Schlitten; various

[sapper740]

In his book, "The Forgotten Soldier" Guy Sajer relates how the Germans would hitch trucks to the back of Panzers when the mud or snow got too deep to allow forward progress on the truck's motive power alone. In the Post War era, the Canadian Army would connect their M37CDNs into a train for fording rivers. If one stalled out, the others would hopefully, keep running. I've found three pictures on the Internet of various German Schlitten, all of which appear to have been used operationally. The first is similar to the two wheeled dollies one can rent from U-Haul, where just the front wheels of the towed vehicle are off the ground, although, of , course this is a sled. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't show the front of sled, but it apparently is tapering to a hitch of some sort, I'll wager. Questions? Comments? Concerns?

First pic:

[sapper740]

This next Schlitten has what appears to be a FLAK 38 under a canvas tarp. The motive power in this picture is equine, but I'm sure this sled was vehicle towed at times. Compare this sled to the Canadian trailer I posted in The Gun Park forum, thread is titled, Canadian towed AA gun trials.

[PPS]

As far as my extremely rusty German goes, I think the translation of Schlitten is sledge or sled, with various bits added on the front to detail different forms such as a toboggan or bobsleigh.

Paul.

[sapper740]

Last picture I wish to present is the onomatopoeic "SchlittenFarht". I couldn't imagine being dragged around a battlefield behind a StuG III in a sled, nor could Das Heere, hence the name. Sorry, bad joke. Actually, a good way to allow the PanzerGrenadiers to keep close support of their armour when deep snow would quickly exhaust them if on foot.

[sapper740]

Originally Posted by PPS

As far as my extremely rusty German goes, I think the translation of Schlitten is sledge or sled, with various bits added on the front to detail different forms such as a toboggan or bobsleigh.

Paul.

That was my very rusty guess also. The little time I spent in Germany barely gave me enough facility in their language to order bier unt schnitzel, bitte. Germans are famous for stringing individual ideas together into one long unpronouncable word. Don't believe me? Look up Admiral Hipper's order to his cruiser fleet at Dogger Bank to "come around about together". I use websites such as AltaVista a lot to translate, unsuccessfully at times, words I don't understand. Case in point: I downloaded a very official looking ORPO WasserSchutzPolizei document from the internet. Off to AltaVista I go and type in ERLAUBNISKARTE which gives me PERMISSION MAP. Permission map?, that must mean Permit. It's a permit! For what. An important, top secret mission? I might be onto something really interesting here. I type in the next phrase, "Ruderboot mit Ausenbordanhangenmotor". Wow! Long phrase, what could it mean? Does this Permit allow the bearer access to Germany's newest secret weapon? Boy-o-boy, I'm pumped! My fingers fly across the keyboard in a feverish rush to discover the meaning and importance of this permit. What!...Crap! it's a simple permit for a row boat with an outboard motor. Some chump wanted to simply go fishing and had to get this very important looking document to do so. Mein Gott!