Quote:
JohnT said:
We still don't have any costal arty and very few resistance units.
Cheers
/John T
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What do you now about the "V3" an armoured car built by danish resistance?
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/denmark/denmark.html
"We visited Copenhagen at the beginning of last December, where we visited the Danish Resistance museum. The V3 armored car mentioned on your Danish page is exhibited outside the museum (see attached picture). The museum sells a small booklet 'V3 Den danske Panservogn' by Jørgen H. Barford;
this has a number of pictures of the vehicle in which it appears that changing the markings was a bit of a hobby of the crew. I thought you might like some additional information about the vehicle:
The 2-ton Ford truck originally belonged to the Frederiksvaerk-Hundested railway line, the steel plates were obtained from the Frederiksvaerk steel-mill, from ships under repair. The work took two to three months; when the news of the forthcoming capitulation of German troops was announced, the car was not finished, and was secretly moved from the railway repair shop to the steel works. The work was finished as quickly as possible, abandoning secrecy for speed. After completion it was found that the front armor caused the engine to overheat, so a relatively enormous hole was cut in the front plate; the driver's viewing slit was enlarged so that the driver could actually see out. A photo of a liberation parade shows the V3 next to an unarmored lorry, and it is obvious that the weight of the armor is seriously affecting the vehicle's suspension. The car was armed with a bipod mounted light machine gun - which looks like a Bren to me - and the small arms of the crew of 5 or 6.
The Germans had recruited large numbers of Danes to act as terrorist gangs during the war; while German forces capitulated peacefully, the Danes in Nazi service continued to fight in a short, small-scale civil war. The V3's only combat was the capture of the Lorenzen gang, who were hiding in a summer cabin in Asserbo. The V3 turned up at the cabin, and fired a warning shot at the cabin. A gang member looked out, panicked, and shot himself in the head. His bullet, as well as killing him, hit the armored car. The V3 machine gunner opened fire on the house, but stopped when they realized there was no return fire. The house was stormed and the gang, along with a number of heavy weapons and much ammunition, were captured. There were 18 men and one woman in the house; 1 killed himself, and 2 were killed and 5 wounded by the V3. After this action the V3 toured Northern Zealand and then Copenhagen on a sort of promotional tour. While the V3 has a number of bullet holes in it, apparently only one of them, in the passenger side door, was from enemy action. The rest are from what Barfod describes as "target practice". No explanation of why they used their own armored car for target practice is given."
Cheers
/mathieu villard