Hobby Master Archive

These 3-ton trucks had 127 variants and the T-Stoff Tanker was just one. It was originally designed as an air-field fuel bowser and the German military designated them as Kfz.385. As jet engines and rockets were developed the air-field bowser was upgraded to carry the T-Stoff that was a hydrogen peroxide based solution and was part of the fuel mixture for the Me-163 and Me-262 as well as the V-2 rockets. T-Stoff was extremely corrosive and highly dangerous. The operators had to wear special rubber gloves when fuelling the aircraft and rocket. If T-Stoff came in contact with most cloth or other combustible material it would react resulting in spontaneous combustion. If it came in contact with flesh it dissolved it. One pilot was reported as being dissolved by T-Stoff flowing into the cockpit after the aircraft crashed on take-off and inverted. For the aircraft fuel it was necessary to combine T-Stoff and C-Stoff that was a methanol-hydrazine mixture. For the V-2 it was mixed with B-Stoff an alcohol based solution. Another problem was when the T-Stoff mixed with either C-Stoff or B-Stoff the mixture became highly explosive so T-Stoff tankers weren’t allowed within a half kilometer of the planes or rockets when the other ingredients were being loaded. Because of bombing and air attacks from the Allies the Germans were forced to move their rocket launches to various locations. Since most of these locations were remote it required a vehicle that could go off road and these trucks could do just that.