The Wehrmacht’s version of a jeep , the Kübelwagen (literally: “bucket-seat car”) was designed and developed by Ferdinand Porsche in 1938-39 and went into mass production in 1940. The inexpensive, lightweight, durable transport vehicle featured a flat, smooth underbody, independent suspension on all four wheels, and nearly a foot of ground clearance. It also boasted a self-locking differential that limited slippage and retained traction despite the fact that it lacked four-wheel drive. The Kübelwagen’s simple engine was air cooled, so it lacked the vulnerabilities posed by a radiator and proved capable of operating in both North African heat and the Russian winter. More than 50,000 Kübelwagens were produced during WWII. In 1943, with the collapse of Axis resistance in North Africa, some of these fell into American hands. Shipped to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the vehicles were put through a series of tests and evaluations, and generally dismissed as inferior to the jeep in almost every respect. One outcome of the tests however was the production of this technical manual, TM E9-803 “German Volkswagen”, which was published in June of 1944. The manual was created with the specific purpose of familiarizing U.S. personnel with captured Kübelwagens, and provides information that could be used to make a lightly damaged vehicle, or one abandoned due to a fuel or other technical problem, operational. Recreated from an original copy of the U.S. Army Kübelwagen manual , this book contains all the original text, photos and indexes, including operating instructions and chapters on the vehicle’s engine, transmission, drivetrain, battery and electrical system, and more. Although slightly reformatted, care has been taken to preserve the integrity of the text.