Car importing after WW2

[trimacar]

Hi- Can anyone tell me how or if a serviceman, at the end of World War 2, could bring a car back from Europe? Did the U.S. Forces allow someone to ship it back on naval vessel? I'm asking about right after the war, a serviceman finds a car and wants to bring it back. How would he do it?

And no, I haven't found a Mercedes in a barn, just curious!

thanks David Coco Winchester Va.

[Bill Boudway]

Hi,

This perk came with some risk.

There is a story about an Air Force guy that took advantage of

the deal to ship an AH Sprite returning to the States on an AF transport aircraft.

Rules of the air and sea are such that if the craft gets into trouble, the captain can dump cargo to lighten the load.

Do I have to tell you the rest of this story?

Bill Boudway

[trimacar]

Thanks Bill, great story! So this was an unofficial "perk"? Was it only by plane, or could it come by ship, and how did a soldier arrange it? Assume just an Army private (or the Air Force equivalent) couldn't do it.

Any information appreciated. David Coco Winchester Va.

[keiser31]

I know that my good friend John W. Finn (Pearl Harbor survivor and Medal of Honor winner) brought home a BMW motorcycle on a navy ship. He told me that he rode it all over the ship on his trip home. He still has the bike, I believe.

[Guest Dean_H.]

Great looking bike, looks like it was popular with the ladies too. Going through Pearl Harbor, he certainly earned the right to bring back a souvenir.

Years ago, I worked with a guy from the Air Force (1950-1970). He had a good story about the Air Force allowing his car to be shipped to locations where he was stationed. He'd buy a muscle car here in the states for a few hundred dollars, ship it to Japan, Germany, etc, where he'd sell it for a nice profit.

[1937hd45]

Every military base in the USA had an auto wrecking yard close by. Many were filled with automobiles that belonged to servicemen that never made it home. I've always been gratefull for what the WWII era Veterans did for us, and so sorry for what younger generations have done to the counrty today.

[keiser31]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dean_H.</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Great looking bike, looks like it was popular with the ladies too. Going through Pearl Harbor, he certainly earned the right to bring back a souvenir.

Years ago, I worked with a guy from the Air Force (1950-1970). He had a good story about the Air Force allowing his car to be shipped to locations where he was stationed. He'd buy a muscle car here in the states for a few hundred dollars, ship it to Japan, Germany, etc, where he'd sell it for a nice profit. </div></div>

That girl is his wife, Alice who he was married to forever. One regret is that she did not get to tour the White House with President Obama as John was recently invited to do.

[Guest abh3usn]

I know that if an aircraft carrier is changine home ports from one coast to the other many of the ships crew drive the cars onto the ship, park in the hanger and car gets transported to the new homeport. It happens here as all carriers are built at Northrorp Grumman Shipbuilding (Formally, Newport News Shipbuilding) in Newport News, VA.

[OldsDoug]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Bill Boudway</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hi,

This perk came with some risk.

There is a story about an Air Force guy that took advantage of

the deal to ship an AH Sprite returning to the States on an AF transport aircraft.

Rules of the air and sea are such that if the craft gets into trouble, the captain can dump cargo to lighten the load.

Do I have to tell you the rest of this story?

Bill Boudway

</div></div>

Buddy of mine has a similar story... he shipped a new Datsun 510 over to Germany in 1973 and was over there for three or four years. Of course, the car was his hobby and had some pretty significant suspension mods as well as a thorough "supertuning". When he came back to the US in 1977, the car trailed him by about 6 weeks... he got a call that it had arrived in Norfolk VA and was "damaged but operable" (an excellent euphemism that he and I still use today).

He and his wife borrowed a car from somebody's parents and drove down to Norfolk to retrieve the Datsun... _every panel_ on it except the roof and the rear door on the driver's side was smashed. Seems a Mercedes had broken loose during a storm on the way over and started rolling around in the hold of the ship and bashing into the other cars there.

The damage was around $1500 and the car at the time was worth, I dunno, $1650 or $1725 or something like that (how times have changed, I guess he paid less than $2500 for it!) and insurance fixed it... he wound up driving it for several more years and eventually sold it in the late 1980s to a guy who wanted it for parts... but it was better than the car the other guy needed the parts for, so _he_ wound up driving it for some time.