World War II was a "war of motors". Everyone knows that Germany has succeeded in developing her motorized forces. And this is taking into account the fact that it was problematic with fuel for the motors in it. It did not have large oil reserves, and its opponents, first of all, of course, Great Britain, and later the United States, cut it off from supplies from the places of its main production. But the genius of German scientists made it possible to create the production of synthetic fuel (gasoline) from brown coal, the reserves of which were significant in Germany. That is why, throughout the war, its tanks were set in motion by engines running on light fuel, since a small supply of oil from Romania, after being processed into diesel fuel, went to "feed" the Kriegsmarine, especially into the "stomachs" of numerous submarines.
The production of synthetic fuel is a rather complex and expensive process, and since it was spent a lot on training new tank crews, to save money, German scientists, based on the Fischer-Tropsch process, known since 1923, proposed another option - a gas generator that works all on the same brown coal.
Which, in principle, was a logical step, since by that time such installations had already found their place on wheeled vehicles.
The RW on the license plate of this truck means that it belongs to the Reichswehr. Ie made before 1933. Apparently, a number of cars with gas generators were already in the German army even before 1933. The military man pours fuel into the generator, it’s hard to understand what he is going to sleep there. Perhaps firewood or … cones.
The first mentions of attempts to install gas generators on tanks date back to 1938, but they reached a special scope after the outbreak of World War II. The main work on the development of this topic was organized in Auschwitz, where laboratories and capacities of the German chemical production were deployed.
As a result, the Panzerkampfwagen appeared, which the Germans themselves jokingly called "self-propelled moonshine stills." This is a training tank based on the Pz I.
The training tank based on the Pz II looked more "impressive".
And the Czech light tank LT vz. 38, aka Pz. 38 (t). Who served in great numbers in the Wehrmacht
Several Pz I with gas generators were "converted" into American M-4 "Sherman" and were used for training ATT crews, and in 1945 they began to be involved in training "Volkssturm" in conducting battles in the city.
Standing apart are tanks converted to run on liquefied gas, like the average Pz IV …
… as well as the heavier Pz VI "Tiger".
and here is such a "crazy" "Tiger" running on a propane-butane mixture. These tanks were at the Paderborn training camp (Panzer Ersatz-und Ausbildungsbataillon 500) There were five Tiger I units
Pz V "Panther", converted to work on liquefied methane.
Self-propelled gun "Marder".
Also for the rear parts, a tractor based on the Pz II was developed. One of which was captured by partisans in Denmark at Sturmgeschutz-Ersatz und Ausbildungs-Abteilung 400.
BTR "Khanomag" with a gas generator. They were also used in educational units, with the aim of saving gasoline. Judging by the inscriptions, the pictures were taken somewhere in Holland.
But what about the combat use of gas-generating tanks? There is a mention of the use of the training Pz I with a turret from the Pz III in the battles and in the battles for Berlin of the pseudo-"Shermans". There is also unconfirmed information that about 50 Pz VIB "Tiger-2" (or "Royal Tiger") tanks were equipped with gas generators in the spring of 1945 and that all of them were destroyed in the clashes.
After the end of World War II, these German developments came to the United States and were successfully "forgotten" there, but perhaps a new fuel crisis will make them remember and apply again … on training combat vehicles.
