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HOLZBRENNER VOLKSWAGENS

(1942-1945)


By Rob Arndt 



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Holzbrenner “Wood burning” Volkswagen car from 1942



Holzbrenner “Wood-burning” Volkswagen Kübelwagen during WW2

In WWII, Europe was in a real fuel shortage. Oil imports were largely blocked,
and what oil was available was used for aviation and tank fuel. Germany had a
lot of coal, but no oil deposits. To make up for their huge lack of oil, German
ingenuity turned to gasification of coal to make synthetic fuel. To run cars
without using their precious oil, the German government and many European
civilians tried a method of running a car by burning wood, and it apparently
worked! Ford, GM, and other car manufacturers made kits, and many cars were
converted to run on wood, either using a mass produced conversion kit, or a
homemade version. A car using a factory built kit would run for 100,000 miles
fairly problem free.
 
The way this worked was that wood was heated until it began to break down
chemically. When wood burns in a normal fire, the wood decomposes chemically due
to the heat, and some of the gasses produced by the wood are flammable, and they
burn as they are released. That is the flame that you see.
 
With the WWII era wood burning cars, however, wood was heated to a temperature
hot enough to decompose the wood, but the gas was not allowed to burn. It was
stored in a chamber, and injected into the cylinders of a regular internal
combustion car. Some of the German made wood-burning cars were the VW Kdf Wagen
(postwar Beetle), and the German Army Kübelwagen. 
 
GERMAN/ALLIED BATTLEFIELD SYNTHETIC FUEL USAGE
 
During WWII, it was not unusual for some German tanks to be towed to a combat
staging area. Once at the battlefront, the tanks would then be converted to burn
synthetic fuel in battle. The tide of war had turned against Germany when the
synthetic fuel plants were bombed and fuel production stopped. So the SS had
developed a series of wood-burning electrical generators, vehicle engine
conversion kits, and armored vehicle conversion kits. They were called
“Holzbrenners” (Wood burners) and were made primarily by Porsche.





Cut-away illustration of the US Sherman tank
possibly with a synthetic fuel conversion kit











In 1944, US Army General George Patton was speeding across Germany with the
objective of being the first Allied force to reach Berlin. His forces outpaced
his supply lines and his progress stopped. Patton ordered that synthetic fuel be
drained from captured or abandoned German vehicles and some of Patton's Sherman
tanks and personnel carries were converted to run on synthetic fuel.



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STRANGE VEHICLES OF PRE-WAR GERMANY
&
THE THIRD REICH
(1928-1945)