Is this spooky or what! Nevertheless RIP all the brave men of WWII http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ldiers-hid-beautiful-vintage-motors-WWII.html
Only one or 2 of those cars dates to WW2. What he has found is a junkyard of cars abandoned by GIs returning to the US when their hitch was up. Almost all of them date from the fifties and sixties. If someone had a car that he couldn't sell, or was not worth selling, it would simply be abandoned when he left. I suspect some CO in the fifties told them to dump them in the woods and not leave them laying around the streets and parking lots.
The "AFTER" WWII in the article ***le is correct, the during the war references within the article are entirely and obviously wrong. Clearly, the cars are mostly wrong period, but soldiers could not bring their cars with them in WWII! Absolutely absurd on the face of it. "Well, all the tanks are landed, Sir. Permission to beach the next 6 LST's full of our cars requested!" Europe filled up with GI cars in the fifties, of course, but Good Lord! Who wrote that article??
Yes there are cars form the 30's, 40's and 50's. The original pile of old cars started most likely started from the 30-40's like article mention. The article also has "after" WWII. There much too many "want a be lawyers" on the HAMB. Just enjoy the pics. for Pete's sake
Those photos have been floating around the internet for quite a while now. One wonders if they either didn't have or get time to sell the cars or if the cars were cars that the GI's weren't actually allowed to own while stationed there and were "hidden out" off base. Good running cars that were allowed on base usually got sold to some incoming GI before the owner shipped out and p***ed on to the next batch when those soldiers shipped out until they were worn out or wrecked. Those could have belonged to guys from a whole unit that got shipped out in a hurry though with no time to sell them.
My uncle served in the Canadian army in Germany as an enlisted man in 1956. He had an old VW beetle that he bombed around in, loaned to his buddies, whatever. The day before he was to return to Canada he ran it dry of gas and abandoned it beside the road. Took the log book out of the glove box, wrote on it in German "this car is no damn good", signed it, and left it on the seat.
Those pictures are an object lesson in what happens if you park your car under a tree or in the woods.
I call B.S. That looks like a salvage yard, not a stash of cars GIs wanted to take home. Why would a GI want to take home a car all dented up like those in the photos? Those are wrecked cars, not stashed cars. Regular old junkyard.
The daily Mail routinely gets these stories wrong or makes them up entirely. And yes, it has been posted many times in fact one of our European HAMBers knows the place.
A friend was stationed in France in the early 1960's while in the US Army.He bought a 54 Ford cheap.Most Frenchmen couldn't afford to drive a "gas hog".
Funny. Yeah, and they are all rusty and moldy too. Why would they even consider taking them home? LOL.
These cars were worn out when abandoned which was end if the fifties til into the seventies. Cars are all late models and not worth a dime, neither then or now. Probably nothing to do with US troops. Belgium was not a car manufacturing nation and as such, like Switzerland, bought in cars from abroad. German, French, British, Italian and American cars shared the roads in equal numbers. Just read the Tintin comic books (set in Belgium in the fifties) to see Belgium roads of the era. The article is a load of ********. The desirable cars hidden away during the war were Mercedes-Benz, Delahaye, Bugatti, Voisin, Bentley, Hispano-Suiza, Lagonda and their like, not m*** produced Buicks and Fords! Ed Twitter @edsrodshop
US personnel had many cars over there, and could run them easily because subsidized/ discounted gas was available all over Western Europe for them. I had access to that as a US Diplomatic child...ran my Father's '63 Plymouth all over Europe as a teenager, in Germany the gas largely came from the many US bases, further out there was some sort of coupon system allowing me to gas up at Esso stations for around 25 cents per gallon while the locals were paying several times that. Parts were relatively available via stores connected with the PX/Comissary system on base, not as easily as in the USA of course but not bad. Knowing the turf helped me...In Spain, gas was decently cheap for the natives, and one local car, the Barreiro, was a Dodge Dart V8...ignition switch failed in Spain, I just bought one for a Barreiro and no problemo! If I had been on the local economy in France or Germany a US car would have been utterly impractical. Gas cost would have been catastrophic, and any minor mechanical need would have meant parking the thing and waiting for weeks for parts...just like an American with a Fiat or Renault back in the USA then, come to think of it! There were very small numbers of US cars owned by Europeans everywhere, most commonly in the Low Countries and Scandinavia where there were not huge tax barriers. I would bet that a lot of those cars had found there way into the non-military subsidized world and were canned when a blown transmission or something led to a repair estimate that exceeded the car's value and involved a 3 month wait as well...
There is a small yard in souther Arizona near fort huachuca where a guy bought cars from guys deploying to Vietnam. For years he held and sold mostly 50's and early 60's cars but they've been sold off now. It was mostly orphan brands cars that a 18 year could afford and barely keep gas in. Only thing left now are some rusty shells and way overpriced impalas and model a's.
When I was stationed in Germany many of us had cars that weren't worth shipping back home (or so we thought at the time). When your tour of duty was up, you either sold the car or it would go to a military impound lot. Typically the cars just rotted away there. Although some of us were known to "borrow" some parts occasionally. Most car cars were not worth much, but there were some that were really neat. The problem was that they usually needed some work, and they weren't the US version, which made import to the US difficult. don
its a crying shame with those sitting it the woods like that .... i would have to agree with the makes in that yards, mostly 50s and 60s ( and some probably before that, but very little ) now they are being part of nature or one with the earth .... its almost like, unforgiving facts, dust to dust or rust to rust ...
That's just a boneyard. Yes, various bases DID have their own "junkyards" of sorts, and this is probably one of those. There used to be a junkyard near Bitburg, Germany, which was a similar setup, but the cars were newer. A lot of various abandoned vehicles in various states of decay. I'd bet they are all long gone now.
Tony, They are great pics, but unfortunately, there is too much **** being poorly written and sent out as fact on the net- this article has been debunked more than a few times, and it STILL shows up every so many months...
I find it interesting that there are no trees growing down the center. It appears to be a road and yet it isn't.
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