Brig. Günter Kuhn (ret.) died at his home in Pfaffstätten/Austria last week at age 82. For several decades - at the end as Commanding Officer - his personality was an integral part of the School.
We will always honor his memory.
Ziel: Eine stärkere Truppe für noch mehr Sicherheit
Unser Heer: Mit neuen Schwerpunkten auf Cyber Defence, ABC-Abwehr und Katastrophenhilfe soll das Bundesheer den neuen Herausforderungen und Sicherheitsbedrohungen Österreichs noch besser begegnen können.
Due to the still existing COVID 19 risk, we have decided to cancel our 2020 Fall Gathering.
As a responsible organization, we cannot accept the risk exposure for a meeting with potentially up to 1000 visitors.
We are looking forward to our Fall Gathering 2021 and wish all our members, friends and supporters an enjoyble and above all safe fall 2020!
Our already existing collection of ex-Austrian Army Gräf&Stift trucks has been extended by a type LAFD210 6x6 from this prestigious former Austrian truck manufacturer. After a hint from one of our friends at MAN trucks Vienna, Franz and Florian Schwendemann recovered this truck under unusually nice weather conditions on July 22. While 200 of these trucks had been procured by the Austrian Army (primarily for service with the engineer batallions), only very few survived their "second life" in civilian use. They were the direct predecessors of the ÖAF gl sLKW trucks introduced in 1976, and our vehicle had been registered under Army license plate BH 82.494. So far we have not been able to identify the unit it served with, only the tactical markings of a staff company are still legible. Further "cannibalizing" the two existing Gräf&Stift wrecks in our inventory, this vehicle will be made road-worthy again.
On June 19 our heavy transport section was on the road again to collect new additions to our collection. In typical "exercise" weather, Peter Klausner transported two Berliet GBC 8MT trucks from their previous owner in St.Andrä-Wördern to our workshop in Prottes. Both vehicles saw their "active" service with the 11th Air Defense Batallion ("FlaB 11") in Langenlebarn and were retired at the end of 1990. In 1992 they were sold off to a private owner and parked for the next 22 years, when in 2014 they were bought by their latest owner who restored one of the into pristine condition (the second vehicle survived in a slightly cannibalized condition). Together with the one other GBC 8MT already in our collection and an 8MT KT tractor unit, these four trucks now provide suffient "spare parts" to ensure the survival of fully operational examples of this exotic French part of Austrian Military Motorization history.
