Public Tanks

Discussion in 'WW2 Museums. Events, & places to see.' started by von Poop, Nov 26, 2007.

  1. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    Duxford - You do not need to go in to see these as they are outside!. Duxford A1.jpg
     
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  2. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    sherman_76mm_wreck.jpg

    The Normandy Tank Museum is not hard to miss. It is next to the main N13 (E46) motorway. Set your Sat-Nav to the town of Catz in Normandy and then the road of La Fourchette or Rue de la Fourchette to be directed to the Museum entrance.
     

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  3. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    ch.jpg

    Churchill AVRE Mk. IV tank – Lion-sur-Mer, Normandy, France
     
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  4. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    vimoutiers-tiger-tank.jpg

    The Vimoutiers Tiger Tank south east of Caen in the middle of the Normandy countryside.
     
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  5. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Reading in Fletcher's recent books on British Tanks that post-bellum the national War Savings Committee nominated 265 communities, training establishments etc. to receive a tank in England alone.
    Most were accepted, all delivered from Bovington, largely females unless to gunnery training or manufactory places, who got males.

    Delivered by rail, driven to the display place, officer gives a speech about its history (fictitious!), disabled mechanically & there's yer tank.

    The sad thing is, it seems the Ashford one and Whale Island's infamous 'HMS Excellent' were almost all that were still there by the Second war.
    I don't blame the people of the 20s and 30s for clearing away this rusty old rubbish, but it might have been nice to be a country known for a couple of hundred old tanks decorating its towns and villages :).
    (There would definitely be a Lyke Wake or Three Peaks sort of challenge to visit them all too...)
     
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  6. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  7. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    I wouldn't want it parked on my street for more than a couple of hours either. Guy seems like an arrogant jerk to me. He should put it in his own yard.
     
  8. Sapper D.

    Sapper D. Active Member


    Could you let me know where this is please?
    Going to the forest later this year and fancy a visit, you see!
     
  9. Sapper D.

    Sapper D. Active Member

    T-34 @ Schaarsbergen WW@ museum - Netherlands.

    Day 2.2.jpg
     
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  10. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

  11. Sapper D.

    Sapper D. Active Member

    JUNO Beach - AVRE

    normandie 2010 155[1].jpg
     
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  12. Sapper D.

    Sapper D. Active Member

    Thanks TD!
     
  13. stolpi

    stolpi Well-Known Member

    This one is still on my list to visit ... a LVT Buffalo of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment (former 144 Regt RAC/33 Armoured Brigade) on display next to the E314 highway at Kotem near Maasmechelen (Belgium).

    Buffalo.jpg

    The Buffalo was lost on 5 March 1945 on the Meuse River, during one of the many exercises in preparation for the Rhine Crossing in which the former Sherman tank crews familiarized themselves with their new equipment. While afloat, the Buffalo hit a sharp object which tore a large hole in the bottom of the vehicle. Only two of the four crew members managed to save themselves from the ice-cold swirling water of the Meuse. The other two drowned. The body of the driver, Trooper Philip Harding, was found some weeks later along the Meuse River bank, he is buried at the Kruisveldhof Cemetery in Hasselt; the body of the other crew member, Trooper Stanley Clark, who was the gunner, was never found, his name is mentioned on the Wall of Missing at the Groesbeek War Cemetery.

    001 HARDING PE 14336635 05/03/1945 4TH ROYAL TANK REGIMENT, R.A.C. ROW B. GRAVE 14.
    002 CLARK S 3864432 05/03/1945 4TH ROYAL TANK REGIMENT, R.A.C. PANEL 1.

    kotem_03_87.jpg

    lvt05.jpg

    The vehicle was recovered from the Meuse river in 1977 and put on display; it underwent a thorough renovation in 2007. More about the story of the LVT: LVT Buffalo - Oorlog in Limburg

    battle_crossrhine14.jpg
    On 21 March 1945, two days prior to the start of the Rhine Crossing, the LVTs of the 4th Royal Tanks were transported forward towards the Rhineland (IWM).

    See for more info on the role played by the LVTs and 4th Royal Tanks during the Rhine Crossing : RHINE CROSSING 1945: The Rees bridgehead (30 Corps in operation 'Turnscrew')

    ... or for a Rhine Crossing Dio: Rhine Crossing Dio
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2023
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  14. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Saw this Cheiftain at Ashchurch near Tewkesbury today.
    Not my photo just a Streetview image.

    Google Maps

    ashchurch chieftain.JPG
     
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  15. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

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  16. idler

    idler GeneralList

    King's Lynn had one in St James' Park:

    IMG_20190915_091433070_HDR~3.jpg
     
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  17. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    A great many towns did. If the town had raised a certain amount of dosh in sales of war bonds they got a tank after the war. Almost all were ex Mk IV training tanks and had a three digit home service number on the front, a small number were Mk IVs retired from France (being replaced by Mk Vs) and an even smaller number were Mk III training tanks. Despite very few having ever seen action all sorts of local legends grew up around them - mainly due to the lurid but tediously repetitive tales the delivery crews told. If all the tanks that were supposed to have taken part in taking Vimy Ridge has really been there the Canadians would have had no room to move.
    Whilst most local councils were more than pleased to have them initially they became less so when they realised that maintaining them cost money. One thing about British WW1 tanks that is not known by a lot of people is that the doors and hatches could only be locked from the inside. There is only one case of one being taken for a joy ride - in WW2 when one that had been restored by the local Home Guard and used as a dock yard guardian was taken by Nevil Shute Norway ( the author of A town called Alice, On the beach etc etc) to take him and his mates to the pub and demolished many parked cars on the way home. but it did mean that many became public inconveniences. A great many were scrapped before WW2 started and the rest went under the excuse of scrap drives (but in fact the armoured steel was useless for recycling and was dumped in the North Sea).
     
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  18. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I know I've mentioned the Dukla Pass before.
    I've just watched this .
    Lots of T34.
     
  19. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    For Adam and all interested.

    Years and miles apart, IDs obscured in deference to those no longer with us, and to those still here.

    Hill 112 years past, and more recently on a journey back from Hereford, where the owner of the Russian lump and associated shop, kindly let us clamber all over the thing (to the accompanying sound of creaking joints and straining ligaments).

    Good days then, memories both happy and sad. That's tanks all over.

    Kind regards, always,

    Jim.

    Hill 112.JPG

    Wot no Rash.jpg
     
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  20. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Thanks for the heads up on that. Went there today.
    Sun was a bit low though.
    :tank:
    :t34:
     

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