Craig Moore reports on a German World War Two railway security vehicle
Herbert Ackermans is a Dutch historian who researches the huge German military archives. This is something I find difficult to do as I do not read German, unlike Herbert who is fluent in the language. He recently discovered two drawings for a multipurpose armoured tracked vehicle that could also run on railway lines with drop-down railway wheels (German Archiv Signatur RH8/3933K).
The first drawing, W1490, was dated October 12, 1943, and the second drawing, W1491, was dated October 14, 1943. This vehicle’s name in German was typically long and hard to pronounce. It was called the Mehrzweckfahrzeug (Schienenlaufwerk): Mehrzweckfahrzeug
translates to multipurpose vehicle and Schienenlaufwerk translates approximately to rail running.
