Sgt. Schultz: Our Ford always gets too hot. Hogan: Add some louvers. Sgt. Schultz: You mean like this..... Saw this pictures of a 1940 Ford Sedan, captured and used by the German Army in Africa on a military site. Interesting that they have added louvers to the front and side of the hood. I can imagine that overheating of the flathead was a topic in the desert.
Ford was making cars in Africa since 1924. I would imagine the cars would have been slightly different than American models. Ford and Its History in South Africa - Masterparts
....I imagine that the edict went out from Henry in Dearborn to all of his assembly facilities around the world, "Don't waste anything! If it is in inventory from the previous year and it will fit the current production, use it !".....My words, not necessarily his exact words.
I completely overlooked the 39 headlights! Where there any 39/40 Fords built with a sunroof? Or was this also a military conversion? The pics are from 1942, so the car was still quite new. I also wonder what the hub caps are? They do not show any ornaments or logos, almost like Baby Moons. The night driving light is definitely a German addition, a so called "Notek"- light.
I think those hubcaps are just '40 Standard caps caked in dirt. As far as the sunroof goes, I have never seen any reference to a factory one. Perhaps the Germans enjoyed that on those clear, starry night cruises on the Sahara.
It still has cowl wipers, so I don't see how it could crank out. Probably anomalies because it's not a us built car.
Well......., since this thread started with a Sargent Schultz reference, this is my contribution. Back in the early 70’s I was a disc jockey at an FM station and one part of our job consisted of running the control board for the obligatory public service programs that ran on the weekends. My assignment was for the German language program. One Sunday the host told me that he was very excited for me to meet his guest for the program. I asked but he wouldn’t tell me who it was. I was about 24 and try as I may, I couldn’t think of any guest on a local German language program that I would be excited about meeting. That all changed when John Banner walked into the studio. As usual I had no idea what the conversations were about, but for almost the whole hour that studio was filled with laughter. Which translates well no matter what language. At the end of the program he stayed around and regaled us with stories from Hogan’s Heroes and I even convinced he and the host to record a sound bite for me of a recurrent scene in the series: “Shoot him Schultz!”. “Oh, I dropped my rifle!”. I unfortunately lost that tape somewhere along the way. My short encounter with him left a lasting impression of him as a genuine sort of guy.
I hear nothing, i know nothing....often said to my lovely wife during interigation......I learned alot from that show....
Col. Hogan's Diary entry 1/10/1943 Note to self; upon returning home to US after the war...customize 1940 fords.
AS poorly as the American Army did in Africa before Patton took over II Corps, it's mostly likely an American-made car that was captured and modified (Notek light, sliding sunroof, etc)
My grandpa was in Africa under Rommel and he used to tell me his stories about being a "Oberschirrmeister", a soldier in about a rank of a sergeant that took care of a truck fleet. The German Wehrmacht did have Fords that were built in Köln, but I doubt they had the late model passenger cars like the 39 or 40 Ford . So this one has probably been "borrowed" from the guys on the other side and modified... Grandpa was a great storyteller and today I feel that was his way to get over what he had seen and experienced. I remember him telling me stories about him flying from Tripolis to Köln ( Cologne) for getting new Ford rear axles because they tended to rip off the axle shafts in the desert sand . He also said they had quite some headaches with overheating Ford V8s but he enjoyed working on and fixing them. A common problem used to be the drivers that couldn´t understand the firing order and came in with misfiring Ford trucks They didn´t have GMCs and Chevrolets to begin with but somehow they got ahold of some and he remembered them as more reliable in the desert because they where OHV and didn´t overheat as much and had better rear axles. I have an old album with many photos from his Africa trip which he gave me to always remember what a bad idea it is to go to war.
Don't anyone kid themselves, Henry Ford was a business man and built vehicles for the Nazis as well as the Russians and Americans. Heres a German V3000 that looks just like the American '40 Ford 1 ton He even sold the Russians the GAZ-AAA, which must definitely look familiar to some people... These are all available as model kits if you're a glue sniffer. Building a GAZ myself...
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