I tend to trust what Bundesarchiv says but there is still no guarantees,
the original photographer may have made a mistake when sorting the
negatives.
Photos get reposted all over the internet, sometimes with incorrect captions.
I mistakenly identified the car as A Topolino …
The second photo, with the building in the background, was presumably
taken at the same location (same dude and same WH-nr on the halftrack)
BUT they could have moved a mile or so to get a different background.
WOW, thank you for correcting me… I am getting old. It was in the Italian Campaign.
Great research
In short. If no one finds a caption attached to that photo, we may never really know. In fact, if if there is a caption regarding the reason for the car being on top, that would almost be purely speculative, unless the photographer asked the driver right then and there, “Hee, wat soll denn dette?”
I think I’ll stick with my two speculations for now, as a collector of barn finds myself. (Three 70s Honda CBs, an AMF H-D single cylinder Aermacchi, and a few others.) The reason I haven’t dragged any larger vehicles home only stems from the fact that I couldn’t at the time. There’s an old Chevy truck on Highway 83 as you head toward Parker. It would make a bitchin’ LRDG recreation if I could ever get it home.
I think it’s probably the German equivalent of Cpt. Maitland in “Kelly’s Heroes” stealing the sailboat…
“Barn find” is a little generous interpretation, probably.
The white paint on the fender edges makes me think military usage.
White edges/corners assist with collision avoidance when driving
without lights. The left hand headlight also looks blacked out.
AND moved the Peugeot 402 into the same position behind it?
People get creative when they want to cheat
Someone had a little too much at the beer hall during happy hour??? 
I thought of that scene as well. 
The soldier sitting on the front of the car is probably it’s driver and he is thinking something like…“Oh man, how am I going to explain this to the colonel”.
Initial looks indicates to me that there was a Staff officer, Colonel or above, that was not happy with his half-track’s accommodations and directed his driver & NCO to find him a better ride more suited to his rank.
Mike
The 1940s version of “Pimp my Ride”.
We really don’t know what’s going on underneath the car. Perhaps the floor has been cut away. That would allow a pole to run from the roof of the car to the floor of the half track. Lots of possibilities there.
You can roll your eyes, but there was a Spanish gal at Camp Warehouse east of Kabul who was running quite a profitable business out of the back of an armored vehicle.
Gee, I wonder why that is … Maybe, just maybe, it’s because not everyone has the opportunity to do first-hand research and so has to go by what they read from other people who appear to be reliable sources of information. Which may then, later, turn out to be incorrect — but if you have no way of knowing or checking, you go by what you do have access to.
Correcting common knowledge that’s wrong is a good thing. But please stop berating people for going by incorrect knowledge that they have had no reason to distrust. Nobody is omniscient, and few people have reason to check every little thing they say that, as far as they know, is correct.
Bad example. You’re referring to my remark in the thread there, and that was in no way at all based on AI search results. I said it because this was the common wisdom last time I built Tamiya M48 kits, which was about 25 years ago, and I have had no reason to look into it since exactly because it’s that long ago that I was building Tamiya M48 kits.
And for the record: that was not the same person as the one who said to insert shims into the turret.
Well, I can’t help that, but thanks for proving my point. What I have done is gone around the globe doing research for those who can’t, as I’ve done last week and will do next week - specifically to hel them out. Whether or not they use that information is on them. And I could cite many examples on this very site of “people who appear to be reliable sources of information,” but it would look like I was picking on the guy. Guys like that are usually the ones who ignore what I have to say, and have said so. Which brings up - whom exactly did I berate?
Nope. Perfect example actually. Where did this “common wisdom” come from? One person, who didn’t think it looked right - and created a generation of modelers who “had no reason to look into it.”
Well I did, and guess what? It was BS then and it still is now when people quote it.
A generation of modellers who usually had no opportunities to look into it.
You seem to take the point of view that ignorance is no excuse, which is bullshit — if you have no reason to question a source, because it seems reliable and in accordance with other sources,[1] then you may be ignorant but not willfully or actively so. Which is totally different from knowing better but ignoring the better knowledge.
However, you (and not just here) lump them all together as culpable, ignorant bastards who should know better because you posted the Truth™ somewhere that they might not even ever have heard of.
even if those perhaps base themselves on each other, but you don’t know that ↩︎
And with that, you may gratify yourself to the fact you have had the last word on the subject. I’ll just continue to try and help those ignorant bastards, whoever they might be. 
Alllrighty then.
Moving right along, I remember seeing this photo in PanzerColors 3 decades ago and thinking how ingenious it was for air cover. They cover the fighting compartment from inclement weather and a glance from a strafing aircraft would see them as not worth the time. Plus they wouldn’t have to change out foiage every 2-3 days. Always been my take on it.
I didn’t say not to help them. Quite the opposite, in fact. What I said is that there’s such a thing as forgiving ignorance rather than holding it against people, and that there’s no need to be condescending about your help.
