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Soviet vehicles in Dresden May 1945


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Attached is a photo of vehicles in use by the Soviet Army in the Dresden area on 3rd May 1945.

 

Interestingly at least two AT guns are being towed with limber by something out of sight but powerful enough to do the job such as a Studebaker. I guess the guns are ZIS-3 AT guns?

 

Can anyone identify the various types, and in respect of the Dodge Ambulance, how come it has a post war body on it!

ZIS-3 Dresden 1945.jpg

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Could have been a local built body on the Dodge. Russia did have plenty of wood and shipping out rolling chassis would have saved a lot of vital shipping space and material. New Zealand reconditioned a lot of US vehicles from the Pacific, including using local material to replace beds and bodies.

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Next to the Dodge is a Chevrolet 1.5 ton 4x4 truck, in the background is what appears to be either an American Chev o.r Ford 4x2, the large truck in the middle is captured German but I'm not sure of the make, next across is a GAZ 1.5 ton AA or MM also known as the Russki Ford. Also visible is the front of what appears to be another GAZ and the top of the ersatz cab of another captured German vehicle.

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  • 1 month later...

Had a PM conversation and got a friend from Chemnitz (formerly Karl-Marx Stadt) involved who knows Dresden well. His son is a German history graduate. This is what they say:

 

The picture (zis3-t34) with the ruined church spire is not in Dresden, but is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in Berlin at Kurfürstendamm and near Tauentzienstraße. However we would suggest that it is a photo montage typical for Russian post war propaganda.

 

The picture (zis3dresden45) of the pub and lorries ist most likely also not from Dresden. This question has alredy been discussed in a German Internet group. My son suggests it might be somewhere in Silesia since the naming "Gold(e)nes Zepter" was very common for pubs in this area.

 

Unfortunately we have no clue at which town or village it was. The phone number is no indication since there is no area code given. I have done a further search in a 1940 address book of Dresden and surrounding area with absolutely no result for "Goldnes Zepter".

 

This picture however is part of a series of pictures which document the approach of 6th Mechanised Guard Corps of 4th Soviet Armored Guard Army at Dresden:http://altyn73.livejournal.com/181624.html

But it is said that the second picture of this series is also not from Dresden. It is from Berlin instead.

zis3-t34.jpg

zis3dresden45.jpg

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