Heard from Don Cooper who was stationed in Wertheim in the mid 50s:
"One story does come to mind. When the US moved occupation troops out of Austria in (I believe) late 1955, we got a new mechanic who outranked most of our guys and let them know it. When the Bn commander's new German Taunus 4-door came in for maintenance he took it over and right away slid the floor jack under it. Someone told him he had it positioned wrong, but he bulled right ahead and jacked it up. Unfortunately, he had put the jack right under the Colonel's oil pan and it sprung a serious oil leak. No new oil pan was available anywhere for several days.
On the fortunate side, we had an excellent welder in Ron Rising, the pride of International Falls, MN. Ron was able to stem the leak by welding the aluminum pan, which is no small task. I do not know if the Colonel ever found out, but the car had to be called back a week or so later for its new oil pan."
