H&H are indebted to the vendor for providing us with this description: 'The prints came into our possession from a WWII veteran solicitor friend of the family as payment for work some years ago. They have been stored and forgotten about until recently. At the end of WWII Major Ivan Hirst was deployed by the British government to oversee the VW factory and began to keep the Beetle alive; we believe through research that there were 3 main people involved being Major Hirst, Colonel Radclyffe and Colonel McEvoy. According to the story that came with the prints the original blueprints are believed to have been destroyed in the bombing of the factory and that there were three copies each belonging to Hirst, Radclyffe and McEvoy. We have one copy which is marked Colonel C L Radclyffe, plus another copy not named. There are two folders of 18 prints each dated on the print from 1940 - 1945. They are also stamp dated on the reverse 1946. There are a number of signatures on each sheet which are believed to be part of the printing (not original) and to be from the designer, artist drawing the blueprint, Adolf Hitler and Dr Ferdinand Porsche. These are speculated and unconfirmed and are part of the copy process and not signed on the papers themselves. Major Hirst, Col Radclyffe and Col McEvoy have been written in history for being responsible for saving Volkswagen and the Beetle. It seems possible that these prints are the very reason VW and the Beetle are still around today'. An important piece of automotive history.
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