Leichte Panzerspaehwagen Einheitsfahrgestell I Typ v Fahrgestell (Chassis) – Establishing the Provenance – Part 2 - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

Our Typ v fahrgestell was originally identified as having originally belonged to a Sd.Kfz 223 by our long time trustee Tom Jentz. Tom spent decades with Hilary Doyle (his age old business partner and Panzer Tracts co author) studying German armoured and softskin (un armoured) halftracks). One of the by products of their pioneering research was the creation of a formidable knowledge base in the understanding of these 4 wheeled armoured cars. Tom Jentz was clear that the fahrgestellnummer 81100027 was from an early 5 Serie example of a funkwagen or Sd.Kfz 223. Clear signposting from Panzer Tracts 13-1 on leichte Panzerspaehwagen provided us with a basic understanding of which firms were contracted to assemble the various 5 Serie Typ v vehicles. Our research team has established that the Ausf B armoured cars were assembled in the following order - only 5 were built in April 1942 and these were Sd.Kfz 260/261. Activity picked up in May and June 1942 in which 101 Sd.Kfz 222s and a further 21 Sd.Kfz 260/261 emerged from the various assemblers. July 1942 saw 45 Sd.Kfz 222, 46 Sd.Kfz 260/261 and at last 11 Sd.Kfz 223 assembled. The problem is that in the absence of lieferschein (delivery notes) from Auto Union Werk Horch for the chassis or lieferschein from the various assemblers Wegmann, Weserhuette etc there is no way of pinning down individual chassis and ascribing them to a particular assembler e.g Wegmann for a Sd.Kfz 223. The difficulties experienced by individual assemblers could easily result in significant delays in completion of a particular marque if they were fully geared up to deliver. A chassis could have been delivered months before and a complete assembly happen months later. This was the experience of a number of the contract recipients e.g Weserhuette with their Ausf A kl.Pz.Fu.Wg – 4 years later than initially expected (Panzer Tracts 13-1). . Given that the complete Typ v fahrgestell for the 5 Serie range started at 81100004 our early fahrgestellnummer 81100027 would have had to have been delivered to Wegmann in Kassel (3 letter code cvd) some 2 to 3 months prior to them releasing their first fully assembled Sd.Kfz 223s in July 1942. Is this a stretch given the experience of Weserhuette or is there another explanation for this early fahrgestell and a completed assembly only by July 1942 by a firm completely new to the Sd.Kfz 223 arena?.

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