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  • Swedish iron

    Road Trip! In case anyone wants to search and see if there are any Studebakers here: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/motora...205519521.html
    Last edited by LeoH; 02-04-2014, 08:15 PM.

  • #2
    Originally posted by LeoH View Post
    In case anyone wants to search and see if there are any Studebakers here: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/motora...205519521.html
    Article says that many of the cars were abandoned by US servicemen after WWII ended. Horse poop!

    The only US personal that drove US cars in Europe during WWII were high ranking personal. These were staff cars maintained by US Army motor pools.

    After the war ended, General Patton received a soon to be fatal injury when his 1938 Cadillac staff car collided w/a US 6x6 near Mannheim Germany. The truck (it was not a Studebaker) turned in front of Patton's Cadillac at an intersection. The truck driver was drunk, had taken it illegally for a joy ride.

    US cars had been sold in Europe for many years prior to WWII. Many were captured by Axis forces.

    In 1945, when the Hun was retreating, they abandoned a large motor pool in Poland. The vehicles were found and hidden by 2 Polish brothers that ran a junkyard.

    They parked the vehicles in a large building, then blocked the entrance with 100's of 'beat to death' European cars like Renaults, Wanderers, Moscovitches, Trabants.

    When the wall came down, the cars were pulled out...went on sale. A pal of mine who lives in Newport Beach bought 3 cars from the brothers: 1931 Maybach-Zeppelin, 1933 Packard V12, 1939 Horch cabriolet with custom body by Kellner.

    After WWII ended, US maintained forces in Germany. Some had US vehicles imported and it wasn't too long before a black market in US cars developed. It seems the US personnel imported far more cars than they could drive. The same thing occurred in Japan after WWII ended.

    btw: In 2000, while hunting for the intersection in Mannheim where Patton's staff car collided, we were passed by a new Taurus with a USAF sticker on the bumper. We soon discovered that the intersection no longer existed, as the highway was rerouted in the 1950's.
    Last edited by WinM1895; 02-04-2014, 08:58 PM.

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    • #3
      I think the articles author made a wrong assumption.

      He assumed that the cars abandoned by US servicemen and bought by the yard owners were cars abandoned after WWII because he didn't know any better; and most readers assume that the author means they were abandoned in Sweden because they don't know any better. If the article's author had ever been a serviceman stationed in Europe he would have known that there used to be yards on every military post where servicemen could abandon their vehicles where those vehicles would be sold to soldiers transferring in and the funds used to support the MWR fund on bases.

      Those vehicles could not be brought back to the states because they wouldn't meet US standards for import. The cars were fair game until they were shipped out to a central property disposal site and auctioned off hundreds at a time for pennies on the dollar. I bought a 60's VW out of one of those abandoned vehicle yards on Karl Schurtz Kaserne in Bremerhaven in 1984 for $50. I spent a hundred bucks and about ten hours in the craft shop getting it into drivable condition. It just managed to pass TUV muster for highway driving and then I beat the hell out of it on the Autobahn for a couple of years. Later, I had my eye on a really nice BMW hardtop with a fuel injected six. Unfortunately I waited too long to grab it. One day I went by the craft shop and it was gone. When I talked to the manager what had happened to it, he told me it had gone to property disposal and would probably end up in a civilian junkyard someplace.

      I bet a couple of canny operators running a salvage operation in Sweden, who wanted a primo source for cheap cars and parts in the 60's, 70's and 80's, would see the US Army Property Disposal auctions in Germany as a destination of choice.
      Mike O'Handley, Cat Herder Third Class
      Kenmore, Washington
      hausdok@msn.com

      '58 Packard Hawk
      '05 Subaru Baja Turbo
      '71 Toyota Crown Coupe
      '69 Pontiac Firebird
      (What is it with me and discontinued/orphan cars?)

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by hausdok View Post
        I think the articles author made a wrong assumption.

        He assumed that the cars abandoned by US servicemen and bought by the yard owners were cars abandoned after WWII because he didn't know any better; and most readers assume that the author means they were abandoned in Sweden because they don't know any better. If the article's author had ever been a serviceman stationed in Europe he would have known that there used to be yards on every military post where servicemen could abandon their vehicles where those vehicles would be sold to soldiers transferring in and the funds used to support the MWR fund on bases.

        Those vehicles could not be brought back to the states because they wouldn't meet US standards for import. The cars were fair game until they were shipped out to a central property disposal site and auctioned off hundreds at a time for pennies on the dollar. I bought a 60's VW out of one of those abandoned vehicle yards on Karl Schurtz Kaserne in Bremerhaven in 1984 for $50. I spent a hundred bucks and about ten hours in the craft shop getting it into drivable condition. It just managed to pass TUV muster for highway driving and then I beat the hell out of it on the Autobahn for a couple of years. Later, I had my eye on a really nice BMW hardtop with a fuel injected six. Unfortunately I waited too long to grab it. One day I went by the craft shop and it was gone. When I talked to the manager what had happened to it, he told me it had gone to property disposal and would probably end up in a civilian junkyard someplace.

        I bet a couple of canny operators running a salvage operation in Sweden, who wanted a primo source for cheap cars and parts in the 60's, 70's and 80's, would see the US Army Property Disposal auctions in Germany as a destination of choice.
        I'm from the Wash DC area and remember quite a few Detroit 3 export cars brought back to the USA; remember that was the 1970's and Federal safety/smog regs didn't really start biting down till 1974/75 on USA market vehicles. I saw things like ca. 1969 Dodge Darts were KPH speedometers, a 1965 Ply Valiant 4 door sedan with a front sway bar and a 4 spd along with a 1968 Ford LTD 390 with a 3spd on the column, etc. Too I saw several American cars with amber rear turn signals that weren't offered here.

        OTOH: I remember a flock of ca. 1978 Fords that were going overseas; they were catalyst delete and had basically 'police' suspension systems.
        --------------------------------------

        Sold my 1962; Studeless at the moment

        Borrowed Bams50's sigline here:

        "Do they all not, by mere virtue of having survived as relics of a bygone era, amass a level of respect perhaps not accorded to them when they were new?"

        Comment


        • #5
          Hi,

          Yeah, I agree that there have been a lot of cars brought back by servicemen. If there weren't there wouldn't be such an active conversion industry. However, the majority of US servicemen and women don't have the kind of cash flow that allows them to convert a gray market car. The military never pays enough to fully cover a move. We always had to dip into our own savings, even after all moving allowances were paid, to make up the shortfall between real costs and the moving allowance paid by the military. Senior NCO's and Officers, and single guys that have been socking their money away and don't have a family to support can afford it, but for most the choice was simple - leave the car and buy a new one when we hit CONUS again; thus the large number of abandoned cars being auctioned off by PDO.
          Mike O'Handley, Cat Herder Third Class
          Kenmore, Washington
          hausdok@msn.com

          '58 Packard Hawk
          '05 Subaru Baja Turbo
          '71 Toyota Crown Coupe
          '69 Pontiac Firebird
          (What is it with me and discontinued/orphan cars?)

          Comment


          • #6
            When I click on the page it aint there anymore...
            But what's Swedish about it? Sweden didn't have many -if any- US soldiers during any war...
            But US car's, yeah: always.

            Comment


            • #7
              Sweden was neutral during WWII. Herman Goering, head of the Luftwaffe was married to Emma Sondemann, a Swedish national.

              He convinced Hitler to allow Sweden to maintain its neutrality. The Nazi war machine received much of its iron ore from Sweden.

              Comment


              • #8
                I see... so THAT'S how Swedish this stuff was!
                Well, let's face it: the "German quallity" wouldn't been nowhere without Sweden then...

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by WinM1895 View Post
                  Sweden was neutral during WWII. Herman Goering, head of the Luftwaffe was married to Emma Sondemann, a Swedish national.

                  He convinced Hitler to allow Sweden to maintain its neutrality. The Nazi war machine received much of its iron ore from Sweden.
                  The fact that Sweden had more than 1,000,000 men under arms during WWII might have also helped to keep the Nazis in check.
                  Mike O'Handley, Cat Herder Third Class
                  Kenmore, Washington
                  hausdok@msn.com

                  '58 Packard Hawk
                  '05 Subaru Baja Turbo
                  '71 Toyota Crown Coupe
                  '69 Pontiac Firebird
                  (What is it with me and discontinued/orphan cars?)

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    In 1951 one of our young soldiers from Odell came home on leave and purchased my dad's 1950 Ford demonstrator (yes, the one I took my driver's license exam with.) He drove it to the east coast and the Army shipped it to Germany for him. He had a ball with it there.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Yep,

                      Depending on one's rank and job and marital status troops are able to ship their cars just about anywhere on our nickel. My Crown went to Germany and back and then my Supra went from Alabama to Germany and then directly from Germany to Korea and from Korea back to the States.
                      Mike O'Handley, Cat Herder Third Class
                      Kenmore, Washington
                      hausdok@msn.com

                      '58 Packard Hawk
                      '05 Subaru Baja Turbo
                      '71 Toyota Crown Coupe
                      '69 Pontiac Firebird
                      (What is it with me and discontinued/orphan cars?)

                      Comment

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