My late father in law took the linked pic. in Berlin just after the Allied takeover. The ruin in the background is the ReichChancelry.
Can anyone identify the car?
i154.photobucket.com/albums/s280/kiteman_02/Scan10...g
P.
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Looks like a Mercedes to me ..........
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And for a bonus point, what's the car just behind it - between the rear of the black car and the figure on the ramp? (If it IS a car, that is and not just a slab of masonry.)
I find anything about Berlin in that period profoundly depressing. The political leaders on both sides were fixated on ideology and cared nothing for the people they led. The waste of life on both sides in the last months of the war was criminal.
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Mercedes-Benz Type 770 I think
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Thanks for the input. It appears that F.I.L. was a Squadron Leader, the R.A.F unit 'liberated' the car when they arrived in Berlin, and used it for a week or so before being posted on.
P.
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"The waste of life on both sides in the last months of the war was criminal."
Just in the last months ???
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Fair point, but to my mind, it seems worse then because the outcome was no longer in doubt. But the German leadership wouldn't acknowledge it and the Soviet strategy was mostly about weight of numbers and never mind the casualties. Add to that the Red Army soldiers determined to exact revenge on German civilians for what had happened to their own and it's just horrible.
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Erm, sorry everyone - where's the button marked 'Report message as unnecessarily gloomy for a Friday evening'? Happy weekend, all!
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already dealt with it WDB.......pressed the button marked 'it's the weekend, so open a tin of Stella, despite the fact it's not yet 6 o'clock'.......it's right next to the 'Pause Break' button
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WDB, Presume you have read Anthony Beevor's "Fall of Berlin". Excellent read, but, as you say rather depressing.
I too like WP,have a button, but marked "pour glass of red" despite the fact it's not yet 6 o'clock.
Lovely car that MB - don't suppose you know who it belonged to before it was liberated? It did better than most of Berlin to survive in that condition.
Both my parents were there after war's end (Army and ATS) - in fact they were married in Hamburg a few months after end of war.
Dad told me he managed to "liberate " Mussolini's Alfa when in Rome earlier in war!
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Phil
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So TVM was right about the car in the other thread (CRQ - Vol 121) before seeing any picture and provided lots of information on the vehicle. Show off ....
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Indeed he was........
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Dad told me he managed to "liberate " Mussolini's Alfa when in Rome earlier in war!
I recently heard that my Grandad (formerly a Cromwell tank driver) stayed on in Berlin for some time after VE Day as a motorcycle dispatch rider. One night he decided to go the cinema, and later when he left he found that his British Army Norton had been stolen.
Walking back to his billet expecting to get an almighty telling off, he came across a battered ex-Wehrmacht BMW R75 in a side street. He promptly 'liberated' the BMW and expected some awkward questions from his CO about the Norton, but nobody said a word so he used it for the next few months, and on returning it when he was demobbed in england, still nobody batted an eyelid..
I thought this was a great story but not a patch on liberating Mussolini's Alfa!
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Strangely enough Rich - he also "liberated " a German BMW in Italy (I have a photo somewhere) but managed to write it off. He also "liberated " an American Jeep - when I was a toddler, my Christmas present was a pedal car Jeep (rather battered) which he then decorated with the American numbers/decals etc of the Jeep he had "liberated" a few years earlier - quite a few photos of that!
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Phil
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My father's second car was a Rolls Royce 20 hp. He was too young for WWII, but took the RR with him in the first commission of the penultimate Ark Royal (the one made famous by Mr Rod Stewart's music). We have pictures of it being slung onboard.
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"The waste of life on both sides in the last months of the war was criminal." Just in the last months ???
If I remember correctly, Zhukov lost more men taking Berlin than the Americans lost in the whole war (over 300,000 I believe)
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Zhukov was ordered to use all of russia's population if required to ensure they took a share of Berlin,.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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"a share of Berlin,."
All of Berlin I think TVm and up to the Elbe, but it's a fine distinction. Despite his "success" dear old Uncle Joe took his revenge on Zhukov later and he was lucky to escape with his life.
There is a brilliant book about the ordinary Russian soldier "Ivans war" by Catherine Merridale and "In the court of the Red Czar" by Sebag-Montifiore also gives good insight into Stalin's role in WW2 - but then I might be "teaching my grandmother to suck eggs"
Apologies if I am.
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Phil
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