Aberdeen Proving Grounds! (56k = KIA)

[IRG CommandoJoe]

Here's a bunch of pics from my trip to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds Ordnance Museum. I got to speak with Dr. William Atwater, the guy on the History Channel, and he passed around weapons for us to "fondle" as he said. This guy is hilarious. If you ever get a chance to go, make sure you get to meet him. Ask him to show you any weapon and he'll tell you something interesting and humorous about its history.

It kind of sucks, not because I got to hold the weapons, but because he only allowed us to since I was with my WWII class. So if I ever went back on my own, it's doubtful if he'd let me hold the guns again. He had to leave about an hour before the museum closed, so I didn't get to explore the entire room's collection. I wanted to handle the BAR and Luger in particular...

Eh, whatever. I got my MG-42, and that's all that counts.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take as many photos as I wanted to because I was too busy staring through the sights of an MP-5, AK-47, MP-40, M-14, M-3 Grease Gun, M-4 Carbine, Galil, XM-8, Dragunov...hmm...and maybe some others I forgot about. All in all, it was a pretty awesome experience.

Let the pictures do the rest of the talking:



Yes, it's him! Venerable military historian and curator, Dr. William Atwater, famous for his appearances on the Hitler, er, History Channel.



BAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!! My dreams come alive! Now if it were only loaded with ammunition...

...and I knew how to operate it...

...and that girl behind me wasn't aiming a Garand at my back...



I felt like a Stormtrooper riding a Death Star turbolift in that shot...



Another shot of an MG-42 with a drum magazine. Awesomeness...



"Feuer frei!"
"Jawohl, herr kommandant!"
*BLAM*



If the world will end in fire, let it be from...the ATOMIC CANNON!!!



Ah, there's nothing quite like standing and waving on...the ATOMIC CANNON!!!



Mah ride, bitches! Rollin' wit da Afrika Korps...



Panzer rollen in Afrika vor!



I think this was the best-looking crappy light tank America made.



I can just envision a squad of soldiers swarming out of the back hatch now...



Not shown here, Humphrey Bogart's in there taking a swig of whiskey with his crewmates. (Cookie for reference.)



Forgot what crappy light tank it is, but it's a nice camouflage paint job.



Ah, the Sherman; lighting up and killing its crewmembers since 1942.



Best tanka in Great Patriotic War, da? Now we drink vodka.



Oh noes! It's Tiananmen Square all over again! Says it ain't so! Think of the children!

WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!?!



Say what you will about your stupid Wolverine from X-Men; this one's infinitely cooler. And it's real. Nyah.



The XM1 Abrams...is it me or is there something about this that looks different from the Abrams we use now?

[FSTargetDrone]

Not shown here, Humphrey Bogart's in there taking a swig of whiskey with his crewmates. (Cookie for reference.)

Pfft. Sahara!

I want my cookie in the cave. With water.

The XM1 Abrams...is it me or is there something about this that looks different from the Abrams we use now?

I believe that is the prototype, so there are bound to be differences.

Anyway, nice pics. I was there ages and ages ago with my Boy Scout Troop. We were able to scramble up on top of an old M113 that was way off to the side. Most of the AFVs and tanks' hatches were welded shut, but the M113 was wide open. I sat in the driver's and commander's position. Fun fun!

[IRG CommandoJoe]

Yeah...good times.

The only bad thing was that a lot of the tanks were out for repair, and the only Tiger I they were supposed to have somehow got involved in a shipwreck and it's in England or somewhere now...I'm not really sure about the details, all I know is it wasn't there. And some of the tanks are really rusted to hell...they have to dump more money into the program to maintain these things before they rot away.

[FSTargetDrone]

Yeah...good times.

The only bad thing was that a lot of the tanks were out for repair, and the only Tiger I they were supposed to have somehow got involved in a shipwreck and it's in England or somewhere now...I'm not really sure about the details, all I know is it wasn't there. And some of the tanks are really rusted to hell...they have to dump more money into the program to maintain these things before they rot away.

Last I heard there was a proposal to move some of the more important vehicles in the collection out of the elements, possibly to other museums across the country.

Do they still have that huge coastal defense gun there? When I was there, man, that thing looked enormous.

[IRG CommandoJoe]

If by coastal defense gun you mean the railroad gun used at Anzio, then yes. It's visible (barely) behind...the ATOMIC CANNON!!!

[FSTargetDrone]

If by coastal defense gun you mean the railroad gun used at Anzio, then yes. It's visible (barely) behind...the ATOMIC CANNON!!!

No, there was a large coastal defense gun of some kind out by the tanks, away from the railway gun, IIRC. I sort of remember that the railway gun was across a road from everything else? By the way, we crawled all over the railway gun as well. I wish I could find my old pictures of that trip!

[Mr Bean]

The crappy tank who's name you can't remember looks like a Japanese Chi-ha. Co-ax machine gun? Bah why would we need that?

[Dartzap]

You appear to have gone over your daily bandwidth limit, hence why all i can see little are red X's.

[IRG CommandoJoe]

You appear to have gone over your daily bandwidth limit, hence why all i can see little are red X's.

Ah, well they are viewable if you go to myspace.com/irgcommandojoe. But you need a MySpace account to view them.

The crappy tank who's name you can't remember looks like a Japanese Chi-ha. Co-ax machine gun? Bah why would we need that?

I dunno...at first I thought it was a Chi-Ha too, but when I got home and looked at it I compared it to another picture of the Chi-Ha on display at Aberdeen:



Notice the big bulge right above the cannon is missing from the Chi-Ha, the Chi-Ha lacks that square-ish frontal armor on the turret, and the wheel/suspension system looks totally different. Also, I think the commander's hatch is also misaligned, though that's not really clear from the different angles. Either way the hatches look way out of proportion to each other compared to the turret on each tank.

I'm not sure what this one is. Maybe someone from HAB could ID it.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

The XM1 Abrams...is it me or is there something about this that looks different from the Abrams we use now?

The M1A1 and M1A2 have 120mm cannons versus the original M1's 105mm. IIRC the M1A2 has expanded cargo bins as well.