The L 701 was an Opel Blitz 3-tonne truck built under licence by Mercedes after the German government's instructions in 1942. It was two years later in 1944 when production began in Mercedes' Manheim production plant and 3,500 units were built there until May 1945 at the end of the second world war. These examples built during the war had an extremely primitive wooden cab, as pictured on the right. It was a light truck with a 3.3 tonne payload intended for military use, and the vehicle's power came from an Opel six-cylinder petrol engine which produced 68hp at 3,000 rpm.The end of the war did not mean the end of the L 701 though, and a further 10,300 units were built for the next four years until June 1949. These used a more modern, rounded steel cab as pictured on the right.