RE: [MV] RE new mil trucks and WW2 trucks

Lars Svaasand (lars.svaasand@valmarine.no)
Tue, 20 Apr 1999 15:12:00 +0200

Another side of this story was the widespread destruction of german
equipment.
The German Army surrendered in Norway at May 9th 1945, without a shot fired.
The
Germans had then been preparing for the possibility of an allied invasion of
Norway. They had 300 000
fully equipped men. The American and (especially) the English forces who
came to desarm
the german soldiers destroyed on sight _all_ German equipment. This
included large numbers
of new transport vehicles and airplanes which would have come to very good
use in afterwar Norway,
which had had almost all civilian transport destroyed or worn out during the
war. The Norwegians saw
this as a terrible waste, and it was at least speculated that the allies did
this under orders to ensure
german equipment would not destroy the market for afterwar industry. As it
turned out, the new Norwegian army
was equipped with WWII allied equipment, but the civilian sector suffered a
major transport shortage for almost 2
decades.

This is not to say that Norway was not grateful for the Marshall aid in the
1950's. This program had a major
role in rebuilding Europe after the war.

-Lars, Norway

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Geoff Winnington-Ball [SMTP:whiskey@netwave.ca]
> Sent: 20. april 1999 13:41
> To: islander
> Cc: Bruce Gilbert; Steven P. Allen; Richard Notton; Mil Veh Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [MV] RE new mil trucks and WW2 trucks
>
> Steve,
>
> Same for us. The Canadian Army Overseas left virtually all its vehicles in
> two
> large dumps in Holland, from where they were sold and/or given to various
> European countries then rebuilding. We brought almost nothing back. Many
> of
> these ended up in civilian hands on the continent, and some were
> photographed
> still in use a scant 15 years ago or so. Talk about a long service life!
>
> Geoff
>
> islander wrote:
>
> > Many vehicles, tanks included, were dumped off of Okinawa when Japan
> > surrendered. These vehicles were part of a large force that had been
> > built up for an invasion of Japan which, as we all know, was not
> > necessary. The story goes that it was cheaper and more sensible to dump
> > them into the ocean than to ship them all back to the US. Because the
> > army was obviously going to be downsized for peacetime, these vehicles
> > would likely have gone right into a "boneyard" if returned since there
> > were PLENTY of other vehicles (stateside or closer by) for the smaller
> > peacetime army. I also understand that this is part of the reason my
> > Weasel wound up in Norway. Partly to help rearm them, partly to get rid
> > of surplus vehicles.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Geoff Winnington-Ball
> MAPLE LEAF UP! ==>
> Zephyr, Ontario, Canada
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Maple Leaf Up - The Canadian Army Overseas in WW2
> http://jump.to/mapleleafup
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>
> ===
> To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
> UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.

===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.