Visit to the US Army Ordinance Museum Part II

Before sharing some more pictures, I wanted to share a couple more things about the museum. First- it is free to visit(but you are going onto a US Military base so a photo driver license and(for drivers) a car registration slip is required. There is a museum building which houses hundreds of pieces of small arms from M1 Rifles to Panzerfausts and MG-42 machine guns. Pretty much every famous gun, big and small, is housed in this two-story complex. Also, the museum vehicle collection, as I understand it, is moving to Virginia in a year or so and will be housed completely indoors. Though I am thankful the collection will be protected from the elements, I feel lucky to have had the fun of exploring a field of tanks on a beautiful day!

First, an Italian M13 tank...

M3 Grant/Lee Tank(USA)...

M10 "Wolverine" Tank Destroyer(USA)

An M4A3 76mm gun Sherman(USA)

A 210mm German field piece(immense)...

The open crew compartment of a Wespe self-propelled gun(Germany)...

A Nashorn German 88mm Tank Hunter...

The famous "Elefant" 88mm anti-tank vehicle on a Tiger chassis(Germany)...

Some of the items we saw that I did not post pictures of...

"Leopold" German railcar gun from Anzio, Sherman Firefly, Churchill Tank, Matilda, Stuart, Jagdpanzer IV, Brummbar, 16" Coastal Defense Gun, French S-35 and R-35 tanks, Italian Semovante 90mm SPG, Japanese Chi-Ha, US 280mm "Atomic Cannon" and many more.

It was truly a pleasure to enjoy seeing all of the tanks, artillery pieces and small arms. To walk up and touch the thick, cold steel of a Panther tank, and to wonder what stories it has to tell from battlefields an ocean away, is truly undescribable.

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!)