Opel Blitz 3,6 (Wehrmacht)

The Opel Blitz 3,6 is a truck with a 3 ton payload made by Adam Opel AG . The vehicle from the “Blitz” truck range was produced by Daimler-Benz for the Wehrmacht until August 1944 at the Opel plant in Brandenburg and then until the end of the war in the Mannheim plant.

Model history

From 1930, Opel successfully built light trucks with payloads of up to 3 tons in Rüsselsheim under the popular “Opel Blitz” brand  . After the beginning of the Second World War , the 3-tonne Blitz 3,6-36 S (3.6 liter displacement ; 3.6 meter wheelbase ; standard = rear-wheel drive ) became the most widely used truck of the Wehrmacht, although civilian vehicles were also used by requisition .

In October 1940, when the production of all civilian cars was stopped due to the war, Adam Opel AG was forced to concentrate its production entirely on the manufacture of trucks and other armaments. In addition, on January 1, 1940, the German truck manufacturers - including Opel as the German subsidiary of the US General Motors group - were instructed to rely on the completion of standard trucks with a payload of 3 instead of the previous large variety of types t to concentrate, because through standardization and simplification, resources essential to the war effort should be used more effectively and through standardization of spare parts the supply and repair should be simplified, especially for the troops at the front. The "Opel Blitz 3,6" fit almost ideally into this requirement profile.

variants

Assembly of the “Blitz” 3.5 truck (2 or 2.5-tonner with a flat radiator grille) in the new Opel truck plant in Brandenburg an der Havel , 1936

Until 1937 the larger truck were Opel (flash 3,5) with the side-valve six-cylinder - a petrol engine of the GM model modeling Buick Marquette motorized with 3.5 liters and 68 hp. Then the newly designed 3.6-liter OHV six-cylinder with 75 hp from the Opel Admiral was used. For a more favorable torque curve in military use, this engine was throttled to 68 hp. The Blitz 3,6-42 S had a larger wheelbase of 4.2 meters. From July 1940 the Blitz 3,6-6700 A with all-wheel drive went into production. The types were provided with different superstructures (flatbed with / without tarpaulin, box trolley, bus). Civilian trucks were mostly equipped with "wood gasifiers" ; the scarce motor gasoline (petrol) was reserved for the military. The body and superstructures of the vehicles were steadily simplified with increasing scarcity of raw materials; for example, flatter fenders and, in the “Blitz” manufactured under license by Daimler-Benz , the “standard cab” made of wood were used.

The Blitz 2.5-32 with a 3.2 meter wheelbase and 1.5 tons payload was also more widespread, which was installed in the Rüsselsheim plant from 1938 to 1942 using the 2.5 liter engine with 55 hp from the Opel Super 6 or . Opel captain was built.

The Blitz 3,5 / 3,6 , however, were manufactured in the Opel factory in Brandenburg . The plant, which was newly built in 1935 specifically for truck production, which was important for the war effort, reached its production maximum of 2,600 units in July 1944; however, the factory was so badly hit by an air raid by the Royal Air Force on August 6, 1944 that truck production came to a standstill and was not restarted. Shortly before, Daimler-Benz had been instructed to stop production of its own Mercedes L 3000 and instead manufacture the Opel Blitz 3.6 under license. At the Mannheim plant , Daimler-Benz produced a further 3,500 trucks until bombing raids brought production to a standstill there too. After the end of the war, Daimler-Benz continued to build the truck in Mannheim from June 1945 to June 1949 as the L 701 without any manufacturer designation . Production at Borgward was prevented by the Allied air raid on October 12, 1944 on the Bremen- Sebaldsbrück plant .

A civilian vehicle of this type with a wood gasifier is on display in the Sinsheim Auto and Technology Museum.

commitment

The Opel Blitz S without all-wheel drive was classified by the Wehrmacht as an all-terrain truck because of its good driving behavior. The vehicles proved to be extremely reliable in use, had an excellent weight / payload ratio and fully met the war conditions in Western Europe.

In Eastern Europe, the poorly developed road network and, above all, the long periods of mud ( Russian распу́тица " Rasputiza " - roadlessness ) in spring and autumn were a major challenge even for the all-wheel drive Blitz A and their drivers. In addition to Klöckner-Deutz and Ford , the Brandenburg Opel factory built the "2 t truck track" from 1943 onwards. The half-track vehicles ( Sd.Kfz. 3a - Blitz S with a chain drive instead of the rear axle) were also called "mules" by the compatriots .

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  Opel Blitz A ( all-wheel drive ) with the typical emblem and a Notek headlight to the right of the radiator grille

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  All-wheel drive box van (measuring / testing vehicle) at the HVA Peenemünde , 1943

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  All-wheel-drive flatbed truck in use in southern Italy, 1944

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  Opel Blitz 3,6 S with a standard wooden driver's cab and wood carburetor in the Sinsheim Auto and Technology Museum

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  Blitz 2.5-32 (1.5 tons payload) in the Arnhem Military
  Museum

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  Blitz tanker truck (Kfz. 385) of the Air Force in the Retro
  Car Museum in Moscow

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  Unloading an Opel “Maultier” from a Me 323 transport aircraft

Production numbers

Type	number of pieces
Opel Blitz 1.5 to (type 35)	16,410
Opel Blitz 3 to (Type 36)	82,356
Opel Blitz 3 to (Type 42)	14,122
Opel Blitz 3 to (Type 47, with low frame / bus chassis)	8336
Opel Blitz 3 to (type 6700A, with all-wheel drive)	24,981
Opel Blitz 2 to Maultier (Sd.Kfz.3a)	3450
Opel Blitz 2 to MunKfz (Sd. Kfz. 4)	251
15 cm Panzerwerfer 42 (Sf) on Opel Blitz	296

2900 buses were also delivered, which were manufactured by the Ludewig brothers in Essen between 1939 and 1944.

See also

• History of the German commercial vehicle industry from 1895 to 1945

literature

• Reinhard Frank: Truck of the Wehrmacht Nebel-Verlag, Utting, ISBN 3895558591 .
• Werner Oswald : Motor vehicles and tanks of the Reichswehr, Wehrmacht and Bundeswehr Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-87943-850-1 .

Web links

• Opel factory in Brandenburg. www.cokebottle-design.de, accessed on September 24, 2012 . 
• Wehrmacht vehicles, March 18, 2012 Wehrmacht vehicles, March 18, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Opel Blitz 2.5-35 1.5t truck ( memento from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) March 19, 2012
2. ↑ cf. www.cokebottle-design.de: Opel-Werk Brandenburg ( memento from October 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) March 18, 2012