This one is from the Australian War Memorial archives.

Dated 1945. Sergeant Douglas George Cracknell standing outside the damaged Reichskanzlei [Imperial Chancellery] building in Berlin. Note the bomb damage and the bullet ridden Volkswagen beside him. Sergeant Cracknell was a photographer with the RAAF, working on both public relations and aerial photographic assignments. For two years he was NCO in charge of the RAAF photo section in London.

a bit of bog and a bandage 2 men 5 minutes all would be fixed

And then you could fit a Subaru engine to it !!

I was kidding ! You Flat Fourers crack me up.

Berlin has several artificial hills in the parkland regions of the city, which today are leafy, grassy and relaxing. But they are made out of all the rubble that was cleaned up from the streets after the war. Apparently bushwalkers occasionally still come across old wire and bricks poking out of the soil in places.

I imagine that there would be ancient ruined VWs - like this one - buried somewhere inside them.

Could do a chop top or a Carrera kit on it

I wonder if they were Russian or US bullet holes....

I'm sure an aussie wouldn't shoot an unarmed beetle....

You are right Lee, Australia did not have any ground forces in the European war, so they aren't Aussie bullet holes. The only Aussies in front-line action were those working for the RAF, usually in Bomber Command. The Russians took Berlin, so I imagine they are Russian bullet holes.

Australians did serve in North Africa, where the famous 9th Division served with Montgomery's 8th Army to defeat Rommel's Afrika Korps. Australians captured a number of Kubelwagens (which were usually used for first-aid transport, or by army chaplains) but no Beetles. The War Memorial does have records of Australian soldiers with Kubelwagens - the first Aussies to encounter the Volkswagen - and they have one in their collection in Canberra.

The War Memorial's description of this photo reads: Karioun, Tunisia. c. 18 April 1943. Corporal George Clayton and Leading Aircraftman Somerville, both armourers of No. 3 (Kittyhawk) Squadron RAAF, at work on a .50 inch calibre machine gun. Note the Australian flag on the captured German Kubelwagen.

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Originally posted by pod Quote: Originally posted by Phil74Camper And then you could fit a Subaru engine to it !! sounds like a good idea to me

I don't think they would shoot up a poor old beetle....

they would rather attack a Mercedes Benz....

or BMW... lol

or one of those motorcycles with rear tracks..
or one of those convertible staff cars with tracks on the back....

LEE

I've come across a pic similar to the 1st here in a history book - a split beetle laying amongst the ruins of Berlin in 1945. I'll try to scan it later today and post it.

Searching for VW in the War Museum site brings up a few cool pics of splitties used in Vietnam too (and a squareback parked outside a hospital)

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=volkswagen+site%3Aawm.gov.au 

now thats a good collection of pics

Here's the one I saw. It's the reverse angle of the 1st pic in the thread. The quality isn't great as I scanned it from a small paperback.

]

This is a close up of the above photo:

Found this on Dark Roasted Blend

I was just thinking a few days ago..
after school children look in amazement at My Beetle...

to them - its the only car they see that was designed in 1938 still on the road...
even the running boards are still there... lol

All other Cars with running boards were made up until the 2nd world war... approx..

so the beetle was really a very OLD looking car when it arrived in the US & Australia etc....

LEE

This car couldnt be the same one unless they moved it to the other side of the street? the car has its RHD on the pavement side in Pic 1 but in the other pic its open door is on the pavement side.

The negative couldnt have been reversed either as the building in pic 1 is next to the car on the Right, in pic 2 the building are stil on the right but the car is on the left.

Theres are two different KDF cars.

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Originally posted by greasykitchen Here's the one I saw. It's the reverse angle of the 1st pic in the thread. The quality isn't great as I scanned it from a small paperback. ]

Quote:

Originally posted by greasykitchen Found this on Dark Roasted Blend

Bell bottom trousers = sailors....maybe...??

one of the guys is wearing a top hat.

Knowing dictators love of uniforms, these guys could be either garbos or dentists

None of the above!

They are the masons who cemented the factory foundation stone in place, just prior to the start of this May 1938 ceremony. You can see the foundation stone in the background, in front of Hitler. It has the cogwheel and swastika on it.

The factory was built around that stone, and it remained in situ for a number of years. It had an internal compartment for a ceremonial scroll, but this was never put in place. The British Army broke open the stone in 1945 and it was empty. The stone stayed in place through the 1950s, but then the factory was enlarged and a new 9-storey VW office building was built in that corner. Nordhoff had the stone removed at this time, as he hated the Nazi symbolism and what it stood for. The stone was buried in landfill, somewhere under the canal bridge foundations to the south-west of the new office building, but the exact location was not recorded. It's still under there somewhere today.

Where do you find all this trivia, sure your not just having a lend of us knowing we can't do anything other than believe it?

I'm glad you believe it, because it's true!

The info about the foundation stone came from Jerry Sloniger's book, The Volkswagen Story, published in 1980. There is a copy in the Club Veedub library, which members are free to borrow. Otherwise, there are few second-hand copies on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Volkswagen-Story-Jerrold-E-Sloniger/dp/0850594413/ref=s...

From Sloniger's book, this is a shot of the masons actually laying the foundation stone.

And here is a shot from around 1956, when the old south-west corner of the factory was demolised to make way for the new high-rise VW executive building. The stone was removed, and dumped in land fill. You can see how it has weathered over the years.

You can also read a more detailed article on the opening ceremony, the foundation stone, and the German players and what happened to them, in the March 2008 issue of Zeitschrift, the Club Veedub Sydney magazine. It's the issue with the rally Beetle going sideways on the cover. Go to this link and download the PDF (and others too). Enjoy!

http://vwwatercooled.com/zeitschrift.html