Quote:
Originally posted by Bill Murray
Some one will surely correct me if I am wrong, Keith but I think I read that the Germans had access to about 30,000 pieces of equipment post Dunkirk.
On that subject, I have been meaning to ask if anyone has access to and could pass on, the Orders of the Day or whatever it would have been called as to the policy of the BEF regarding disabling all possible equipment before either surrendering or leaving for the UK by that marvelous assemblage of yachts, freighters etc.
I usually don't save them because they are of less interest than functional vehicles, but I have seen at least a thousand photos on ebay from various countries over the last five years with open bonnet vehicles, punctured or removed wheels and tyres etc. etc. in an obvious effort to render the vehicle unusable.
Obviously, the Germans were pretty good at getting an awful lot of this vehicle park back in operating condition and I will try to continue to post such photos, many, many of which were taken in Russia, a heck of a long way from Dunkirk and a testament to British hardware.
And.....of course, all of us are aware of Rommel's edict to use captured English vehicles whenever and wherever possible in NA as they were far superior to the German equipment.
Happy New Year.
Bill
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Ellis's Official history "The War in France & Flanders 1939 - 1940" gives the following statistics :-
Vehicles shipped to France :- 68618
Lost........................................63879
Brought back............................4739
Motorcycles.............................21081
Lost.........................................20548
Brought back...............................533
Contemporary accounts often refer to disabling the vehicles by means such as removing the oil and coolant drains and jamming the throttle. Many were simply pushed into the canals. Nevertheless, the base depots to the south were also overrun so there probably wasn't any shortage of replacement units.