draganm

after years of hearing very little from this collection other than a few Cameos here and there , there's a FB page now and video's of some of the vehicles being moved from Donington to their new home, as well as some excavation/discovery news. Hopefully this is the start to the dedicated public museum he's been talking about for a long time. If so, it will join the ranks of the worlds best WW2 exhibits.

there's info that some were delivered early to Russia, http://www.o5m6.de/redarmy/scammell.php hard to verify with more sources though, best I could find is one in a Russian museum halfway down the page, in the "motors of war" transport museum Belo-Russia https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=http:%2F%2Fworobioff-ku.livejournal.com%2F41578.html&usg=ALkJrhi6acif992hcko1kmFw8cUtJc5Q_Q

my first thought as well, as long as you weren't a concentration camp commander or leading political figure, reaching the Americans meant going home, getting a job rebuilding the country, or transferring technology over to the American army, maybe even a job at NASA. getting caught by the Russians, or other countries the Nazi's savaged, those in SS uniform were shot on sight. and Yugoslavia, like at Bleiburg on the Austrian border, some German's were allowed to cross the border and flee North, their collaborators were not found these interesting colorized images today , the captions are mostly wrong but the images are very good, Some I've never seen, others only in Black and White considering that's happening here and in other parts of the world today, this quote from the guy who colorized the pics is especially poignant http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4617328/Incredible-colourised-photos-German-army.html

that's the achitects son, pretty sure he's the one who painted the tanks there's a new armor museum in the northwest USA now, actually an expansion of the flying Heritage museum owned by Paul Allen (never did find out if he finally was awarded the Littlfield panzer IV that went to court after the auction confusion?). Now called the flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum, it looks to be a full day for anyone planning to visit and see it all. Some super rare pieces in this massive collection, where in the world did they find that complete Type 95 Ha-go?http://www.flyingheritage.com/Explore/The-Collection.aspx Also, in the Northeast US, the Collings Foundation, (after a lengthy court battle with neighbors), was finally awarded zoning approval for their expansion which will show the bulk of the former Littlefield armor collection. Like Bovi, both places put on tank-days style events and combat re-enactments

sounds cool, but maybe hold off for a little while. With so many Tigers and Maybach engines popping up, a genuine Panther might soon be cheaper than a Sherman? from FB, good to finally hear something from this collection again

the consensus seems to be artillery spotter or range finder , sure looks like The Scherenfernrohr S.F.14.Z.Gi. would fit there why they would put it there as opposed to it's original location at the drivers hatch? no idea

found this too, 20K square meters, holy cow http://www.daoudpartners.com/royal-tank-museum 120 tanks to be displayed.

The Royal Jordanian tank museum, I know it's been around but it was a private collection of the king? Not sure on the history but next year will open a public museum, huge facility telling the history of both Jordanian forces and also armored warfare. 40 minutes from the airport. We know they have some rare stuff, both German, UK, and American armor, but I bet there will be some surprises too . Rumors they might have gotten some of the panzer IV's from the Golan? Anyway, I think this is an as-yet unknown Archer? any guess as to what's poking around behind it? Charioteer? https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/tank_museum_jordan

Houffalize Panther being restored or preserved at Bastogne barracks after 70 years of tourists dumping trash into it and looters stealing parts

a pink P40 :-D , that's awesome. In case you haven't seen it, here's the AAAM tiger made from static movie prop. I think it's a lot better than the Saving Private Ryan T55-Tigers , but a few people just couldn't get over the T55 parts. at the same time, none of them offered to pitch in for the $200K it costs to buy a set of repro Tiger 1 tracks or suggest an Engineering solution for a final-drive that would have lowered the sprocket. 90% of the comments were positive though, especially from folks who have actually touched a cutting torch or Mig welder. video of first drive You-tube then came up with this new build. It's for Munster and pure Replica, partly plastic? it's more of a 1:1 scale model to replace the one that just went back to it's owner. Apparently the air filters are not correct and RC's bitched and moaned about that too, which is funny . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K64TVzpiZws At any rate, looks like we're bound to have at least 2 more made with original parts, the one in Poland and another from Herr Hoebig, that would bring the number of original vehicles up to 9

true, the problem with aircraft starts when someone decides they have to fly. You could have a complete , preserved airframe, engine, etc. that could be cosmetically restored and look beautiful in a museum and be 99% original but it can't fly. The BF109 that came out of a Ukranian lake (likely bought by Paul Allen) is a perfect example. Still has the original tires It will be interesting see which way this goes , but If he decides that it needs to fly, then all that old corroded AL needs to replaced, new gauges, new wiring, new engine, and it instantly becomes 90% reproduced parts. The flying versions are still considered original by some , reproductions by others, I don't have an opinion either way. AFV's don't have this problem, a rusted steel plate dug up in Latvia can always be re-welded back onto a chassis and driven down the road. I think that's the big difference, with aircraft no matter where you dig it up it will never fly and be 100% original, with AFV no matter where you find it or what condition it has the potential to stay original. all true, it's unfortunate that the innards are the hardest thing to find and very expensive. 200K+ euro for a maybach 230 if your lucky to find one, same for the final drive , add another 100K to re-build both to mechanically running condition. The last Panzer VI built, the one that sat in Munster for a number of years and was put together /built-up from bits, is by all accounts an empty shell. If someone were to put in a modern drive train would it still be considered "an original vehicle", who knows, I would say yes but many would scream bloody murder. On the other hand there was the pure replica built in Australia from a static Fury movie prop, those guys did an amazing job starting with nothing more than a metal box. They used T55 final drive and I believe a large Scania diesel, but went thru a lot of expense to replicate the overlapping road-wheels, built an authentic looking idler wheel, made a new larger drive sprocket. They built something that was cool and could be used to entertain people at their tank days. While most of the comments were positive there were (as always is) some really nasty comments. People complained about the T55 parts, made rude insults about the welding (which wasn't even true). The museum eventually closed their FB page dedicated to their resto shop, who can blame them. :-( At the end of the day I think everyone should do what makes them happy , with all the social connectivity now it's almost impossible to build a new vehicle and pass it off as something other than what it is. Mostly original, mostly reproduction, an amazing replica, etc. I enjoy following all of them. There's only 2 people who's opinion really matters 1) the owner 2) the future buyer everything else , (including my opinion),:-D is just noise It will be interesting to see how the worlds potentially 8th- Panzer V1 will wind up in Poland. If they can find the rest of the chassis, a turret, and the 88mm , to me that would be another original vehicle. l I just wish those guys would finish parading around Poland and get back to work :-)

I don't think this debate will ever be settled, but I'm not sure using aircraft as a comparable field of collecting is valid IMHO, too much apple vs. Orange. With AFV's when is it "original", who knows? I like a simple description like 1) "mostly original with some reproduced parts" , or 2) "mostly reproduction with some original parts" . That would at least stop some (or maybe most) of the arguments. There are also some vehicles which start in category 2 and eventually make it to category 1 as parts come along, which is a really cool way to do it if you have the mountain of cash required. I've never seen pics of or read about a Tiger Oswalltrum. Do you have a photo by chance? Plenty of Panther versions http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/07/02/panther-ostwallturm/

congratulations, this unit landed on D-day with Shermans, but presumably trained on these prior. The value of your new toy just went up substantially. Wiki now if you can just find Winston Churchill's footprints on there it would be a home run :-\

thought some of you cold war guys would enjoy the pics of these T55's being repaired by the Syrian army for return to battle . Click on photo to enlarge into fullscreen HD version, arrows to right/left will scroll thru https://sputniknews.com/photo/201706041054293408-damascus-tanks-repairs-factory/

amazing that they were able to find that guy on a WW1 memorial by just going off the small amount of info on his medal. It would be really interesting to find out why he used a pseudonym and what he got the award for. I've learned a lot from this show about history. I knew there was some of what was described in the British army between the lower and upper classes, but never the extent of it until last night. Bruce kept saying " amazing that there was never a revolution" , that's putting it mildly. Seems like not everyone is in agreement though with this opinion. He did say that officers had to be pulled and promoted from the ranks and made into "temporary gentleman" when they started running out of commanders from nobility. That would seem to contradict the theme that all officers/landed gentry were 2 miles behind the front eating roasted meat and bathing in personal lavatories?

That was my first thought as well, combat engineer training with a charge placed on the sponson, just above or slightly behind the 2nd road-wheel, which blew off 2 wheels, the turret, and buckled the ring. Looking at the timing though, Coventanters relegated for scrapping in 43 , and PIAT introduced in 43, first unit issued PIAT's were Canadian (who were also the last to operate these covenanters according to Denbies hisotry) is it possible that the damage was caused by a tank hunter crew training with PIAT ? At least you have most of the unique Covey parts, like those radiator covers and turret. Wheels and tracks are still probably pretty rare but look like they might have been shared with other early cruisers?

bridge-layer might explain lack of turret, but then again it's also missing the "bridge'y parts " Important thing is it's recovered, job well done . Is that the engine and final drive in the 4th photo, still in the tank?

very cool, sounds like a challenging and very expensive project. Couple of thoughts For the turret, if you can find out who built the replica turret for the Littlefield Panther in California, it would be a lot cheaper to have them make a second one. Or if you have the skills, see if Collins foundation will give you the drawings . they also had repro wheels made Original parts are crazy expensive, mostly complete Rear deck for sale in Latvia for a cool $20K best of luck, post back here with pics when you get started

yup, buyer beware. Very few auctions will guarantee the items they sell for authenticity, and when they do it's never HMV's interesting prices, about what you would expect . The reproduction Marder on the Stridsvagen chassis went for a lot http://www.auctionsamerica.com/events/all-lots.cfm?SaleCode=AS17&grouping=Featured%20Military%20Lots&category=

in Canada? or the Ausf G in Houffalize, Belgium? I'm glad they are doing something to finally preserve that one

looks like pipe-layers found it, along with 50 unexploded bombs and mines https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fyle.fi%2Fuutiset%2F3-9604845&edit-text=&act=url

it's in excellent condition for a crashed plane, unfortunately recovering aircraft form the ocean is tremendously expensive. It takes years of sitting under a neutralizing spray to pull the salt out of the aluminum and if that isn't done all you wind up with is a pile of white powder. there is a ocean-salvaged Dornier Do17 in the UK that has been under resto for 4 years but the best ones seem to come out of Fjords in Norway, low salt-low oxygen

that's actually a pretty unique prop shape, looks more like a schoolmasters discipline paddle than a prop. My first guess was De havilland Mosquito, the late model ones optimized for high altitude using paddle blade prop. However, if we double your radial measurement , it comes out to 11 foot diameter, the mosquito prop is 12'6" diameter, the 18" left-over is too small to fit the large diameter spinner hub on the mosquito . Here's a list of all crashes at Stradishall, but unfortunately they do not list all the aircraft involved. Lots of Sterlings and Wellingtons and your prop does not look anything like those http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Suffolk/StradishallRAF.html you did say it was recovered south of the Stradishall, if it's from one of the satellite airfields, Chedburgh and Wratting Common, then it could be P47 too . One crashed at Wratting and the second Gen. P47's came with Hamilton's @ 13 foot diameter. This would add up, 11 feet for the opposing blades and 2 feet left for the rather small hub common on air-cooled engines.

very cool, never heard of such a thing before so to me that reads "the tank is only 5 meters deep" :-D What do you mean you won't go have a look, it's a FREE TANK , all you need is a shovel and a coupe of friends with a tow rope :cheesy:

yeah that's not a bad guess, if it was near the end of the war, why risk recovery vehicles? They would have been more useful after the fighting stopped to clear the roads, haul away wrecked armor, etc. what I don't understand is if the ground here is so boggy, how does that rather large Brick house keep from sinking? Citroman, do you know if that house is still there?