CMP Umbau-Wagen

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
I just looked up the article "The Wehrmacht's Umbau-Wagen" (Wheels & Tracks issue No. 30, p.20-27) in which Bart Vanderveen mentions: "Canadian chassis used for similar conversions probably originated predominantly from Greece; some of them (e.g. WH-449955, on F15 chassis) saw service in Russia."

The "Reader's Forum" in W&T issue 32 featured the following interesting tidbit:

The article about the Wehrmacht's Umbau-Wagen (W&T 30) brought an interesting reaction from Herr Reinhard Frank in Bavaria, who sent me a picture of a line-up of the Kfz. 15 cars on CMP F15 chassis, plus some original drawings of the conversion, which was apparently executed in Athens in late 1941 by the Pi.Btl.666 (666 Engineers Battalion) for Pi.Btl.659 who took them to Russia. 15 were converted and they were known as 'Kfz. 15 (Behelf) (Ford V8 1,5 to engl.)' which translates roughly as makeshift Kfz. 15 on chassis of British 1.5-ton (sic) Ford V8 chassis. Not surprisingly, these troops also used the original F15, in GS truck form; it would appear that they captured quite a few of them during the actions in Greece. Herr Frank even sent us a copy of a letter dated October 3, 1941, in which one Generalmajor Meise expresses his appreciation of the 'Kfz. V8' into 'behelfsmässige Kfz. 15'. He also enclosed a number of copies of typical soldiers' snapshots showing German and foreign-origin vehicles, which we very much appreciate.

The above seems to indicate drawings were made up so local Engineers workshops could carry out the conversions, rather than having the trucks transported to factories or coach builders for conversion.

The picture printed in W&T goes attached:
f15kubel.jpg