Weird boat

appie · 06-13-2009, 12:52 AM

I was helping out a friend who recently bought a German patrol boat in Holland. When wandering about on the shipyard where my mates ship was I came across the crazy little thing. Its made of aluminium, has its original colors and is more or less complete. It found out who the owner was and he told me it was used by the American army in 1944 during Operation Switchback in the South of Holland. It had sank in sweet water, and was recovered in 1952 by his father.
The engine, a GM, is redone and he told me it is a very fast boat.
I went on board and found it still has all the labels and even the canvas rifle holders!
He wants to sell it, but is asking a silly price.
Anybody seen one of these before?
Greets Appie.

**uber_soldat** · 06-13-2009, 11:00 AM

perhaps some more in depth pics?
Do you know what area it sank in, what units were present and what they were issued with? I'm sure there would be records somewhere...

Luke

edit - looks to have been in storage for some time, are you sure it even runs?

appie · 07-01-2009, 02:36 AM

Sorry, its the only picture I took of it.

**Miahurricanes83** · 07-02-2009, 03:24 AM

Looks to be a bridge boat used to construct floating bridges.. I remember when I was in the military i observed some "bridge boats" the engineers had sitting in fenced in lots. These boats looked to be very out dated but the same concept with the two extensions that appear to be used to press up against the bridge to hold it in place..
This link was what I could find just googling around the net. These are newer boats but you can get the idea.
Hope that helps..