Auto show expects record crowd 

TEAYS VALLEY - Every antique car has a story, but the history of a 1934 Mercedes Benz 290-C owned and restored by Carroll Hutton of Teays Valley reads more like an action-adventure novel.

Built in Stuttgart, Germany, the car was originally purchased by Franz Schallweg, who served as an officer in a German infantry unit attached to an SS Panzer division during World War II.

"He was assigned to the Russian front, and took the car with him to the Leningrad area during Operation Barbarossa," the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, said Hutton, who has thoroughly researched the car's history.

"Soon after arriving at the front, he was wounded in the head. He couldn't keep up with his infantry unit, so he was reassigned to serve as a supply officer in Russian territory occupied by the Germans."

In 1943, the tide of the battle turned in favor of the Russians, sending the Germans in full retreat toward their homeland. Schallweg pointed his Mercedes southwest, passing through the Ukraine on the way toward Germany.

"In the Ukraine, near the town of Lviv, the Mercedes' engine broke down, and Schallweg couldn't repair it in what little time he had. He asked a Ukrainian farmer named Valvim Misovsky if he had something that would transport him back to Germany. Misovsky said all he had was a motorcycle."

Considering the circumstances he was in, the motorcycle sounded like a good deal to the German officer. He traded his Mercedes for the motorcycle and resumed his southwestern journey.

"A search of German military records shows him missing in action," Hutton said. "No more was ever heard of him."

Immediately after making the trade, Misovsky realized that he and his family could be in severe - possibly life-threatening - trouble with the Red Army if they found the German staff car in their possession. He decided to hide the vehicle in a large, barnlike outbuilding until the last of the German troops and their Russian pursuers had passed through. Then, fearing confiscation from Soviet authorities, he decided to hide the Mercedes even deeper.

In 1944, "He dug a hole in the ground inside the barn, rolled the car in, built a wooden cage around it, put poles on top, and stuffed it full of straw," Hutton said. "It stayed there for the next 17 years."

By 1961, "things had settled down enough for him to bring the car out, put a Russian engine in it, and drive around Lviv for a few years," Hutton said.

In 1988, a German businessman named Hans Hoppner was selling candy-making equipment in the Ukraine, and needed an interpreter for a business meeting he had set up. The interpreter turned out to be Misovsky's daughter, Larisa, who was fluent in German and Ukrainian.

"She told Hoppner that she had an old German officer's car that her father owned, and that she wanted to sell it. He sees it, makes a deal and buys it," Hutton said.

But numerous attempts by Hoppner to get the permits needed to get the car out of the Soviet Union failed to bear fruit. "Everyone took his money, but no one came through with the transfer documents," Hutton said.

"So for the next few years, Hoppner stored the car in Lviv, taking it out to a few car events in the Soviet Union," while continuing his effort to have the Mercedes shipped home.

While at a car show in the Latvian capital of Riga in 1991, Hoppner was handed a flier that told of a similar event the following week in Helsinki, Finland. He decided to take a chance, and drove the car to a crossing on the Finnish border on the day of the show.

 Auto show expects record crowd 

TEAYS VALLEY - Every antique car has a story, but the history of a 1934 Mercedes Benz 290-C owned and restored by Carroll Hutton of Teays Valley reads more like an action-adventure novel.

Built in Stuttgart, Germany, the car was originally purchased by Franz Schallweg, who served as an officer in a German infantry unit attached to an SS Panzer division during World War II.

"He was assigned to the Russian front, and took the car with him to the Leningrad area during Operation Barbarossa," the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, said Hutton, who has thoroughly researched the car's history.

"Soon after arriving at the front, he was wounded in the head. He couldn't keep up with his infantry unit, so he was reassigned to serve as a supply officer in Russian territory occupied by the Germans."

In 1943, the tide of the battle turned in favor of the Russians, sending the Germans in full retreat toward their homeland. Schallweg pointed his Mercedes southwest, passing through the Ukraine on the way toward Germany.

"In the Ukraine, near the town of Lviv, the Mercedes' engine broke down, and Schallweg couldn't repair it in what little time he had. He asked a Ukrainian farmer named Valvim Misovsky if he had something that would transport him back to Germany. Misovsky said all he had was a motorcycle."

Considering the circumstances he was in, the motorcycle sounded like a good deal to the German officer. He traded his Mercedes for the motorcycle and resumed his southwestern journey.

"A search of German military records shows him missing in action," Hutton said. "No more was ever heard of him."

Immediately after making the trade, Misovsky realized that he and his family could be in severe - possibly life-threatening - trouble with the Red Army if they found the German staff car in their possession. He decided to hide the vehicle in a large, barnlike outbuilding until the last of the German troops and their Russian pursuers had passed through. Then, fearing confiscation from Soviet authorities, he decided to hide the Mercedes even deeper.

In 1944, "He dug a hole in the ground inside the barn, rolled the car in, built a wooden cage around it, put poles on top, and stuffed it full of straw," Hutton said. "It stayed there for the next 17 years."

By 1961, "things had settled down enough for him to bring the car out, put a Russian engine in it, and drive around Lviv for a few years," Hutton said.

In 1988, a German businessman named Hans Hoppner was selling candy-making equipment in the Ukraine, and needed an interpreter for a business meeting he had set up. The interpreter turned out to be Misovsky's daughter, Larisa, who was fluent in German and Ukrainian.

"She told Hoppner that she had an old German officer's car that her father owned, and that she wanted to sell it. He sees it, makes a deal and buys it," Hutton said.

But numerous attempts by Hoppner to get the permits needed to get the car out of the Soviet Union failed to bear fruit. "Everyone took his money, but no one came through with the transfer documents," Hutton said.

"So for the next few years, Hoppner stored the car in Lviv, taking it out to a few car events in the Soviet Union," while continuing his effort to have the Mercedes shipped home.

While at a car show in the Latvian capital of Riga in 1991, Hoppner was handed a flier that told of a similar event the following week in Helsinki, Finland. He decided to take a chance, and drove the car to a crossing on the Finnish border on the day of the show.

"The border guards let him through," Hutton said. "Needless to say, the car never went back to the Soviet Union."

Hoppner drove the vintage Mercedes through Finland, Sweden and Denmark before reaching Germany, where he replaced the car's Russian engine with a Mercedes engine.

"He did a weak restoration effort," Hutton said.  "He put on a new top, gave it kind of a poor paint job and did some body work, then put it on a container ship for America. He spends six months a year at his home in Florida."

Hoppner drove and showed the Mercedes in and around Florida for a number of years following its arrival there in 1991.

In 2007, Hutton visited a friend, retired Charleston Newspapers advertising director Al Starr, in his Florida home. Starr, who knew of Hutton's passion for restoring antique cars, told him about a local man who owned an old German officer's car that was in roadworthy condition.

"Al said he was driving the car around the area, and wondered if I was interested in it," said Hutton. "I said, 'let's go see it.'"

Starr found the Mercedes owner's name and address, and he and Hutton drove to his home.

"He was getting ready to leave for Europe, but he showed us the car, which was parked in his driveway, and he went into detail about the car's story. I took some pictures, left my number and said I'd call later to talk some more."

Hutton said the car's history "is all authenticated with documents from the Soviet Union and Germany."

Early this year, after Hutton returned to West Virginia, he thought about the car and decided to make an offer. He and Hoppner negotiated a deal, and soon Hutton was on the road again, towing a trailer to haul his newest restoration project home.

"I brought it home in April, started restoring it in May, and was finished by August," he said.

To put new fabric on the interior surfaces of the doors, the door panels were removed, revealing an older layer of material that had been installed during the vehicle's time in the former Soviet Union. "The old material was made of wallpaper and old Russian newspapers," Hutton said.

Hutton also found a Russian paratrooper's insignia under the rear seat.

Metal on the rear of the car was pocked with small dents, Hutton said, suggesting it may have been struck by shrapnel from a grenade or artillery shell.

"I talked to some people at Mercedes, and they told me that of the 1,024 cars of this model made in 1934, there are less than 10 still in existence," Hutton said.

Hutton, who served for 18 years on Yeager Airport's governing board, is the founder of Underwater Services Ltd., a regional commercial diving operation based in Putnam County.

The painstakingly restored Mercedes will be on display at the Charleston Boulevard Rod, Run & Doo-Wop show, which starts today and runs through Sunday in downtown Charleston. Hutton will also be showing a 1918 Milburn Light Electric car and a 1921 International truck.

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com">rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 348-5169.