Cold War Europe: Air Liaison Trailer

[gwb123]

I am putting this in the modeling section in case someone is looking for an oddball subject.

 

I found these photos while digging through my archives from my time in Germany in the early 1980's.

 

One thing about the military in Europe is you saw built up trailers and trucks that you would not have found stateside. As the forces in Europe were considered already "in theater", they did not have to worry so much about mobility planning restrictions. Back in the US, such added structures would generally not have been allowed as they did not fit in with load planning for ships or aircraft. They also interfered with any notion of more generalized uses for the vehicles.

 

The quality of these build ups varied from well done to flimsy, depending on the skills of who put them together. This one looks fairly solid. There was also a chance that you could exceed the weight capacity of a trailer or truck, and the height restrictions for some of the builds on the trucks.

 

I could not remember who owned this until I looked at the antennae on the jeep. This array would belong to an Air Liaison Party... Air Force personnel who would be on the ground with the troops and calling in airstrikes.

 

I am sorry I did not capture bumper numbers, but I figured this could be a neat build for someone.

[Proud Kraut]

Now this is a cool trailer. It screams for another scratchbuild dio.