TYPE 877 MODIFICATIONS FROM
STANDARD BEETLE- Schwimmwagen four-wheel drive system
- Three seats instead of four
- Larger wheels and tyres
- Extended wings and running boards
- Extra fuel capacity
production of the civilian Beetle before the war,
it seemed only logical to extend the idea and
use the body tooling for military use. Thus,
three prototypes were put together and tested
between 1939 and 1941 by the Porsche bureau
in Stuttgart, headed up by the Beetle’s creator Dr
Ferdinand Porsche.
The trials took the nascent
Kommandeurwagens to Yugoslavia, Greece,
Bulgaria and Romania, to see how they coped
with a variety of different conditions. They
proved quite adept, thanks to their air-cooled
engines meaning they could cope with extremes
of cold and warm temperatures in a way that a
water-cooled vehicle might struggle with.
However, their extra complication compared to
Kübelwagens, plus the necessity for expensive
aluminium parts, counted against them when
compared to cheaper less complex fi LhtinL
Volkswagens that could be built more easily.
Their narrow front doors also made them less
practical because they hindered hurried entries
and exits. Thus, as their Kommandeurwagen
name suggests, they were intended primarily for
offi cers needinL a little more lZxZr^ and secZrit^
than an open-topped vehicle.
That said, as standard, most Type 877s did
come with a roll-back canvas sunroof, which
rather negated some of the protection from
bullets and shrapnel. Some did have the full tin-
top though, and thus rather more security.
There were other variations on the theme.
The 82E was two-wheel drive and mounted on
conventional Kübelwagen underpinnings with
only its rear wheels powered, while the 92 SS
was an 82E or 877 primarily for Waffen-SS use,
and included leather seats, wooden map tables
and hooPs for moZntinL fi rearms
Then there was the Type 98; the designation
reserved for the cabriolet-bodied version of the- It’s quite possible that these were simply to
use up stocks of open-top bodies rather than as
a serious war machine, if any were even actually
built.
Incidentally, the Type 877 Kommandeurwagen
is often referred to as the Type 87; this is
Aside from the bumpers, which
were painted the same shade
as the rest of the vehicle, there
were no excess adornments to
a KommandeurwagenThe interior of a
Type 877; note
the stowed MP40
machine gun,
early cogged
Volkswagen logo
and four-wheel
drive lever
between the seatsInstead of the customary bench seat,
Kommandeurwagens had a single seat in the rear
with a work/storage surface alongsideA 40-litre fuel tank was fi tted as standard, larger
than the 25 lit one found in pre-war VolkswagensInside a 92 SS
Kommandeurwagen- note the wooden
duckboards,
foldaway wooden
table and MP40
machine gun
clipped in the
passenger footwell