"There's a real Panther in Central Massachusetts" Topic

Amazing!!!

link

I'd love to see that whole museum…

Nice collection

Thanks for sharing!

Here you go guys,

This was in California before the Collings Foundation got it.

Wolfhag

Cool.

Quite possibly the single best thing I have seen in the whirl of the internet in quite some time.

Wow – did not know about this place, but now it is on the "to visit" list

Thanks very much for sharing!

A wonderful looking beast. Love the Ausf A model.

Got to see a whole bunch of stuff out west, before the collection was broken up.

Don't recall seeing that one though, but it was years ago, and there were so many to view. Might have been one they were working on at the time, without a fresh coat of paint.

The Collings Foundation is the real deal. They are also the people responsible for the B17/B24 flights that tour various airports around the country.

BTW, the Panther is part of the purchase of a number of AFVs from th eJaques Littlefield collection after Mr Littlefield's unfortunate passing. The Collings people will be good custodians. From what I understand, the Collings Panther is a fully operational runner.

B

It's a good thing I don't live in Mass any more, or my wife would have never seen me if this had been open then. I'm sorry I missed it.

What happened to the collection of vehicles at the Aberdeen proving grounds in Maryland?

Blutarski,
Yes, they bought most of the collection and auctioned off the ones they didn't want to cover the cross-country transportation. Most of the Panther turret was rebuilt at a foundry in Oakland.

I help the Collings Foundation with advance PR and help out the pilots doing maintenance. I've gotten 2.5 free hours of flight in the B-24.

If you ever get a chance to fly in a B-17 or B-24, take the B-24. There is much more room and the Norden bombsight is operational. You can work the waist guns too. The B-17 has the waist windows covered in plexiglass and it gets very hot back there. You can't go to the tail turret in either one.

I'll be visiting the tank museum in Bovington on Nov 25.

Aberdeen Museum: ordmusfound.org

Yes, that me in the picture next to the Panther.

Wolfhag

You have to go when they have the battle for the airfield event in october there is a lot there at that time.
link

I live near that and have not heard of it. Oh, I see. It is a preview, since they are opening it and it is not finished.

If you do go, plan to hit the World War 2 museum in Natick. Maybe half an hour from one to the other? That place is amazing. It was utterly packed full of stuff. And sometimes it is not "this is a <whatever>", but "this is the <whatever>". museumofworldwarii.org

andy

Looks like I have a new destination for vacation! Thanks for sharing!

Allen57 the collection at Aberdeen was broken up and sent to various military museums around the country ( artillery to Ft. Sill, tanks to Ft.Benning, etc ) . Some is IIRC sitting in storage ( usually out in the elements ) . Most of the old Ft. Knox Patton Museum of Armor and Cavalry is now at Ft. Benning and generally not open to the public since they have little funding which is generally used for vehicle upkeep and to slowly build shelters for the collection. Ft. Benning does have a shiny, fairly new Infantry Museum which cherry picks vehicles to display.

It is nice to see the museum in Massachusetts, but I doubt I will ever have the desire to travel to that part of the country just to visit it. The AAF Museum is closer, as will the National Armor and Cavalry Museum ( if it ever gets built ) . aaftankmuseum.com

Didn't know about this and I'm only 90 mins. away!

That is really cool.

Wow ! Let's hope all those old AFVs get to a good location/home. And there are funds to maintain and protect them.

Thanks for the tip. I now have an excuse to visit family in Acton, MA.

Major Mike,
Isn't there a German Panther at one of the locations you mentioned?

Wolfhag

Thanks for all the feedback and for checking out the pics on my blog. I only knew of this because of the museum's post on FaceBook. I have shared with many folks as most who would be interested had no idea this was there.

I live in East Brookfield, next to Sturbridge, and am always looking to grow our gaming club, the Mass Pikemen. If interested, check out the group on FaceBook or send me a message.

Hopefully this museum will last until I can at least get there. It looks impressive!

Wolfhag, the National Armor and Cavalry collections includes a Panther (that was at one time a runner, may still be) and a Panther 2. I was always "wowed" by their King Tiger.

@ Major Mike I thought the Aberdeen collection went south to another location with plans to built an indoor facility to house the vehicles.

I know this Panther well. Inside and out.

It is well worth seeing. It was the last great restoration project of Jacques Littlefield -- his pride and joy up to his last days.

"Inside and out" he says? Well, yeah. If you want to know what a Panther driver's position looks like, or if you want to understand what it took to replace that final drive that was the achilles heel of Panther reliability, here's a pic from among some I took during the restoration of that lovely piece of teutonic art.

Care to know how thick the mantlet was on a Panther? Get your measuring stick out.

The turret was the least complete part of the recovered wreck. The back and one side had either been blown or rusted away. About 1/3rd of the turret was actually fabricated anew as part of the restoration, as there wasn't enough metal to restore.

It's the only tank I've ever broken track on. Well, OK, let's be honest … I did about 20 minutes of actual work breaking track, managing to loosen (but not remove) about ONE track pin.

And in case you don't know, Panthers are physically quite LARGE. Really massive. It can be deceptive when looking at scale models, because it's a pretty sleek shape.

Makes a great conversation piece -- here I had a chance for interesting conversations about Panthers with authors Michael Green and Steven Zaloga.

Some folks here have suggested from my postings that I don't like Panthers very much. But I shall say that I have a soft spot in my heart for this particular beastie.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Want to add here: MarkAMorin thank you for posting this thread and the link with your very well written blog post.

It is nice to see that so many of Jacque's vehicles are well set for now. It's like seeing a bunch of old friends again. I know so many stories about so many of these things. The SdKfz 222, the M3 Lee, the T-34-85, the Scud launcher (members of Littlefield's team actually wound up sleping with that vehicle in a US Customs impound lot when they were working to get it into the country).

And the M26 Pershing.

Shown here in the Korean War display area.

I was part of a small team that went over unit AARs during the restoration to find out why that particular vehicle has a plug welded into the front slope. We found the action where it was hit by a Chicom ZiS-2 AT gun while driving along a raised berm between agricultural fields in Korea. So if you go to see it, look closely at the glacis, and consider a 57mm AP round striking it on a rising angle from the lower right front (might have been from the left -- please remember this was more than 15 years ago that I worked on this). No casualties, no penetration or permanent damage were reported, but you can see the kind of crude frontline workshop welding repair, and now you know the rest of the story…

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Hey Mark 1, great backstory and I appreciate the shout out. To walk into the gallery and see the Panther was a total jaw-dropping surprise for me. It is indeed much bigger than I imagined. I will look for the M26 damage on my next visit. I do have a question about the M24 – it had a data plate on the front armor written in French. Where did that come from if you know? And the SCUD launcher is huge too. So much to see in that collection, so much to admire. REALLY like your WIP pictures as well. THANKS!

I do have a question about the M24 … if you know?

Sorry, I have no info on the Chaffee. In fact I don't even recall a Chaffee in the collection. I like Chaffees, so I am surprised if it was there and I never noticed it. Doesn't mean it didn't come from Littlefield, but only that if it did, I don't know it.

As to why a Chaffee might have a French manufacturer's plate … well ain't that a bit of a mystery? I seem to recall that one of the two manufacturers of the Chaffee was Masey-Harrison, and that they built Chaffees in Canada. I suppose it's possible that they used French language manufacturer's plates. But as I recall they built them in Ontario. I would not have been too surprised to hear that about tanks built in Montreal / Quebec, but Ontario?

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Looks like a game of "What a Tanker!" in there!

Also, Hudson's not really Central Mass…

Mark1 looks like the only words I can make out are some French acronyms and "RECONSTRUIT" and "DEC"

Achtung, yes there is a game there – here's the link
link

And as a Worcester County guy, its closer to Worcester than to Boston, so I'm sticking with Central MA, but I get it its on the border of 495.

I suppose it's possible that they used French language manufacturer's plates

Well we know the French used the M24 in Indochina and 10 even were at DBP …

And the Canadian Army did have both French & English speaking troops/units, IIRC …

"And as a Worcester County guy, its closer to Worcester than to Boston, so I'm sticking with Central MA, but I get it its on the border of 495."

I am a Bostonian by birth. The geographical convention in Boston is:
> Anything beyond Rte 495 is "central MA".
> You are in western MA if you cannot pick up the Boston radio stations when driving the Mass Pike.

;-)

B

Outstanding!!! Is there any type of history with each display or are they mostly rebuilds? Great stuff!

Regards
Russ Dunaway

Russ there are some histories, but not with the vehicles except for the Abrams tank. These are not rebuilds!

FSBO – SdKfz 171 Ausf. A. One owner. Only driven on Sundays by little old lady who wanted to be sure of getting a parking spot. :-)

Well … on the "back story" angle, if they got the SdKfz 7 from Littlefield's collection, it is the same one used in the filming of the Dirty Dozen.

How's that for "some histories"?

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Nice Mark1!

This museum just gets better all the time

There was a documentary series on tank restoration on Netflix a while back and I have a feeling this Panther was the one featured. The crew drove it into a river and couldn't get it out so they demolished the turret with charges and got outta Dodge. 70-odd years later it was fished out of the river and rebuilt.

The celebrated final drive problem was explained with shots of the drive opened up. It's just a couple of spur gears. The whole weight of the tank went on one gear tooth at a time. Bizarre.