German Air Force

Luftwaffe’s CMP

Ain-el-Gazala, Libya, April 1941: a German aircraftman on the driver’s seat of a truck CMP Ford F15 likely of the British Army’s 2nd Armoured Division captured intact after her defeat at el-Mechili. The vehicle, notice the German flag over the bonnet to avoid dangerous misunderstanding by the Axis air forces, is employed by the 2.(H)/14, Aufklärungsgruppe 14, a Luftwaffe’s recce unit under the Fliegerführer Afrika’s command, for many duties as, in this case, the towing of his Henschel Hs 126B observation planes. The tablet and the emblem over the right mudguard seem the originals. The various exemplar of this ubiquitous truck captured by Axis forces was tasked to many roles included the anti-aircraft weapons platform with the with 20mm Flak 30 by the Germans and with the 20mm Breda by the Italians. Victor Sierra