Benji

REALLY a nice restoration. I didn't know Hercules built a diesel engine. I'm quite familiar with their gasoline engines however as we had a Hercules 383 CID six cylinder in line engine in a WW 2 welder. Good engine it was. Benji

I am a newbie here so I'm not sure how many Yanks here know of the WW 2 Victory Museum in Auburn, Indiana. It has a huge collection of 140 military vehicles, 50 motorcycles and 279 uniforms from 11 different nations. Dean Kruse bought out a large collection of WW 2 vehicles from a museum in Arlon, Belgium that at the time housed one of the largest collections of allied and axis armored fighting vehicles and support vehicles in the world. When the museum closed Dean bought it and moved it to Auburn where he added a substantial number of US military vehicles to it. http://www.cybermodeler.com/museum/kruse_victory/kruse_victory.shtml Benji

According to this site http://www.contaminatedland.co.uk/sere-dip/estd-uxb.htm#KEYWORD-THREE there are at least 73 known unexploded German bombs buried in England. Benji

There are two in the US. LST 325 in completely restored and used every summer. It is moored on the Ohio River in Evansville, Indiana. LST 393 is owned by the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum in Muskegon, Michigan and has been in the process of being restored for about six years. I have seen both of them and been aboard both of them. They are both in their WW 2 dress. I served aboard an LST in the 1960s and I donated an empty 40MM shell casing with a dummy projectile from my ship for the 40MM AA guns on the 393. Benji

I love steam locomotives. This one "lives" about 20 miles north of me and is back on the tracks doing excursions. She recently went through a $1,750,000.00 overhaul (1,073863636 GPB) and weighs 850,000 lbs (60714.285 stones.) I took this shot three years ago. Benji

Hello from the colonies. My name is Ben Jones and I live in Indiana. I was in the US Navy from 1965 to 1971 and I'm currently the president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 698. I am also a WW 2 nut due to my father, his brother, my mothers's brother and two of my wife's uncles serving in WW 2. My dad was in the Fifth Marine Div (amphib), his brother Tom was in the Fifth Marine Div, my mother's brother Warren Wiley was in the Army, my wife's Uncle Carl Bartaway was in the 555th AAA (A) in Belgium, and her Uncle Don Werling was in the US Navy aboard the USS Hollandia CVE 97. Great site here guys, thanks. Benji

Adrian, Having restored a number of antique and muscle cars I know the difficulty that one runs into, in these projects but what you have undertaken here is nothing short of insanity, but THANK YOU for saving a piece of WW 2 history. I am 100% amazed. I assume you are familiar with Operation Tiger a failed practice run for the D Day invasion where several American LSTs were torpedoed by the Nazis and nearly 1000 men died. It happened at Lyme Bay England on 27-28 April 1944. More info here http://news.webshots.com/album/36874492NaRoOO and http://www.combinedops.com/Op_Tiger.htm Benji