Com-Central.net

I am currently 'officially' working on writing up the German tanks at Bovington, and then I'll return to writing up Fort Knox. However, as is often the way, things take a detour. To complete the write-ups of the Porsche King Tiger and Jagdtiger, which were found at Haustenbeck, I wrote up the Sennelager Training Area. That led to me writing up Sennelager and Augustdorf. From there it was a small step to Vilseck, and from there to Erlangen since they were both previous locations for Cobra King (which, ironically, is at Fort Knox anyway - things often seem to come full circle that way).

Anyway, I'll post here what I've done for those interested (mostly military bases). Hopefully at a later date I can return to write up the major museums and collections in more detail.

Here are the main links into the database:

Preserved Tanks in Germany

Tank Factories and Facilities in Germany

All Tank Related Locations in Germany

Here are the specific places I've written up recently - generally they are short on photographs so I'd appreciate it if anyone has some they could provide (as usual clicking through to a tank's profile page will give details of source information):

Sennelager Training Area (British/German)




26 miscellaneous AFVs


Normandy Barracks, Sennelager (British)



Centurion and Chieftain


Dempsey Barracks, Sennelager (British)



Tracked Rapier


Generalfeldmarschall-Rommel-Kaserne, Augustdorf (German)



Jaguar, Leopard, GVT, M7B2, M47

Rose Barracks, Vilseck (US)



M4A1E8


Ferris Barracks, Erlangen (US)



Previous location for Rose M4A1E8 and Cobra King

Just finished:

Lager Hammelberg (German/US)



Jaguar x4, M48A2 x2, M48 AVLB x2, ZSU23-4, T-34-85 x2, T-72, M4A3, Sexton


It was news to me that a possible survivor of Task Force Baum still exists - I'm surprised it hasn't received much media attention, like Cobra King.

- TrevorLarkum

Rose Barracks, Vilseck (US)



M4A1E8

Trevor,

Are you planning to capture the vehicles displayed at Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels? I recall quite a collection at Graf, and Hohenfels had one or two, IIRC.

I'll look on my HD for pics of the Graf vehicles, but I lost a bunch of them in a magnet vs. HD incident a couple of years ago. I'll see what what was recovered if you need them to get you started.

Chuck

- TrevorLarkum

Rose Barracks, Vilseck (US)

Hey! Check it out...M60A2's on the firing line! They must have upgraded the ammo containers for 152mm ammo from the '60's-early '70's, those just came in the standard packing within a wooden ammo crate. These are fancy and look a lot like artillery powder tubes or something. Maybe a few too many accidents with the original "packaging".

Is there a history of a "stray" round going through the range tower there? It sure looks like somebody had one get loose on them....

Visited Bergen training area last week and Centurion r/n 42BA67) was not at the gate anymore.

Also it seems they cleaned range 9 at Bergen.

The T-72M early s/n MHYT12ZNH was gone and also a lot of M48's and other T-72s further north east

The HS30 lang at the gate of Lager Horsten was still there

Leslie
Range 9 had quite a few M47s back when I was last there. I actually spent some time 'range walking' and checking out the target array. I actually found some old aerial 'recon' photos taken of Range 9 taken from a helicopter in late 1988.

Doug
The Graf photo is one I found in archives relating to the deployment of the M60A2 to Germany. As I recall, its a shot of the first M60A2 gunnery in Germany.

Regards
Don

Anybody know what unit this was, with the A2s? Could it be 3/33 Armor (Pickles) from The Rock (1st Bde, 3AD)?

- C_Sherman

Trevor,

Are you planning to capture the vehicles displayed at Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels? I recall quite a collection at Graf, and Hohenfels had one or two, IIRC.

I'll look on my HD for pics of the Graf vehicles, but I lost a bunch of them in a magnet vs. HD incident a couple of years ago. I'll see what what was recovered if you need them to get you started.

Chuck

I will do Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels too at some point, so any pictures you can provide would be appreciated.

- L.Delsing

Visited Bergen training area last week and Centurion r/n 42BA67) was not at the gate anymore.

Also it seems they cleaned range 9 at Bergen.

The T-72M early s/n MHYT12ZNH was gone and also a lot of M48's and other T-72s further north east

The HS30 lang at the gate of Lager Horsten was still there

I'll be writing up Bergen-Hohne too so I'll catch up with you then on the changes. I have photo's myself from 1991.

- TrevorLarkum

Just finished:

Lager Hammelberg (German/US)

It was news to me that a possible survivor of Task Force Baum still exists - I'm surprised it hasn't received much media attention, like Cobra King.

Trevor

Walter Wrolson was a tank platoon leader with C Co 37th Tank Bn. During the Bastogne Break Thru, his tank an M4A3(75), named 'Casey Jones', was second in line, directly behind 'Cobra King'.

In March 45, Lt Wrolson was acting as the Maint Officer and participated with Task Force Baum. He was taken POW on 28 March 45.

On May 4 2011, at the age of 91, Lt Walter Wrolson passed away. I'm not sure how many survivors of the RAID are still alive but sadly the ranks are growing thinner by the day.

Regards
Don

- Dontos

- TrevorLarkum

Just finished:

Lager Hammelberg (German/US)

It was news to me that a possible survivor of Task Force Baum still exists - I'm surprised it hasn't received much media attention, like Cobra King.

Trevor

Walter Wrolson was a tank platoon leader with C Co 37th Tank Bn. During the Bastogne Break Thru, his tank an M4A3(75), named 'Casey Jones', was second in line, directly behind 'Cobra King'.

In March 45, Lt Wrolson was acting as the Maint Officer and participated with Task Force Baum. He was taken POW on 28 March 45.

On May 4 2011, at the age of 91, Lt Walter Wrolson passed away. I'm not sure how many survivors of the RAID are still alive but sadly the ranks are growing thinner by the day.

Regards
Don

AFAIK, Abe Baum is still alive and lives in the San Diego area. This was as of late April 2011.

A couple of weeks ago I made a motorbike trip in Germany and we crossed the former Iron Curtain border that divided West and East Germany

We made a short stop near a museum, located inside one of the old East-German border patrol stations
I was not abel to make a visit around the musuem, however they have some AFV's standing around







serial number

To the side there looks something like a M41 tank

Munster-Sud training area, taken in February 2004.



Bergen training area, range 7B, June 2003


Bergen training area, range 7B, June 2003. T-72 #F01VT3689