Story of the Patton museum's Tiger II

[AHTbolt]

http://www.ss501panzer.com/Saga_of_332.htm .I know the curator of the Patton museum and you should see some of the vehicles they have in storage because they have no display space.

[mthrockmor]

Bolt, now the little wheel in my brain is churning. Since you know the curator, what are the chance you could arrange a private tour for a handful of us? I'd be happy to buy him dinner and listen to his stories.

Any chance?

Boo

[skorpion]

wow, thats amazing. id love to see that tank up close, just amazing! good find!

[AHTbolt]

Let me give him a call and I will really give it a try. They just got a new Director so I don't know whats going on with the internal audits and such and also his schedule. There pretty picky about getting into the storage areas.

I had a reputation in the army museum system that if I ever came to your museum "HIDE EVERYTHING" would ring out, because I was known to try and get my hands on anything and everything for my museum. Got several tanks by being a pain in the ass.

On a side note they have a M4A3E8 that they fire the main gun during retreat every night.

[Fencer51]

As far as I know there are few if any tanks left at the museum.. and none on display.

Due to the base relocation program fort Knox is closing as the armored training center and being transfered to a base in Georgia where a new museum is to be built for us armor.  The argh stuff from ky went to fort sill.

http://www.armorfortheages.com/GGPM/Volunteers/Projects/CurrentProjects.htm

You can see some of what they had at my website photo album.

 http://www.51hangar.net/Photos/Photos.html

[AHTbolt]

Hey Fencer talked to my friend yesterday and he let me in on the news. It really is a sad day for me I wonder what there going to do with the LST building now, it was something to see up close.  The cool thing about most of the US vehicles are that they run and the guns are functional.

[Oldman731]

"The Ordnance Museum cut away sections of the tank’s armor, including the entire left side of the turret and a part of the upper hull on the left side.  While this action no doubt improved the display qualities of the tank, it unfortunately destroyed evidence of the tank’s original paint for future researchers.  The museum kept the tank displayed inside for some time, but at some date in the 1950s or 1960s 332 was moved outside.  APG welded thin sheet metal over the cut-away areas to keep out the effects of weather, and initially simply painted the added metal in red primer."


I used to visit the ordnance museum at Aberdeen in the late 1960s and 70s, then later took my boys there in the late 1990s.  The last time I saw this tank there was October, 1974.  Much later I learned that it had been moved to Kentucky, and I saw photos of the cutaway turret.  I've been cursing the Patton Museum people for years (decades, perhaps), when all the while it was the weiners at Aberdeen who screwed up the tank in the first place.

Thanks for this article, it cleared up a lot of questions for me.

- oldman

[Fencer51]

Hey Fencer talked to my friend yesterday and he let me in on the news. It really is a sad day for me I wonder what there going to do with the LST building now, it was something to see up close.  The cool thing about most of the US vehicles are that they run and the guns are functional.

Yeah I made it there for the second time in my life (first was mid 70s) in Sept 2008.  I was really sad when I saw they were going to relocate the facility.  They really split up the collection to with the arty going to Fort Sill.  They definately needed a bigger building as they had so much in storage that was never on display.

[Big Rat]

Seems white phospherous rounds are a good way to get crews to abandon Tiger II's.  This is another account I've heard of this happening.  In the book "Death Traps" sorry forget author right now, there was another account of this happening.  Thanks for the post   German armor was always a hobby of mine

 
BigRat

[AHTbolt]

Around 94 or 95 the Center of Military History which has control over all museum items did an audit of the vehicles at Aberdeen and found that vehicles had been striped of interior parts to include sights and other valuable items the vehicles had not been secured in any way. Aberdeen was told that they had to bring all vehicle up to the standards of when they were first put on display or the vehicles would be farmed out to other museums for the restorations. The museum I worked at got a German towed quad 20mm.

[AHTbolt]

Here's a video of some of the heavy tanks being moved by rail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA98vrHl5YI

[pipz]

Thanks for posting the article Tbolt. I had heard that a lot of items were being picked out of Aberdeen.

Very nice pictures Fencer.

[Fencer51]

Here's a video of some of the heavy tanks being moved by rail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA98vrHl5YI

Wow.. none of those were on display..

[AHTbolt]

The first one you see the big assult gun was out front of the museum you can see the second set of tracks for it on the last flat car

[Fencer51]

Ah yeah rg that the T-26.  It was outfront wasn't it.