Greetings all,hope everyone is well. Since I've had a little free time on my hands, I was looking at stuff on EvilBay and saw this truck. I'm not real up on WW2 stuff, but it is an odd looking fellow so I did a little checking on it. Does anyone know if the Germans used any of these in North Africa? Since it comes with a flak gun it would be good for an anti-aircraft scene. Any way, just curious. Thanks, Wayne

bumped up.

Wayne;

Hi! Well, your question pushed me to try some searching about concerning the AHN in north Africa...

I haven't found any convincing evidence for it being there. This categorically does NOT mean that it wasn't there - only that I cannot find any evidence for its presence in that theater. But... as I have looked pretty deeply and widely on the 'web, I do conclude that IF indeed the AHN saw use in Africa, it was quite rare there. Note that the north Africa theater saw plenty of rare things, so a small handful of AHN may well have been there but escaped getting frequently photographed - and a rare beast seldom photographed has less chance of being "discovered" 75+ years later. Suffice to say that, at best, it wasn't a common type in north Africa.

The AHN was actually produced in fairly large numbers for Wehrmacht use after the fall of France in 1940. Probably the large majority of these trucks went off to serve in the East, where shortage of motor transport was a chronic and dire problem for the Germans. There are plenty of photos showing the type in wide use in the Eastern front.

Most of the equipment shipped to Africa was either unit TO&E for German units getting shipped over, or drawn from stuff available on hand in Italy, where it all staged out of. It may well be that few or even no German units sent to Africa had any AHN on their TO&E. The Italians had plenty of available trucks, and many of these were put into service with the DAK and more generally the German forces in north Africa.

But who knows? Someone could well have or find strong evidence for the type being used in Africa - and we'll both hope that they post it HERE!

Sorry I don't have any support for you in this matter!

Cheers! Bob

The production of the AHN started after Germany had invaded France. It was developed to meet the needs of the French Army but the war changed everything.
This mens that it was not sold on the civilian market before or during the war. IF it had been available on the civilian market before the war it MIGHT have been sold to civilian users in Tunisia (French colony at that time) and IF it had been sold to Tunisia it MIGHT have been requisitioned by Germany when from local users.
Since the production started after the fall of France this scenario did not happen.
Did Germany ship them to North Africa? See Bobs answer.

A very small series of gasifier converted AHN's for civilian users was produced during the war when gasoline was only available to the German armed forces.
/ Robin

Thanks Bob and Robin for the response. Robin, your thoughts on the French possible use was kinda what I had been looking at,but the time frame rules that out. Oh well,it would have looked good in the desert! Thanks again, Wayne

If you could find one of these:
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/psp-35010-renault-agk-1939--969454


then you could argue the "requisitioned civilian truck in Tunisia" scheme.

Renault AGK, from wikipedia:
"The forward control Renault AGK, introduced at the end of 1937 and produced until 1940, replaced the 1935 Renault ABF (one of the first forward control produced by the company). It has a payload between 5 and 6.5 tonnes. For military use, it was delivered in various versions: the most produced has a 4,000 millimetres (160 in) wheelbase (which was common to all versions), a 7,080 millimetres (279 in) length and a 2,350 millimetres (93 in) width.[9] The "all purposes" TTN 30-31 version has a 7,430 millimetres (293 in) length and a 2,430 millimetres (96 in) width, the TTN 39 has a 7,570 millimetres (298 in) length.[10] The tanker version has a 7,430 millimetres (293 in) length and a 2,200 millimetres (87 in) width.[11] The "mobile workshop" version has a 7,700 millimetres (300 in) length and a 2,430 millimetres (96 in) width.[12]

For commercial use, the AGK was available with four configurations: van, flatbed, tipper, and cabin only. The wheelbases were between 3,190 millimetres (126 in) and 4,000 millimetres (160 in).[13]

All AGK versions use a 5.9-litre inline-four petrol engine delivering 80 metric horsepower (59 kW) (85 metric horsepower (63 kW) for the civilian version) at 2,000 rpm. The diesel version (AGKD) has an 8.4-litre inline-four engine. The truck has a 4-speed manual gearbox."

The design of the AHN used flat sheet metal instead of the rounded curves on the AGR (AGK is a heavier truck than AGR) as a way to save costs in response to a request for military trucks.
AHN is a cheap-ified version of the AGR, the AGK is a heavier relative of the AGR.

Sort of similar from a distance. The Wehrmacht used the AGK, AGR and AHN. They basically used everything that could carry a load and move by its own power ...
/ Robin