Anyone know what kind of car this is in front of the Stug?
Thanks
-p
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The closest I had come up with is this Mercedez Cabriolet A from 1936. The Benz has the front opening doors and the wipers attached to the top of the windshield, but the grill and the headlights donāt match. The lines of the Packard look more like the picture I think.
Iāve read that tax laws and duties in Europe made imported cars prohibitively expensive. In certain countries if the car was imported as a chassis and equipped with European coachwork and accessories a significant portion of the duty could be avoided. Some American cars made it to Europe and received custom coachwork upon arrival. Maybe this could be one of themā¦ ? 
H.P.
I was wondering about something like that, or something made under license. Since you pointed me toward Packard I did some more research on them. Looks like they switched from the suicide doors to rear opening doors in 1937, so something from Packard before then would fit the overall lines and shape. I bet that car had an interesting story to tellā¦
Hi,
Great picture. I think this might be a Glaser bodied Opel Admiral.A luxury coach built cabriolet built in small numbers before and possibly during the war. I saw a picture of one in Wheels & Tracks magazine issue 10.
Regards Jason
The Admiral had the front fenders molded into the hood and the headlights halfway enclosed in the fenders.
The Opel 6 Super Sport-Cabriolet bodied by GlƤser (1937-38) looks like this though:
Suicide door and headlights check out but I have doubts about the grille. The old photo gives me the impression of a wider center bar, gave me thoughts about BMW ā¦
Not a split windscreen.
The corner where the side meets the rear fender seems too shallow
The grille in that wartime photo seems to be concave, reminds me of Chevrolets from the pre-war period.
The headlights style could also be āMade in the USā
I guess the mystery car is bigger than the Opel ā¦I would stick to the āUS-made convertibleā theory 
On a side note, the very same picture was posted on another forum and the ID proposals ranged from a Simca 5 to a BMW 326 or a CitroĆ«n Traction-Avantā¦
H.P.
For discussion purposes only this looks like a similar vehicleā¦
There are some differences e.g. the mystery carās a two-door & the rear wheel arch at the back is higher, but if you look closely at the original photo the wheels seem to have the same perforations round the hub so perhaps itās the same manufacturer? If the mystery carās also from a propaganda unit it might be identified in a publication about them 
This looks awfully similar. The windshield wipers are different though. '35 oldsmobile.
https://manxclassics.com/listings/1935-oldsmobile-rumbleseat-roadster/
The grille is wrong though and the position lights on the fenders are missing but maybe this was some kind of adaptation for Europe ā¦
Front 3/4 view showing grille
Snip from image above:
Yeah. There are some Buicks from the same year that have grills that looks more like it, but the hood ornament on them is quite large, and they donāt have suicide doors. I also found a Hudson with a body that is very similar but it doesnāt have the split windshield.
That is a very close match Phil, even the prominent gap between the door & running-board and the perforated wheel rims. As you say the wipers are on top of the screen on the German car but possibly a field modification. I donāt think the radiator grille can be identified either way, it seems to have a cover over it, doesnāt the top right corner overlap the tarp thrown over the bonnet?
Oldsmobile were owned by GM who also bought the Opel company in 1932, but I canāt find any info that they built under licence. If it really is an Oldsmobile it must have been carrying all its own spare parts & how it ended up on the Eastern Front would be a very interesting story. 
1: Cold weather cover, with a definite overlap (4) over the edge of the tarp or whatever covers the rest of the hood/bonnet
2: Curved line between grille and side of hood/bonnet
3: Some sort of ridge which to my eyes looks as if there was a cntreline of the grille that was continued up and over the top. Looks a little bit like Ford V8 around 1932 -1933 but not quite the same. The curved line (nr 2) looks like the curve on the Ford
4: Some kind of ornament which could be the one on the Oldsmobile
The rest is very similar, totally agree on that score.
Hereās another one that has a lot of similarities. It doesnāt have a split windshield, but it has the wipers attached above. It has running lights on the front fenders but Iām not sure they are in the same position. I hadnāt noticed before, but unless the photo is somehow mirrored, it looks like there is a steering wheel on the right side rather than the left. So that would make me think UK rather than US made. But maybe a US car made under license in the UK?
Anyway:
Good observation about the steering wheel!
Now the question is: Is the image mirrored or not?
Edit: Too early in the morning. Silly me should have seen that the Stug III isnāt mirrored.
Now we are down to a right hand drive mystery vehicle.
Edit nr 2: Would the top of a steering wheel be visible from this angle?
I found this: 1930s british sports cabriolets - Bing images
It has a British VRM, but appears to be a BMW. The doors donāt match, but it could be a later version. Has a split screen. Officers car captured at Dunkirk and repurposed? Spares wouldnāt be a problem if itās a BMW.
Yeah, too early for you to notice the stug isnāt mirrored, it was too late for me to notice that when I posted!
Good question about whether that actually is the top of the steering wheel. It seemed obvious to me at the time, but since you ask Iām not sureā¦
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I agree that does look like the steering wheel on the right of the car, but not so fast ā Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary drove on the left (i.e. right-hand-drive cars) right up until 1938. And even if this car was made in the late 30ās in a country driving on the right e.g. Germany, it could have been made for export to one of the foregoing countries. It appears to be still running a long way east in a Russian (?) winter, but without readily available spares it would have conked out long before ā it must surely have been made somewhere in Europe
