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A very successful visit to the Ordnance Museum - which is very much in the process of packing up - on Friday. While the museum has had a lot of miss-steps in the past, pulling these data plates from the vehicles saved them from the rust and decay they have otherwise faced. These plates are in much better condition than most pictures I have seen...

Just the pictures for now - I havent studied to pull off the SNs,

Coventry Ordnance - from the Mk IV perhaps?



img.photobucket.com/al...ance-1.jpg

img.photobucket.com/al...ance-2.jpg

img.photobucket.com/al...ance-3.jpg



img.photobucket.com/al...ance-4.jpg

Mk IIA Medium Tank



img.photobucket.com/al...9MkIIA.jpg

Centaur Mk 1 - I dont have any other record of the museum ever having one actually...



img.photobucket.com/al...aurMk1.jpg

Churchill



img.photobucket.com/al...rchill.jpg

Crusader III



img.photobucket.com/al...derIII.jpg

Mk VIA (some sources say it is a Mk VIB)



img.photobucket.com/al...0MkVIA.jpg

Neil

It's a shame they didn't do "Walk-Around" pictorials of the vehicles these plates came from before they disposed of them, think of the history lost

They may have done a walkaround. There have been cabinets full of old negatives, some of which were dumped on teh National Archives in the big Army vs Archives tiff a long while back.

It is easy to forget the effort that used to be involved in photo archiving in the days before digital photography and the effort required to track things when a file was just that

That's good to hear,

Hopefully someone will digitize them before they start to deteriorate. (If they know where they are at)

As I posted on thread #7:

Most of the museum's vehicles were photographed around 1946-1949. Many of these photos made it into the books Tank Data, Tank Data 2, and Tank Data 3. I have posted a bunch of the Inactive pictures at
smg.photobucket.com/al...baumgar/US Army Ordnance Museum/Inactive/

Neil

FYI, here are the numbers was able to pull off the plates by increasing the size of the original images (Photobucket shrunk them some).

Mk IIA Medium Maker's No? 929, WD No T425
Centaur Mk 1 Maker's No LD25, WD No T184003
A22C Churchill III (original configuration?) Maker's No LD4213, WD No T32203R
Crusader III Maker's No 685A, WD No T126120
Mk VIA Maker's No 179A, WD No T16636

Neil

A bit of Threadomancy, but here's a picture of Churchill T32203R.

Any ideas as to its location?

I'm guessing somewhere in the US based on the tank next to it - M2A1, M2A4 or early M3 light tank?

I wanna say APG... but the mountains in the background?...

Definitely not Aberdeen. wish I had the picture when I was at Aberdeen doing tours. From memory it looks like the same model Churchill but it would be interesting to hold the picture up next to the tank and comparing details.

That is also a GI on the tank. (look at the canteen) Could that be at the desert training center? that would be a reason to always carry a canteen

Aberdeen Churchill in 2010. Mountains and test site does look like Yuma Proving Ground.

Yuma makes a lot of sense - this following is from Tank Data, p17 and the Ordnance Museum Guide CD.

“Shipped to U.S. for tests at Yuma, and then to APG for retention by museum. Gift of British Ministry of Supply in Washington, 1944."

Does anyone know if all Aberdeen records and photographs followed the Ordnance School to Ft. Lee, VA? I was kind of hoping they would go to Carlisle, PA, this is where a lot of retiring Generals and Officials deposit their items, knowing it will be filed and cared for there. Rick

They are almost certainly at Fort Lee. You _may_ be able to access them if you call ahead (on a weekday).

Thanks Neil, I might try this year on vacation. Rick

I think the tank in the period photo (Original in my possession) and the modern photo are the same tank. Look closely at the circled area on the attached photo.
Mike Haines