National Museum of Militairy History -Diekirch-  http://www.nat-military-museum.lu/ Text and pictures have been kindly provided by Mr Roland J. Gaul, the curator of the National Museum of Militairy History -Diekirch-, we thank him very much for his contribution.

Part I     2004
 

" Worldwide WWII military vehicle collectors only know too well that German VW type 166 amphibious cars or "Schwimmwagen"s are very hard to come by. In 1984 the volunteers of the National Museum of Military History were uncommonly lucky when discovering an – albeit strangely modified specimen – virtually under a pile of straw in a barn of a small village some 15 KMs north of Diekirch."

VW-166 scrap: The vehicle stored for many years at the museum's depot in the condition as found in 1986.

"It turned out that the hidden "treasure" was actually an original VW-166 "Schwimmwagen" that had been "resting" there since 1951, when it was "decommissioned" after serving for 4 years in a row in various regional post WWII carnival parades. (This was confirmed by numerous elder fellow-citizens, who remember the vehicle well). With the sides cut out, numerous accoutrements removed, painted bright red with several weird and ironic white inscriptions (such as "shake before use"), the "Schwimm" – after surviving the "Bulge" – had once been a "star" and a key focus during the late 40s’ carnivals, when people tried to forget about the horrors of war. Realizing what an unusual "gem" they had discovered, the museum volunteers joined all their savings to come up with an appropriate sum to acquire this "old warrior". But for other priorities inside the budding museum, there was never enough funding, time and other resources to "cosmetically" restore the "Schwimm" to

its original condition at that time. For years it had been a sitting duck in the museum’s storage facilities, always admired and sought after by numerous interested foreign collectors. No way would the museum give it away! Actually it was found out, that the abandoned vehicle came from the Diekirch area, where it was most likely abandoned by the 352nd German Volksgrenadierdivision in January 1945 during Gen. Patton’s 3rd Army’s counterattack in the Sauer river sector.On January 13, 2003, the "carnival-lized" "Schwimm" was finally moved by Jean-Paul Sassel and Roland Rach, assisted by two Luxembourg army soldiers from its 20 year-long depot to be loaded on a Luxembourg army MAN roll on-roll off container truck for a brief temporary storage facility. "

"Within the coming months it will be moved to Germany, where – thanks to the "Bundeswehr" (Federal German army) it will be completely rebuilt and restored to original condition in a mechanical workshop with numerous missing parts being supplied in turn by the Diekirch museum. It is estimated that the restoration works may take up to two years, but this will be worth the effort and time, given the rarity of that interesting vehicle. We’ll keep you posted. "