German Half-Track

[Mike Kelly]

I was reading Norm Darwin's thesis:

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/159140472.pdf

Norm mentions the German Half-Track on page 328, the engine from this vehicle was used as the donor engine for the famous Maybach racing car here in Australia.

The actual Half-Track itself was a Demag and the remains of it was discovered up at Kaniva in N.W. Victoria in the early 1980s. I remember driving up there and visiting the remote wheat farm where we spoke to the farmer who had purchased the Demag after the war. Sadly, he had cut the forward hull section off with a chisel , fitted a A model Ford engine in the very rear of the tracked section, and used it as a crude tractor. There were various Demag bits still in his shed, he showed us the Demag tool lockers and other bits he had saved and repurposed into something useful for his farm. The original transmission was still sitting in the hull with the fancy power assisted shifting system. Later on during the cleanup we found some German 9mm rounds sitting on the hull floor.

The forward hull section showed obvious damage from a mine blast with many splintered holes through the floor.

[maple_leaf_eh]

The flood of war surplus equipment was the impetus a lot of farmers, businesses, industries, and communities needed to get ahead after the Depression and rationing years. The postwar consumer industry took a decade to get going again.

The stories of Canadian farmers buying yellow BCATP training aircraft to use as chicken coops is well understood. To a salvor it would never fly, but has structure, covering, windows, cables, pulleys, wheels, etc. How many Universal Carriers were bought as tractors or log skidders, but found less than ideal? As a boy, I remember seeing a farm built tractor that had two steerable axles, so the farmer could manoeuver through the maple trees and collect sap buckets. The alternative was to bring in the sap with a horse team and the reservoir on a stone boat. But Australians really liked the CMPs for forest and field work, so sometimes the army surplus was quite suitable.

[Mike Kelly]

Been reading through the chapters. I can only find one sentence relating to the WW2 era Aust. military utes. No mention of the Ford Aust. army roadster truck cabs which I think would be unique to Aust. The wartime softskin info is very brief and probably needs a book devoted to this topic rather than trying to include it in the one document. No mention of Internation-HArvester making vehicle bodies either

In addition to CWO cabs Holden modified Pontiac and
Chevrolet sedans into army utes using both metal and timber utility beds.

[Dave Newcomb]

My yank spelling? Portland, Or Aircraft Mechanics School-rebuilt a pair of Spitfire? wings that had been used to breakup dirt clods on a farm after plowing.
Drug around over the fields. They got totally rebuilt in the late 70's while I was a student. Dave

[Mike Cecil]

Mike,

Norm's thesis is about developing designs for the domestic market and the influences, both local and international, that impacted on that development, not adapting existing civilian designs for wartime use. As you say, the adaptation of civilian production to military use deserves research of its own.

Alas, I seem to have missed a typo in the index - I hope Norm forgives me!

Mike