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Dodge WC54 Field Ambulance: After war life in Luxembourg


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Wanted to share this one with you: The first motor vehicle of our Fire brigade in Preizerdaul, Luxembourg (on the pic, taken in the nineties, still with the old spelling Preitzerdaul). Acquired in the mid-fifties from surplus in Belgium and turned into a fire engine. Unfortunately nothing about its previous history is known. The truck was in use until about 20 years ago and still exists, but is not operational anymore. One of my dreams for the time after retirement is to get some people together to restore this piece of history and bring it back on the road...

Dodge WC54 Fire Truck.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Finally I found some better pictures in the archive, first one is how our Dodge looked at the begin of its second career, the other one documents its evolution (final upgrade before decommission can be seen on initial picture posted).

 

(Dear Mods, please kindly remove if you think this topic doesn't fall under US Military anymore)

Feuerwehr_1_F_118.jpg

Feuerwehr_2_H_149.jpg

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On 12/5/2020 at 4:01 PM, 6th.MG.BN said:

Thats a great looking vehicle.

Good luck with your restoring dream.

Ken

 

Thank you very much Ken, I've just started lobbying...Currently the car is stored with other retired fire engines in a depot. At least from the pictures (haven't been there myself) it doesn't look too bad...

Storage 1.jpg

Storage 2.jpg

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Awesome vehicle, I wish they could talk and tell us their stories.   I have a 1944 Ford GPW, when I purchased it 20+ years ago it had a faded old red paint job. I was told it had been used after the war at a local volunteer fire department, unfortunately there were no markings so I couldn't validate. 

 

Good luck with the restoration. 

 

-Chris 

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22 hours ago, Chrisusa1 said:

Awesome vehicle, I wish they could talk and tell us their stories.   I have a 1944 Ford GPW, when I purchased it 20+ years ago it had a faded old red paint job. I was told it had been used after the war at a local volunteer fire department, unfortunately there were no markings so I couldn't validate. 

 

Good luck with the restoration. 

 

-Chris 

 

Hi Chris, yes, if they only could talk...I would assume that quite a few vehicles made it into - probably mainly volunteer - fire departments after war, as they could get them cheap from surplus. And it might have helped some to survive until today: Little usage and good maintenance - If they were finally sold to a caretaker and not simply scrapped of course.

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  • 3 months later...

It has turned out that things might move quicker than expected. My allies from the fire brigade's veterans and supportes association and I had a gathering with the city council (who owns the truck) which went perfectly well. Our mayor likes the approach to preserve our local cultural heritage and promised his support. We already secured some funding and our next milestone now is to set up a business plan to base further discussion on. In a couple of weeks we'll get access to the storage place to examine the vehicle in detail and assess the restauration effort. Keep your fingers crossed for us !!

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Backtheattack

Great it goes well. Years ago a local fire brigade near Hof had such a vehicle, too. Went out of work because they must sell a new and better one - here in Bavaria you must buy a new and modern vehicle for your fire brigade if in your area is a highway - and was sold to a dealer immediately. No chance to buy it. They argue it`s not allowed to own a former fire brigade vehicle, but this is wrong, know some in private hands. The only thing you must deactivate the blue light and the horn.

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