No really, this was a thing
The Danes didn’t really stand much of a chance on April 8/9 1940 when the Germans thundered over their borders and seized the country. Nothing but flatland with few natural defensive barriers and a military that was both obsolete and token in size when compared to Hitler’s forces meant that the King ordered a surrender before lunch on the first day of fighting. However that doesn’t mean the Danes played dead. A huge underground army grew over the next 5 years and by April 1945, with the Germans on the ropes, the Danish Resistance Army emerged from the shadows and gave it a knockout blow. Armed with smuggled weapons and homemade gear, these plucky freedom fighters never surrendered.
One of their greatest achievements, made right under the nose of the occupying forces was the V3 Holger Danske armored car.
The V3 Secret Super Weapon!
There is a Ford truck under here. Frit Danmark!
“A Ford FAA truck was acquired in early 1945 from local sources to serve as the vehicle basis and armored plates were “liberated” from the local Frederiksvaerk steel factory. It took around 3 months to build the vehicle – it was a slow process due to the secrecy. However, the news of upcoming German surrender changed everything and anothe decision was taken to take a risk and speed up the car production as much as possible. In the chaos of the final days of the war, it was possible to move the Ford FAA truck directly to the steel factory from where the armored plates came. The resistance men worked on the truck night and day and it was ready just a day before the war ended. The vehicle was then named “V3” to resemble the German term “weapon of vengeance” (Vergeltungswaffe), used on the V1 and V2 rockets. On the front, a large “Frit Danmark” (“free Denmark”) was written in red.
The construction was quite simple. The vehicle had basic armored plates welded on it (roughly 5mm thick), that covered the driver’s cabin, crew compartment and a small “turret”, equipped with a loosely mounted Bren machinegun. The crew counted 6 men, one of which used the “turretted” Bren and the rest used their personal weapons – rifles and submachine guns. Naturally, the suspension was overloaded by the added weight, which affected the driving performance, but that was of little consequence to the resistance fighters. The vehicle also had problems with overheating, resulting in the removal of the front armor plate in front of the radiator (or rather a hull was cut in most of it). Generally, as improvised armor often is, the vehicle was of very little combat value, but in the only operation it took part, it served well.”