The damage in this picture : http://www.thuringenmilitaria.com/gallery/exhibit/pictures/04.jpg Looks to have been made by a can opener
Surely that's the car in the museum at the minute, and not the "real" Heydrich Merc??? Certainly LOOKS to have been "fabricated"...
I have to say that the repair to the rear arch just looks like a standard repair section for a rusty panel. Without provenance, it is meaningless. By the way, my Norton has the same type of gearbox as Lawrence of Arabia's Brough Superior. I wonder if my spare box was fitted to his bike when he crashed ?
According to a quick and sloppy search on the internet, different museums seem to claim to have Heydrich's car... One source states it has just been found in a barn, others place the car in the museum in Prague (Formerjughead's link) and some say it's in the "Deutsches Technikmuseum" in Berlin (or was that just borrowed?)? Could someone shed some light on this?
It seems every Nazi Merc has a somewhat twisted provenance K, Goering's attributed to Hitler, Hitler's re-identified as Goering's etc. etc. Money, 'prestige', official cars in use by multiple 'personalities' and the rather overheated classic car market of the 80's with it's competing millionaires all seem to have played a part. Here's a nice 'honest' bigwig's motor, Rommel's Horch as 'discovered' by the Gibb collection. Aaah, much nicer than all that shiny nonsense .
That's a beautiful vehicle, VP! After looking again at the comparison photo's, I think the answer is in the chrome trim along the door. I dont know anything about these cars, but it looks like a different model/variant/special edition?.
It's not "different".... Look at the top pic...after the attack it was just plain missing! Blown off...after all it was just a trim with a couple of mounting pegs pushed through holes in the sheet metal and secured from behind; (like modern cars) the INNER skin of the door was put on last and taken off to access the gubbins inside the door) If you look carefully you can even see the peg holes. When it was rebuilt afterwards, a replacement trim would have been straight out of Mercedes' parts book.
I thought I would just pop this on as a reminder, I have been to the Church where they were all murdered. Jan Kubis born in 1913 in Trebic district of Moravia (current Czechia). He fled Czechoslovakia during the II World War and got to Great Britain. He was trained there as a parachutist. He was dropped to Czechoslovakia to organise the Czechoslovak Resistance and to orchestrate the assassination of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich known as "The Butcher of Prague". On May 27th 1942 at approximately 10:30 am Jan Kubis and his commerades mounted an attack on Heydrich's car. As his commerade Sten gun failed to fire Jan Kubis hurled a grenade which exploded against the car. All assasins escaped although Jan was injured. Heavily injured Heydrich died 10 days later. The Gestapo offered 10,000,000 Crowns for information leading to the arrest of the assassins, and eventually the parachutists were betrayed by two of their own team. Jan Kubis and others took refuge at the Church of St Cyril and Methodius (Karel Boromejsky) in Resslova Street, Prague. Nazis learned out about the place and on June 18th, 1942 surrounded the church. Trapped in the crypt parachutists fought untill down following day. The last alive Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik used their last bullets on each other. Terrible reprisals followed the assasination. A vilage of Lidice was completly destructed, all men killed, women taken to concentration camps and most of the children taken for adoption in German families. The village had nothing to do with any of the assasins. Jan Kubis' girlfriend, Anna Malinova, was arrested in the aftermath of the assassination, and died in Mauthausen concentration camp.
Yeah OK, we all know he was a nasty murdering bastard but the vehicle types are getting quite excited over this, can we keep it to just a chat about this find.
The Ottawa Military Museum briefly considered flogging their Hitler Mercedes 770 a while back, the director seeing it as bad taste (and handy finance!) - public opinion seems to have thwarted the idea. Estimated value possibly as much as $20,000,000 Canadian. Blimey. Controversy - War Museum keeps Hitler's car Hitler 540K that 'surfaced' a while back: Hitler's Mercedes for sale, six decades after it vanished | Mail Online Toy of an 'Eva Braun' 540 Press Release - Controversial Eva Braun Toy Car on Exhibit Only at DFW Toy Museum - interesting speculation on whether such a car really existed - doesn't really sound like Adolf's style to me, giving Braun such an 'obvious' car?
They're fair coming out of the woodwork! "One careful owner (several careless ones), never raced or Nuremberg Rallied...."
Yeah OK, we all know he was a nasty murdering bastard but the vehicle types are getting quite excited over this, can we keep it to just a chat about this find. Fair point mate and apologies for going off-topic. In keeping with the topic, here is a link to info about the Mercedes 540K: Cromo Classico - Mercedes 500 540K 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Images, Information and History | Conceptcarz.com
It is indeed fascinating. It creates an interesting renovation opportunity with an odd choice, should it be renovated to it's original factory standards, or back to what it looked like immediately after the assassination. Given the choice I imagine the Czechs would, like me, prefer the latter.
lOOKING AT THE PICTURES OF THE DAMAGE DONE TO HEYDRICH'S CAR IT APPEARS THE BOMB WENT OFF INSIDE THE VEHICLE AS THE METAL APPEARS TO BE BLOWN OUTWARDS.........MY PICTURES ARE VERY GRAINY PERHAPS OTHERS HAVE A BETTER PICTURE OF THE DAMAGE JIM..........