History of the KRAKA and background of Tankograd
The Faun Kraka is a relatively unknown vehicle which was in use by the German Army from 1974 till the late 1990s. The vehicle has quite a few special features like a foldable chassis, chain driven rear wheels, low-pressure tyres and an open building method without body. Although it has all these special features, it is fully licensed to be driven on public roads. The Kraka is also a wanted vehicle for collectors of heavy vehicles and light tanks to tow them, wanted for its robustness and finally its unique appearance on the road.
This unusual military vehicle was conceived in the early 1960s by Zweirad Union, a conglomeration of German motorcycle manufacturers, which at that time was a subsidiary of Faun, the well-known manufacturer of commercial vehicles and large off-road dump trucks. Introduced in 1962, the Kraka was intended for use in the agricultural and forestry industries but met with a lukewarm reception, prompting its maker to explore the vehicle's potential for military purposes. In its new role, the Kraka would be deployed as lightweight off-road transport to be dropped by parachute in support of the West German Bundeswehr's airborne forces, the lack of such a capability having limited the effectiveness of such units in WW2. Several important changes were made following the evaluation of prototypes, and in its developed form, the Kraka was supplied to the Bundeswehr from the early 1970s onwards, a total of 862 being delivered. The Kraka remained in service in the 1990s.
Tankograd publishing back ground history
This offering from Tankograd – Militarfahrzeug – Specials 5100
Jochen Vollert Editor-in-Chief, Publisher.
This October 2025 sees Tankograd publishing reach 28 years of publishing
How it all began - Despite being a German company and publishing almost all titles bilingual English/German or full English these days, it might be wondered that Tankograd was launched in October 1997 as a private venture to provide the enthusiasts of Soviet and Warsaw Pact vehicles with a magazine in English. "The Tankograd Gazette 01" was born, xerocopied, with 24 pages and a print-run of 50 only. Unexpectedly, the whole project took off on itself, with a further 700 "Gazette 01" to be sold in the following years in England and worldwide. Further milestones of Tankograd history followed
The truth behind Tankograd - Tankograd Publishing - Verlag Jochen Vollert prides itself on the unusual. While many of our competitors in the market go mainstream with "Tigers" and "Panthers" only, we go for those titles, left behind in the background on swift profit. It might well be that our print runs are often not comparable to bigger titles. Our fans, however, appreciate subjects like "British Trucks in Wehrmacht Service" or "Soviet Tracked Tractors in Red Army and Wehrmacht Service". Over the years, Tankograd itself created a small market for publications about vehicles, on which hitherto barely anything was known before. Off to new horizons! I think it is honest to say that this path is difficult and not paved with vast profits. The future of Tankograd - Looking back on ten years of hard work, often harsh times, but also often big successes, it boils down for me that: Nothing would have been achieved without hard work, an amazing number of authors who are willing to write in the low-fee range to keep things going and naturally our readers. Without the readers, the enthusiasts who buy our products, we would not even be here today. I strongly hope we will be able to keep up the good work in producing excellent research on interesting vehicles at an affordable price. If you, dear readers, are with us, we will carry on publishing great books!
First impressions
First impressions for me were a vehicle that I had not really known much about and only found out a tiny bit about in a book I read on the Cold War, and I thought then that it was not too dissimilar to the American mule. However, that is where the similarity ends.
Review
So, the vehicle was originally intended for agriculture and forestry use, and with not a lot of response from either the agriculture or forestry sectors, Faun decided to look at a versatile use for the Bundeswehr's actual specification of a lightweight flat bed with chain drive and foldable flatbed. The military became very interested in the use by the Fallschirmjägertruppe and other airborne services.
The picture I found on the inside cover, being a nut job on firefighting and paramedics, is the picture of the Jolly Green or CH-53 with two of the KRAKA ambulance versions of an airborne medical company, simply magnifico.
So, what you find out very early on in the book is just how many of these vehicles was offered in different disguises so let's have a look at some of the variants in 1976 a more modernised version was offered by Faun, the type 641, now with a more powerful engine an air-cooled flat engine from French manufacturer Citroen with a displacement of 0.602 litres it developed 29hp instead of 26hp at 6,750rpm. However, the Bundeswehr showed no interest in it.
Some of the successful versions included: Pritsche mit Einbausatz PzA bwWa Milan Cargo with mission kit Anti-Tank Milan ATGW
Rustsatz Maschinen Kanone 20 mm Mission kit 20 mm Automated Canon for engaging ground targets and for close quarters air defence
My personal favourite: Pritschemit Einbausatz KrKw Feldtrage Cargo with a mission Kit Ambulance, stretcher there are a number of different pictures of this particular Kraka vehicle where you can see evolution from just a straight stretcher carrier to medivac with and weather protection for the wounded soldiers to protect their heads to one with a fitted tarpaulin to cover and protect the injured from rain wind and snow then a further and a slightly newer version with a screen to protect the driver
Final thoughts
It is clear to see that not much is left out of the special editions there is so much going on in these 80 pages with near enough every conceivable angle and walk arounds of these extraordinary Bundeswher Kraka’s loads of full colour and black and white pictures that just makes my mind wander about dioramas to wanting to buy one of these myself ‘If only if I had the money’ “I could see Darren and I driving down to the lake or river edge with all our fishing gear without having to break into a sweat albeit probably very uncomfortable ride and some adjustments would have to be done to stop us rolling off on the way down to the fishing bank”
Conclusion
When I was shown the book and asked if I could do a review, I looked at the front page with KRAKA. I literally had no idea as to what it was, other than a rather weird quad bike-type vehicle. By the time I got home, I was thinking about the American Mule from the Vietnam War, but it was not either of those vehicles. As soon as I got home, I opened the front page and saw a jolly green giant CH53 off-loading two Kraka Medical supply Kraka, and I was very intrigued. If you are used to any of the Tankograd books or magazines, they always fill it up with an enormous amount of detail, including pictures, colour and/or black and white photos, graphics albeit technical or showing you the colours of the platoon.
This book is no different, they go into great detail about the subject they have chosen and by the time you have finished reading, taking in the information on specifications how they move how they have made a difference you honestly feel that you are not an expert but more than competent to be able to go to a show or club like a history, modelling or other and able to tell them all about it? That is because they really do give you more than an insight into it, and it is certainly no different for me with the KRAKA. For the retail price of £17.99 British pounds. I highly recommend this title. It is full of information, and with so many superb pictures, I have already got one or two ideas for dioramas.
Written and published with high-quality pictures and writing that you really can take on board, this is yet another Tankograd masterpiece. Choosing the subjects that the mainstream of publishers would quite probably not even think about is another masterpiece of writing and layout that has seen Tankograd expand its ever-growing portfolio of subjects.
Pagination of 80 pages, 115 colour photographs, 115 black and white photographs, 40 graphics, plus one for-perspective 1/35th scale factory drawing
"Pure-Genius"