SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - 1 Aug 13 Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster [picture heavy]

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1 Aug 13 Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster [picture heavy]

Just up the road from me is the town of Munster which also happens to contain the German National Tank Museum. The museum is part funded by the Stadt and part by the Bundeswehr and is pretty unique, both because the Germans produced many of the iconic tanks of WW2 and because Germany is one of the few countries which used both Western and Eastern block armoured vehicles during the Cold War which were then retained following reunification.

It has every type of mainstream Panzer from WW2 (although a few of them have still got the shell holes where they were taken out of action) and many of the Leopard series of tanks, as well as a Merkava and a few other types such as a contemporary flail tank.

The stated aim of the museum is to put every tank in their collection into full mechanical working order and during their Open Days they drive them around for the crowds - I can imagine that seeing a column of German tanks from WW2 is pretty impressive (the next Open Day is 1 Sep 13). This is partially achieved by the Bundeswehr sending their mechanics to help work on the vehicles while the Stadt maintain the buildaings and staff. If you ever visit this neck of the woods it's definitely worth a half-day visit.

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...psd2086863.jpg

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I've got another hundred or so photos so please bear with me - uploading is going to take a while...

Oooh, looking forward to this one. :up: Loving the pics so far, very interesting display on the BTR. Schroeder will be getting some flashbacks with the Marders too. :yeah:

Lovely shots D....how does the place compare to Bovington?

Pretty awesome place! :yep:

Armor is the one aspect of warfare that never really caught my interest, but I still recognize the coolness of preserving these important pieces of history.

Very nice pics, keep them coming :yep:

Nice! Sadly I never managed to go there, yet.

Another good place for tanks in Germany would be Koblenz. It's much lesser knows as the Munster museum and is unfortunately run only by the Bundeswehr, so there's no PR, and only a crappy page - however it's open to the public. It goes by the beautiful name of Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung Koblenz - some pics can be found here: http://www.vff-wts.de/de/eineinblick.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wreford-Brown (Post 2093820)

The stated aim of the museum is to put every tank in their collection into full mechanical working order and during their Open Days they drive them around for the crowds

:o This sounds amazing. I would really love to see the AV7 in working condition - though prefer not to be inside it when it runs. It must have been a hellish place for the crew, wwith no noise or heat protection at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wreford-Brown (Post 2093820)

I've got another hundred or so photos so please bear with me - uploading is going to take a while...

yessss! :rock: moa, please!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimbuna (Post 2093836)

Lovely shots D....how does the place compare to Bovington?

It's very similar to Bovvy - Bovington is physically larger and has a greater collection of international tank (the only non-German one I saw in Munster was the Merkava) but I think they have similar sized collections, so Munster allows a direct comparison between Warsaw Pact and NATO armoured vehicles which Bovington doesn't.

It was interesting to see three BMPs parked next to one another and directly opposite their Western counterparts and it was also interesting to see how US and Western tanks got bigger, taller and heavier while their Warsaw Pact contemporaries got smaller and remained roughly the same weight (allowing greater operational mobility).

The best contemporary armoured vehicle collection I've seen is at Shrivenham, but it's not easy to get into (a bit like the small arms collection in Warminster).

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps1d70bc19.jpg

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:up:

I took the freedom to link this in the eSim SBP forum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penguin (Post 2093848)

Coolest....GT...thread....evah!

:up::up::salute::salute::salute:

The pictures the merrier/better :cool:

Thanks for sharing your photos WB. Great looking collection they have put together.