...this Budd's for you...or, you, Kameraden

One of the Society's goals is to present history, unvarnished, with the artifacts speaking with their own "voice" aided by the society's skilled volunteer historians as guides

Although we work in the historical time line of the Cold War, we are going to reach back a moment into the second war, and the opacity of that conflict.

Upon removing the left drive sprocket, with some difficulty ! , we noticed manufacturer marks on the hub nuts, from, arguably, one of the most 'All American" Automotive companies in existence , the Budd Pressed Steel Co. maker of such things today as NASCAR wheels

Budd supported the Allied war effort by manufacturing all kinds of metal products from shell casings, helmets , and pressed metal vehicle stampings.

however, there was another Budd....

the Ambi Budd Presswerke,... in wartime Berlin.

Wikipedia does a great wrap up of it here for us;

"In Germany, Budd worked with Arthur Müller and set up a steel pressing plant as "ABP" (Ambi Budd Presswerke) in the old Rumpler factory and became a successful supplier of pressed-steel components. Budd owned 26% of the Adler stock and were located next door to the German assembly plant for Chrysler.^[1] Budd also supplied bodies for early BMWs as well as German Fords. In 1943, the company had to move production underground due to bomb attacks from the allied air forces. They also made parts for the Focke Wulf fighters. They also made bodies for the Volkswagen Kübelwagen and Schwimmwagen. The Berlin plants were completely destroyed by bombing during WW2. After the war, the Budd plant ended up in the Soviet sector. The machines and tools were dismantled and most of them shipped to the Soviet Union. In the USA, Budd made shell and bomb casings and helmets during the war.
In 1962 they made a prototype called XR-400 powered by a 270 hp (200 kW) V8 engine. However the design was rejected by AMC.
The company merged with Thyssen AG and Krupp AG in 1999 becoming a part of ThyssenKrupp."

One wonders, did this half track, fitted with Budd parts, ever come up against German vehicles, also fitted with Budd parts?

its interesting too, that as ThyssenKrup is a major arms manufacturer in Germany, that Ambi Budd Presswerke still, in a way, carries on

History is filled with such dynamism at times

a note on the hub nuts. Note the LEFT stamping, these indicate a left hand thread, in use on the driver side track drive sprockets. The Hub Studs are also stamped "L"

note the double stamping on one.