I think the orange 54 with the black fenders is cool.

 

It sure would, I thought of him when I saw the picture..

It just needs Chicago Fire Patrol painted on the doors!!!!!

 

How's this for oddball. Yeah not Ford but definitely odd. Berlin 1945



Here is where I got it. There are a lot more pictures of Berlin in 1945.
Photos of The Destroyed Berlin in 1945 (image heavy) - WAR HISTORY ONLINE

 

There were actually two of these armored vehicles, both were parked at the east entrance to Hitler's Chancellery.

I don't recall where, but the krauts captured both of these vehicles, so they were not German made.

Spent two weeks in Berlin in 2001, walked throughout the city armed w/a 1941 Berlin roadmap...as some of the streets had been renamed after the war.

The remains of the original bombed out Japanese and Italian embassies were still there, just south of the Tiergarten, Berlin's huge park.

I bought a huge thick coffee table sized book with 3 pics on each page showing Berlin before the war, after the war and today.

Then I had to lug this heavy book over two miles back to the Radisson hotel we were staying at next to Museum Island in the Mitte section of Berlin.

When we arrived at the hotel, I noticed that across Unter den Linden from the hotel was another bookstore that had the same book.

 

They look like an up-armored version of a WWI German Ehrhardt Armoured Car. In Berlin in 1945 they were down to their last line of defense as the Russians moved forward with a vengeance. They may have brought this vehicle out of a museum and made some quick changes to cover weak spots like the wheels.

 

I seem to recall that the two armored cars were made in Sweden, but captured somewhere in the east, Ukraine, Russia or ?

They were parked at the Chancellery to spirit Hitler thru the streets of Berlin...in case he decided to leave the bunker, which was located under the Chancellery garden.

A few days before he committed suicide, Hanna Reitsch, Germany's chief test pilot, flew into Berlin in a tiny Fieseler Storch airplane, landed in the Tiergarten, then made her way to the bunker...told Hitler she could fly him out, but he turned her down.

 

Then there is the 1918 Nash Quad. Note that it has 4WD and 4 wheel steer. These guys look like they are having fun on the vehicle's first drive in many years.

1918 Nash Quad restored at Jeep and Truck Engineering in the early 1990s. Picture taken at the Walter P. Chrysler museum.

 

Very cool info. Thanks for expanding on this.
These old military vehicles always have interesting stories about their design and usage.

 

Bill, do you have the name of that book handy? I'm a closet WWII buff myself.

 

It's here...somewhere in this menagerie, but it's not handy. I'll have to look for it, get back to you.

 

I'd also like to know more about it

 

This one is sure to get attention:

 

Havi,
Sounds like you're pretty deeply into it with your interest in that book. I gave myself the Hammacher Schlemmer 24 DVD set on WWII for Christmas, and would recommend it, especially to anyone with an interest in film of the period. I started out in 16mm documentary and really appreciated the remastering job they did, without removing the original artifacts. I did a lot of time in the National Archives and always wanted to check out the 'never-before-seen' footage I used to find by accident in dusty cans there. Really enjoyed the war-effort original propaganda and training films, and the combat footage is the real deal, same with the concentration camps. But you've got better things to do than watch 'The Hunt for U479' ... I thought it was really questionable that they should include that, so, one caveat (but a big one, it goes on for three DVDs). Anyway, the set also comes with two CDs of images styled as 'War and Conflict'. My heart went out to those combat photographers, most of whom were KIA ... to me, just as much heroes as the guys who got the medals.

 

Thanks for the info!