War salvage in Europe

[motto]

One of the interesting salvage stories is told at the underwater or undersea museum near Port En Bessin in Normandy where a large range of materiel recovered from the offshore sea bed is on display including a couple of DD tanks.
The salvers operated for many years after the war and worked in conjunction with a local smelter or foundry. From memory everything had to be cut up so as to pass through a one metre hole. Unfortunately not knowing French I couldn't glean all of the information presented but suspect that all the Mulberry block ships and much more went through such a hole.

Not far out of Lae in New Guinea sitting in the jungle there was a pile of aircraft debris almost the size of a house. The debris consisted of what parts of the aircraft that were of no interest to the salvers who had brought in a smelting plant to recover the aluminium. I have no idea how many aircraft they processed.
Today they call it recycling. It went on all over. Wherever there was a dollar or few cents to be made from it there were the entrepreneurs, the opportunists, the unemployed, the destitute.
After WW1 there were enormous quantities of shells laying all over the battlefields and people were employed to remove the copper drive bands with hammer and chisel. Every now and then one went off. No problem, plenty of others looking for work. The human detritus of war.

David

[Michael R.]

Brit post wartime use carriers and trucks in Germany (?) heading for the razor blade factory.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Michael R.

Brit post wartime use carriers and trucks in Germany (?) heading for the razor blade factory.

Hi Michael,
That photo and some others was taken in the 1950's after we had squeezed a bit more use out of them. Note the later numbering system which did not come in until c.1949. So not exactly clearing up war debris.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Jon,

Fascinating subject; read up on this in the following Wheels & Tracks magazine issues:

ISSUE No. 55 (April 1996)
Canadian Disposals and Returns - Canada-Europe; some vehicles did it twice.
The Dutch Inheritance (1) - Deelen Demob Vehicle Park.
The Dutch Inheritance (2) - The Enschede Dump.
Holland's Vehicle Parks - Soesterberg: 1 VP, Stroe: 2 VP.

ISSUE No. 56 (July 1996)
Surplus MVs for UNRRA - Part 1: Transport for Albania, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany.

ISSUE No. 57 (October 1996)
Surplus MVs for UNRRA- Part 2: Transport for Greece, Italy, Poland, Eastern Europe and China.

For the full listing of CMP and related subjects in W&T see this thread.

HTH,
Hanno

[Marc Montgomery]

Michael and Richard...whether war stuff or later.. that photo still hurts... oooooohhh

Years ago, my GF father was a german heavy machine gunner.. surrendered against the Americans... said everytime his unit took out a tank three more would come. As he was being placed aboard a prisoner ship for the US he said the docks were full of brand new equipment from typewriters to appliances to jeeps...all being bulldozed into a huge pile of scrap.

By the way, the guy became a master cabinetmaker -genius work

[chris vickery]

I spoke with an old fellow several years ago that emigrated to Canada from England a few years after the War's end. He had worked for a salvage company. He told me stories of his employer being paid to haul goods to the docks to be put onto scows headed out to the channel. The scows were dumped into the channel. When I asked why they did this he had an interesting reply. His reply was that the Government of the time was worried that surplus goods would be harmful to the economy. Why sell surplus wrenches and tools when there were factories in Sheffield and other places looking to produce new goods for the country to buy. Many industries would not be able to employ a workforce without orders. Considering the influx of workers coming back into the workforce after their military duty, scrapping commodities was seen as key to stimulating growth.
I suppose they were worried that many unscrupulous scrappers would re-sell and that surplus goods would work their way back into the economy.
Probably the same reason why the Canadian Government left so much gear overseas. It was more humanitarian to give it away to desparate nations trying to rebuild and cheaper than shipping it back home.

[Marc Montgomery]

ACtually chris I think you may be right on both counts

leave some stuff there to save shipping costs.. and dump the rest...exactly because Canada and the US didnt want used MVs flooding the market..... farmers buying used jeeps and trucks for $100 to plough the fields and drive around, or small firms to buy used MVs cheap for delivery and haulage when the Ford and Gm and Chrysler were desperate to sell new cars trucks and tractors

someone once told me they say a Cousteau show about the ST Lawrence and at one point they dove on a bunch of dumped WWII vehicles... plausible BUT, I have never managed to get any confirmation about that... never seen the show, nor has anyone I know.