Visit to the US Army Ordinance Museum Part I

One of the side-trips my son and I took while in Lancaster for Historicon was the US Army Ordinance Museum at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. Now what I failed to take was a panaoramic view of the field that is home to acres and acres of WWII, WWI and Cold War era armor and artillery. I think from the pics that I do have here you'll get an appreciation of just how much is there(although for every tank I'll show in my two blog entries, there are ten more!).

I was really excited to see the museum because for all my WWII wargaming, I had never had the pleasure of seeing tanks up close and personal. When you are face-to-face with these monsters you gain an immediate appreciation for (a)how much an infantryman would not like to face these giants in the field and (b) how tight it must have been for the crew in these things. It was like candy for a Military History enthusiast! My son had to run to keep up with me as I exclaimed "Wow, a Panther", "Wow, a T-34", and "No Way, an M-10!". The models were instantly recognizable, and there was so much to see.

Today I'll post some pics of German and Soviet ordinance(sorry I am in so many pics- obviously I was excited).

A Panzer III(Germany)

A Panzer IVH(Germany)-MY FAVORITE TANK!

A Panzer V(Panther)- two, actually(Germany)

A Jagdpanther(Hunting Panther)(Germany)

An Elefant(tank destroyer on a Tiger chassis)(Germany)

Jagdtiger(Hunting (king) Tiger)(Germany)

A T-34 with 85mm gun(Soviet)

A T-34 with a 76mm gun(Soviet)

Soviet Su-85 Tank Destroyer...

A 152mm Soviet Artillery piece-phew!

Gareth and a Pak 36/37mm anti-tank gun(Germany)

My favorite artillery piece, the PAK 40(75mm) anti-tank gun(Germany)

(and, yes, they had a towed '88 too!)