Update on Rebuttal of Alvarez on Gas Vans: Why the Diesel Issue is Still Irrelevant

According to Why the Diesel Issue is Still Irrelevant, the German homicidal gas vans were running on gasoline, Saurer chassis were not always Diesel and the gasoline driven Saurer homicidal gas vans were obtained from German occupied France. In the mean time, I obtained some more sources entirely confirming this finding, which are worth to highlight in a separate posting. 

Before starting with new material, first an additional comment on an already known source. I had used the monograph by Wipf et al. (Saurer. Vom Ostschweizer Kleinbetrieb zum internationalen Technologiekonzern) to establish that the Saurer trucks produced in occupied France were mostly running with gasoline engines, which refutes the Revisionist claim that Saurer were always on Diesel (for new vehicles purchased by the Germans during the War; for older or manipulated chassis this was false already before).

But it turns out as even more unfortunate for the Revisionist gas van "specialist" Santiago Alvarez than I previously thought. I assumed Alvarez was just not aware of the book. But it's even cited by him to support that "Saurer had been a Diesel engine pioneer for decades" - right after claiming that "Saurer...equipped their trucks only with Diesel engines" (The Gas Vans, p. 24). So Alvarez used a source to support a minor and rather irrelevant point, while the same source is refuting his main point made in the same sentence!

Of course, enquiring minds now want to know why he didn't he read the WW2 chapters, but only the pre-war chapters of Wipf et al.? The gas vans were used during the war, so it would have made some sense to see what Saurer was doing during the war, wouldn't it? Or, perhaps he didn't even read the book, but was passed on the info by somebody else, who doesn't know how to read relevant chapters of a book either? Only Alvarez himself can tells us what went wrong here.

Here's a new source making the same point:

(Spielberger, Beutekraftfahrzeuge und Panzer der deutschen Wehrmacht, p. 77, my translation)

Note that Alvarez cited a different book of Spielberger (Spezial-Panzer-Fahrzeuge des deutschen Heeres; see Alvarez, The Gas Vans, p. 97), but which is far less relevant than this one on captured vehicles as some of the homicidal gas vans were likely captured vehicles, e.g. the Diamond Ts.

Hermann Bothe, motor pool of Einsatzkommando 8:

(interrogation of Bothe of 2 March 1964, YVA TR.10 File 1118 item 3528038, p. 104, my translation; in his earlier interrogation of 20 May 1963, Bothe stated that the gas van was a Saurer make)

(interrogation of Bothe of 21 May 1964, YVA TR.10 File 1118 item 3528038, p. 111, my translation; the gasoline consumption of 35 l/100 km doesn't sound that much for a heavy truck in the 40s, the figure may have been a typo in the interrogation protocol or a mistake from Bothe)

Heinz Schlechte, gas van driver of Einsatzkommando 8:

"The G-wagon had a very strong gasoline engine of the make 'Saurer'. It may have had 4500 - 5000 ccm."

(interrogation of Schlechte of 25 January 1963, YVA TR.10 File 1118 5, p. 537, my translation)

Wilhelm Findeisen, gas van driver of Sonderkommando 4a:

"I run the gas wagon with normal gasoline, which was also used by the Wehrmacht."

(examination of Findeisen of  30 December 1968, BArch, B 162 / 17919, p. 111, my translation)

"It was a french'Saurer vehicle', 5 t, with a box like coachwork...the vehicle was equipped with a gasoline engine, 6 cylinders."

(deposition of Wendl of 10 March 1964, YVA TR.10 File 1118 item 3528038, p. 28, my translation)