George Koskimaki 101st Airborne

[Walt's Daughter]

Frank. Awesome photo! Thank you. When I create George's page this spring, we will include it. How about that?

 

Ain't George just a great human being. I'm so glad that I can call him my friend.

 

I got a call from him the other day and it's always a pleasant surprise. We help each other out with projects and sometimes just talk "shoot the breeze."

 

I just hooked him up with some folks doing research on Porsche during the war years. I also passed along the info to Don Burgett and Don Straith (also CO A). Here's some info on that. It's pretty interesting. This excerpt is taken from a gentleman named Phil Carney who is conducting the research.

 

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...Thanks for your help. I can tell you a lot about early Porsche history but there is a big gap between mid 1945 when the Allied armies occupied Austria - Germany and about the mid 1948 time frame. I am hoping to fill in those gaps. Here is what I know.

 

There were three Porsche facilities at the time. The pre-WWII facility was in Stuttgart, Germany. They abandoned this late 1944 or early 1945 because of the bombing. I think this was initially taken over by the US Army and then the French took it over. But Stuttgart ended up in US zone and a US motor pool occupied the facility until 1955. I have spent much money investigating National Archives looking for info but nothing has turned up about that history.

 

The second facility was the Willi Meineke lumber mill in Gmünd, Austria. This is where the Porsche employees went after they left Stuttgart. It is also where the Porsche business was initially rebuilt following the war. I have not been able to determine which Allied forces were in control of this facility but I think it was the British.

 

The third facility was at Zell am See. This facility consisted of the family home and an adjacent (glider) air field/school. I am now fairly certain that the Allied troops there were the 101st Division, 506th PIR, Company A. I did locate the interrogation papers (September 1945 and January 1946) and they were signed by Capt. Robert E. Work USDIO/PIR. What particularly interests me is a very special car (see attached photo) and the story that goes with. There were three cars made by Porsche for a Berlin-Rome race that was never held. Supposedly (all second/third hand info) one car was given to a Nazi official to drive and he destroyed it. The other two cars were taken to Zell am See, Austria. One car was stored at the glider school, found by the US soldiers and confiscated. Supposedly they cut the top off, raced it around town and abandoned it when the motor failed. It is info (particularly any photos !) on this car that I am hoping to track down from someone that was there. The third car was housed in the family garage and assumed to be personal property and not touched. It still exists today...