different to the ones I was describing above.


http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...hlight=trailer

Larry

[Bill Murray]

Hi Larry:

Hmmm. I had looked at that thread and forgotten it.

Given that the then new owner stated that it was brought back from Germany in post occupation times, I would think the following might apply.

1. All kinds of military vehicles were turned over to the civilian population after things settled down in the 1946-1948 period.

2. There is ample photographic evidence that whatever got turned over was "made to work" using a real hodge podge of parts from this and that vehicle. Germany was, as you know, in pretty bad shape before the Marshall Plan started to kick in and it was do with what you got for the most part.

3. The body on that trailer I think is probably a legitimate WWII German trailer although I cannot positively ID which one at this point.

4. I think the wheels and tyres are taken from a passenger car, possibly a Mercedes, of either the prewar/wartime/postwar period. They do not resemble any military wheels and tyres I have seen on series produced WWII German trailers.

As I may have posted to you earlier, I do have a large collection of German books on trucks/cars/bodies/coachwork etc. which deals only in a very small way with military production and they are buried in my cellar as I do not use them in my current research activities. I will try to look at a few to see if the trailer subject is covered in any of them, either civilian or military.

Bill

[Larrister]

Hi Bill

I agree with you. The person who sold the trailer probably assumed that it was manufactured by Mercedes Benz because it had Mercedes Benz wheels.

Here's a photo of trailer, Stuttgart and PaK wheels which are very similar.
I thought that maybe a car manufacturer such as Mercedes Benz made the rims.

Cheers
Larry

[jmark]

OK guys, got a few more for you. First up a staff car belonging to Pz.Jäg.Abt.371 south of Stalingrad in August 1942.

Thanks in advance
Jason

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