The Borgward chronicle with Hansa-Lloyd from 1931, Goliath, and Lloyd

Page 4

By Christoph Büch and Steve St.Schmidt (2026)

Borgward in World War II

On September 23, 1938, Borgward inaugurated its new plant in Bremen-Sebaldsbrück. From that day on, the company operated under the name Carl F.W. Borgward, and the name Hansa-Lloyd was finally history. In the course of increased rearmament, the Nazi government regulated the production of all German vehicle manufacturers. Borgward was instructed to limit itself to the production of trucks with payloads of one to three tons.

After the Nazi government decreed that Borgward was only allowed to build trucks with a payload of between one and three tons, whose type designations had to include the tonnage, and after the company had dropped the Hansa-Lloyd brand name, the former Hansa-Lloyd models, provided they fit into the specified payload classes, now bore the name of the company owner, Borgward. The picture shows the “Borgward 3 t Benzin” from 1939, the year the war began.

As fuel shortages were already looming and all reserves were needed for military purposes, experiments with alternative fuels had begun early on. The wood gas generator had proven to be the most adequate solution. The picture shows a Borgward three-ton truck with an Imbert wood gas generator. But it wasn't just trucks that were suitable for running on wood gas: many cars were also converted, as gasoline and diesel were no longer available to private individuals during the war.

In 1939, Borgward had a price list printed showing which models were still available. However, anyone who bought a truck at that time had to expect that their vehicle, for which they had paid a lot of money, would soon be requisitioned by the military to “die” somewhere in the mud on the Eastern Front. Even cars and sports convertibles were taken away and used as means of transport by the higher military ranks.

From 1942 to 1944, the Borgward three-ton truck rolled off the production line at the Bremen-Sebaldsbrück plant, supplying the Wehrmacht as the B 3000 S/D (diesel) or S/O (gasoline engine) standard truck. Tens of thousands of these vehicles were produced until the plant was destroyed. The picture shows the wood gas version.

One waves cheerfully, the others look grim – Borgward advertisement from 1943

This photograph shows a camouflaged Borgward B 3000 A driving through the French village of Villers-Bocage in Normandy in 1944, photographed by Arthur Grimm. The slightly edited photo is from Wikipedia (Federal Archives, image 101I-738-0273-11A / Grimm, Arthur / CC-BY-SA 3.0).

In the one-ton payload range, Borgward produced the B 1000 model with a 1.4-liter gasoline engine and 33 hp. The vehicle was initially built from 1938 to 1943. From 1937 to 1939, the L 2000 S model was added as a one-and-a-half-ton truck with a 47 hp gasoline engine and two liters of displacement. In 1939, it was upgraded to the L 2300 with 55 hp and 2.3 liters of displacement and rolled off the production line until 1942. The three-ton “Borgward 3 t” was built from 1938 with a six-cylinder gasoline engine (Borgward B 3000 S/O) and from 1939 with a diesel engine (Borgward B 3000 S/D). After production of all Hansa-Lloyd trucks was discontinued, the Borgward three-ton truck was the heaviest truck produced in Bremen. From 1939, at the request of the Reich Ministry of Transport, there was also a version with an Imbert wood gas generator. From 1940, the doors were hinged at the front. Production of the gasoline version ended in 1942, while the diesel version continued to be built until 1943. From 1942 to October 1944, Borgward also produced an all-wheel-drive version of the three-ton truck with the type designation B 3000 A at its Sebaldsbrück plant until the factory facilities were destroyed by Allied bombers.

A Borgward mine clearer IV found by the British Army in Italy in 1944 – this photo is also from Wikipedia. It belongs to the collection of the Imperial War Museum (No. 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Radford (Sgt.).

Borgward realized an innovative defense technology project with the Mine Clearer IV (Minenräumer IV). Built from 1942 onwards, this conditionally remote-controlled, tracked explosive carrier was a novelty, even though similar inventions had already been tested in France. The vehicle was equipped with state-of-the-art radio remote control and could detonate explosive charges in a controlled manner. As soon as the small tank reached the target area, the driver got out and withdrew. This was the most dangerous part of the operation for him, as he was now almost completely exposed to enemy fire. The vehicle was then driven to its destination by radio. There, the explosive charge was detonated remotely and the vehicle was steered out of the danger or explosion zone. With nearly a thousand units manufactured, the Minenräumer IV was a significant milestone in the field of military robotics at the time.

As early as 1926, Hansa-Lloyd engineer Heinrich Ernst Kniepkamp had developed a half-track tractor (called a “light tractor with a three-ton trailer load”) for the Reichswehr, which was initially equipped with a six-cylinder engine from Hansa Lloyd and later with an engine from Maybach. In 1937, the vehicle was given the designation Sonder-Kraftfahrzeug 11, or Sd.Kfz 11 for short. Around 500 vehicles of this type were produced by Hansa-Lloyd and Borgward. Later, it was also manufactured by Adlerwerke in Frankfurt am Main, Auto Union AG in Zwickau, and Škoda in Pilsen. From 1937 onwards, Borgward also had to produce the eight-ton half-track tractor Sd.Kfz. 7 (medium tractor) developed by Krauss-Maffei. The vehicle was also built by Krauss-Maffei in Munich-Allach, by Saurer in Vienna, and in small numbers by Krupp in Essen after Büssing and Daimler-Benz withdrew as manufacturers. By 1945, Borgward alone had produced 5,496 vehicles of this type, and even in February 1945, 53 units left the factory. A total of 4,785 workers, 65 percent of whom were forced laborers and prisoners of war, built these massive half-track tractors. From August 1944, around 1,000 prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp were also forced to work on production. In October, a heavy air raid crippled 75 percent of production, but work continued undeterred even after that.