Hello Worth
this edged-bonnet truck based on a construction of WW II times, as all the middle-weight trucks did of the later so-called "1st wheeled vehicles generation" of the German Bundeswehr.
In the early post war years there was a great need in transport capacity to build up the destroyed country and so the industry had no time for new constructions. The industry had no choise but to build pre war and war constructions trucks further on. So you could see many trucks on German roads which you already knew from war times - but now brand new and in other colours.
Some years before the Bundeswehr was founded the German truck-building companies were asked for offering truck prototypes for a coming German Army. And they became set under time pressure. So the companies fell back on proven or less proven constructions of war times again. Many different prototypes were offered, some with an old and some with a completely new appearance. One of the less proven construction was the Ford 3ton truck with his gasoline engine. This petrol engine had already not proven itself in WW II!
The MAN MK 25A was one of these prototypes with an old design for the German Army but it was not chosen. In contrast to the basically identic WWII type only the bonnet and the cab have been slightly modified.
The allied U.S., French and British troops in Germany used many trucks of German production and they supported the new Bundeswehr with handover such trucks in the mid-50ies, because the new truck production started only in the late 50ies/early 60ies.
The founding staff of the new Bundeswehr formed many men of the German Border Guard and they brought with them all their equipment, for example vehicles, handguns, clothes, Radio equipment a.s.o. These men changed their status one day to another, - policeman into soldier!
The German border Guard had a large lot of different vehicles with on- and off-road capacity and surely MAN MK 25 (4x4 & 4x2), too.
All these trucks what came from different sources formed an incalculable variety of types which had to be replaced as quickly as possible with the new standardized trucks.
Well Worth, it´s really possible that some of the MK 25A served with the Bundeswehr for a low number of years in the very early times. But It´s possible, too, that it served with the allied forces in Germany.
At the bottom you can see a photo of this post-war prototype. Photos of this type are really rare. Thomas´s photo shows the wartime version.
Best regards
Heinz
- MAN LKW MK 25A.jpg (48.39 KiB) 6866 mal betrachtet