I received the first news about my schwimmwagen in the beginning of the 1980's. I was then in the Army and one of my comrades was at school together with the son of a schwimmwagen owner. He told me it was still "full" of bullet holes.....

    After a "few" years, in 2002, one of my friends gave me the telephone number of this boy. His father, the owner of the schwimmwagen, died 5 or 6 years before. His son wanted to sell the vehicle. I went immediatly to his home and found the schwimmwagen in a big wooden box, below a roof of his little industry. It was still possible to see the bullet holes, in the front, left side and on the rear/engine part. When I obtained a good agreement, my schwimm adventure was starting ! 

    With the vehicle (with 15" VW weels) I obtained 5 wide 16" rim + a lot of spare parts of one other schwimmwagen, wich was dismanteled a lot of years ago. All the pieces of the second schwimm were in "panzergrau"...... When I was rebuiling the vehicle, I found a newspaper inside the air intake manifold, dated 1972. The body was rust free, inside there was still a lot of original sand color paint. The only problem was to find the missing body parts, Trommel holder, MG support, barrel support, windshield (the old owner wished to use a wide Kübelwagen windschield, which I still have) canvas cover and support, all rubber part etc. etc. Having found the vehicle in Italy, my car came probably from the Fire Department or Campo ARAR (there were a lot of Campi ARAR after the war). They were collecting all abandoned military vehicles around Italy, to sell them for private use or to be "re enlisted" in the Army). 

    I would like to paint the car with 26th Panzer insigna. (I need photos of this division please contact me by e-mailing to Bart Lemmens).