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If you've ever been to Ft. Knox, or are there now, or have a chance in the future, look around. The history is all around you where you might not expect it.
I took two of these pictures...one at the Armor Board in '72...the other this last Memorial Day weekend. All are from what is today known as Heard Motor Park. I found a few pics that span some 80 years, but I'm having fun with just these. Many thanks to Dontos and the staff at the Patton Museum for making this little bit of nostalgia possible....

This is just a smidgen of the tank development that's taken place there....

Great shots.

Yeah! Especially the M4A1!

Plans are that I'll be there tomorrow in about 11 hours!

Hi, Doug:

That M48 is a dead ringer for the first one I ever drove or fired at Ft. Knox in '62, but -- are those two boxes what I think they are?

They look to be twin co-ax (of the tank!) M1919s in fixed (?) mounts just ahead of the first track support roller. Way before, or way after, my time.... I'm thinkin', way before.

"Wiggins! You gotta unass the vehicle, take a couple thirty cal ammo boxes, and go reload them sponson boxes!"

Uh, can you spell "Mutiny"?

Dang, Doug, what is the story here? Looks like one of those 1930's tanks with fixed forward-firing machine guns.

Russ

The interesting part is that its a T67 flamethrower version. The items on question with the 30cal sticking out are 'fender boxes' controlled by the driver. Even the Centurion had versions of these and I can can recall seeing some stored in the Hangers in Berlin - never had them fitted though. There were also large flat panels which, I was told, were part of a DD kit for the Cents... though nobody could ever figure out quite how they attached to the vehicles. I got the the impression that a vital part of the kit was missing...

- Russ_Buchan

Hi, Doug:

That M48 is a dead ringer for the first one I ever drove or fired at Ft. Knox in '62, but -- are those two boxes what I think they are?

They look to be twin co-ax (of the tank!) M1919s in fixed (?) mounts just ahead of the first track support roller. Way before, or way after, my time.... I'm thinkin', way before.

"Wiggins! You gotta unass the vehicle, take a couple thirty cal ammo boxes, and go reload them sponson boxes!"

Uh, can you spell "Mutiny"?

Dang, Doug, what is the story here? Looks like one of those 1930's tanks with fixed forward-firing machine guns.

Russ

Jim is right about the flame-thrower bit...see them thar holes along the side of that shorty "gun barrel"...and the access cover on top?...

So, not only does our man Wiggins have to run outside with the ammo to feed them puppies, he might well have to do it "under fire", so to speak, if that flaming-goo squirty thing should be afflicted with a case of the drips!

Sounds like great fun, no?

Oh...I can post pics of MY first motor pool area at Knox (also in M48's) when I get back. As Don and I discovered, it 's now been overrun by the Marines and their vehicles....Potts Motor Park. A story for when I return...(and pics of the very site I first laid eyes on.....a Sheridan!...several of them actually, coming down Main Range Rd....we AIT'ers thought we'd just seen a column of space ships...)

Until I looked closer at the M4A1 I didn't realize that it has an early version of HVSS (note orientation of the springs).

Thanks for sharing the photos!

Gary