birth of a Volkswagon Beetle

for any interested parties, this VW was used by the Germans in WW2
(shown at a local military vehicle show on Sunday last)

The origins of the car date back to 1930s **** Germany. Adolf Hitler's desire that almost anybody should be able to afford a car fitted with a proposal by car designer Ferdinand Porsche, although Hitler himself played some role in the car's shape and, possibly, nickname. Dissatisfied with the initial design of the car's front end (and perhaps caught up in the 1930s' mania for all things streamlined) Hitler penned a more rounded shape on a napkin and handed it to Porsche with the instructions, "it should look like a beetle, you only have to look to nature to find out what true streamlining is." The intention was that ordinary working Germans would buy the car by means of a savings scheme.
Prototypes of the car called the KdF-Wagen (German: Kraft durch Freude = strength through joy), appeared from 1935 onwards�the first prototypes were produced by Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart. The car already had its distinctive round shape (designed by Erwin Komenda) and air-cooled, flat-four, rear-mounted engine. However, the factory (in the new town of Kdf-Stadt, purpose-built for the factory workers) had only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. Consequently the first volume-produced versions of the car's chassis (if not body) were military vehicles, the jeep-like K�belwagen (approx. 52,000 built) and the amphibious Schwimmwagen (approx. 14,000 built).
A VW Beetle 1200 before 1967
1968 VW Beetle

Deliberately designed to be as simple as possible mechanically, there was simply less that could go wrong; the radiator-less air-cooled 985 cm� 25 hp (19 kW) motors proved especially effective in action in North Africa's desert heat. A handful of civilian-spec Beetles were produced, primarily for the **** elite, in the years 1940-1945, but production figures were small. In response to gasoline shortages, a few wartime "Holzbrenner" Beetles were steam-powered with wood burning boilers under the hood. In addition to the Kubelwagen, Schwimmwagen, and a handful of others, the factory managed another wartime vehicle: the Kommandeurwagen; a Beetle body mounted on the 4WD Kubelwagen chassis. A total of 669 Kommandeurwagens were produced until 1945, when all production was halted due to heavy damage sustained in Allied air raids on the factory. Much of the essential equipment had already been moved to underground bunkers for protection, allowing production to resume quickly once hostilities had ended.
Much of the Beetle's design was inspired by the advanced Tatra cars of Hans Ledwinka. Tatra sued, but the lawsuit was stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. The matter was re-opened after WW2 and in 1961 Volkswagen paid Tatra 3,000,000 Deutsche Marks.
The Volkswagen Company owes its post war existence largely to one man, British army officer Major Ivan Hirst (1916�2000). Post-war, he was ordered to take control of the heavily bombed factory, which the Americans had captured. He persuaded the British military to order 20,000 of the cars, and by 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month. The car and its town changed their ****-era names, to Volkswagen (people's car) and Wolfsburg. The first 1,785 Beetles were made in a factory near Wolfsburg in 1945 "

continued here

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/kitcar/kb.​php?aid=82

The VW in the pictures above is a Type 181, also known as a "Trekker", they were German built in the early 70's.

The "Thing" was a later version of the same vehicle for the US market and had slightly different features, later tail light etc. etc.

This is a "Thing"....

And this is a Kubelwagen....

its the way the message was printed on the site
lol
for safety reasons

thanks Anke

thanks Discov3ry

thanks Sandy
I done 'old picture' effect on some and not on others as it is hard to see the 'weapons' properly in some

: )

many thanks for all that information NZDoug

thanks Frank
I was trying to remember all the information I got that day (and took some notes)
but no way can I remember everything so I copied that info.

terrific. thanks for those pictures and information Jules

* (see pictures added below)

lol
ta Ra

lol

thanks NZDoug

*
something like the shot of Jules vehicle ?

thanks all very much
: )