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Bunch of pics I found on a website, I had never seen these before, and can't place any of the vehicles in them. Anyone got any idea?

1. German Armored Tractor...? Weird little one-man tank...?
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics...cf1356.jpg
2. Wheeled landship?
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics...mers_1.jpg
3. Are these turretless Shermans being used as artillery tractors...?
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics..._copy3.jpg
4. Full Armor Oscar-Meyer Weiner Mobile
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics..._12_sb.jpg
5. Whats the enormous tank with the tiny little turret in the background?
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics...m7/t35.jpg
6. Busted up, but it looks too small to be an arty tractor, and too big to be a goliath.
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics...rgward.jpg
7. Turretles tank and anti-mine rolling thingy.
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics...ward_1.jpg
8. Combine 'Armored Car' with 'Abstract Sculpture' and this is what you get.
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics...r_dzvr.jpg
9. Super modified Universal Carrier?
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics...11485a.jpg
10. Its plane, its a car, its a boat, its a "Motorowebalkenkreutz" apparently.
odkrywca.pl/forum_pics...kreutz.jpg

All from this site:
odkrywca.pl/pokaz_wate...?id=121139


I think quite a few of the pics on that site have been circulated here before - but maybe I was on vacation for that thread and never read it. I can't remember ever learning what the blazes these vehicles are.

Thanks in advance folks! This is more of a 'fun oddity' post rather than actual historical intrigue, but I would like to know what those things are.

---Vil.

In number 3 I think the second vehicle is a Souma tank without a turret. I can't tell with the shadows what the first one is.

nt

Well, here's my input:

#1. Looks like a Belgian Tracteur Chenille
#2. German Minenraumpanzer Raumer - prototype mine-clearer.
#3. Look like turretless French S35 Somua tanks
#4. Unknown
#5. Destroyed Soviet T35
#6. Unknown but could be the remains of the small #7
#7. German Kleiner Panzerbefehlswagen & Borgward protptype?
#8. Possibly the German Daimler model 1921 armored car
#9. Possibly a Belgian T.13 type III
#10.An Aerosan of some sort - German or Soviet

Man, thanks fellas! Awesome information.

Was the Vickers-Armstrong utility tractor armored ? It looks like an armored cab can be pulled up around the driver. I wonder if any of these were ever converted into one-man-tanks for patrol duties or anything ?

---Vil.

In #5 it's amazing how far away some of the turrets landed. At least that is what I think those objects are in the background.

#10 - captured soviet NKL-6 snowmobile

Heya again folks!

I can't figure out what this thing is, any ideas?

s1.simpload.com/072944...e6a2e1.jpg

Oh, and this. It's clearly a Panzer I chassis, but with a Panzer III Ausf A turret...? The pictures filename is "Proto", so I am guessing a Panzer I body was used to test the Panzer III's turret, or some such thing?

odkrywca.pl/forum_pics.../proto.jpg

Oh, and speaking of the Panzer I, i've seen many pictures of all the different variants - except the D model. Did it ever even exist? Only one prototype was supposed to have been produced, but I can't find a single picture of it.

---Liottel.

There is another feature in the Pz I/Pz III turret picture that I am curious about. What is the circular 'tub' at the rear of the vehicle?

I'm wondering if it is some kind of 'alternative fuel' system used at the end of the war for non tactical vehicles. Could this be some kind of last ditch weapon cobbeled up either for a real local defense effort or some kind of deception campaign?

- BenjaminLiottel

Heya again folks!

I can't figure out what this thing is, any ideas?

s1.simpload.com/072944...e6a2e1.jpg

Oh, and this. It's clearly a Panzer I chassis, but with a Panzer III Ausf A turret...? The pictures filename is "Proto", so I am guessing a Panzer I body was used to test the Panzer III's turret, or some such thing?

odkrywca.pl/forum_pics.../proto.jpg

Oh, and speaking of the Panzer I, i've seen many pictures of all the different variants - except the D model. Did it ever even exist? Only one prototype was supposed to have been produced, but I can't find a single picture of it.

---Liottel.

The top photo is a Soviet Komsomolyets artillery transporter

Bob, what's really bizarre about the Panzer, is that it looks like a total custom job. The tracks, running gear, mud guards, etc, are all that of a Panzer IA, note the 4 road wheels. But, the small fighting compartment of the IA has been turned into a box-like fighting compartment that spans almost the entire length of the hull. Furthermore, the square-port bow-machine gun seen on the Panzer III F, H, E, is also there. So... I don't know. This is a pretty bizarre vehicle.

In fact, look at the picture. See the seam below the top of the box fighting compartment? That IS the fighting compartment of a Panzer III ! They simply cut it off at the base, cut it off right at the back of the turret, and mounted it on a Panzer IA! Now.. That takes the cake for the weirdest thing ever..

Here's a pic of the exact model of Pz.III i'm talking about:
homepage.eircom.net/~n....3.jpg.jpg

---Liottel.

I wonder if it was a training vehicle? Before the days of simulators it would give them the chance to run trainiees through a moving tank course without taking a usable operational vehicle.

Bob, apparently this picture has been discussed at another forum, the AxisHistory forums, and this was the conclusion:

"Later in the war, Germany's fuel shortages forced them to adopt various means to test vehicles after completion and to train new crews. Some vehicles were powered by bottled (liquid) gas while other by wood burning generators. None of those vehicles were used in combat and were only used to train new panzer crews. Plans were also made that since June of 1945, Panzer IVs would be powered by Tatra 103, 12 cylinder, and air-cooled diesel engine. During the war, designers continued working on the development of new running-gear for Panzer IV, but changes never took place..."

So, this was some sort of training tank, using alternate-fuels, possibly WOOD of all things. Bizarre. Another poster said he saw a similar picture of a Panzer I with a Panzer IV turret... Wierd...

But you know, they were never officially used in combat, but by the end of WWII the Germans were fielding absolutely anything and everything they could get their hands on against the enemy. If these driver-training tanks had functional weapons, then I am sure they were pitted against the Russians or some such thing. How weird a diorama would that make? A wood-burning Pz.I with Pz.III turret engaging some Russian T-26's or whatnot. Absolutely bizarre.

---Vil.