StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I will have full size high res JPEGs of my visit on my website; but here's some resized down to 850~ pixel images which won't break board formatting badly enough for *Most* people; enabling comments.

Some notes:

1.) I was sort of short on time.

2.) Running out of space - I only had like 30-40 pictures left on my SD card; I had used up an entire card earlier, and most of the second card's space on previous stuff, So I couldn't just snap pictures of EVERYTHING.

3.) I had no tripod - and I was handholding things so not all of my photos turned out well. But I did pretty good.



Outside of Museum. It's a converted factory, giving them lots of space.


Objective Interim Lightweight Marmoset Monotank.


Towed Gatling display circa Spanish American War.


Bet you wish you had all these as a kid, eh?


GUNZ


What they did was they converted the former office space into self-contained exhibit rooms.


*Barks*


DEATH or Ace, translation required.


A RKKA Tank leader styling in his duds


POLES


BEST WEAPON EVAR.


One of the exhibit halls.


37mm PAK with exterior stick bomb shape charge grenade


The M114. The M113's retarded brother which ate paint chips.


Swedish Medium Tank of WWII, with the modernized turret they got in the 1950s.


M59 or M75 (not sure), that's undergoing restoration.


Bradley put together from two hulks found on firing ranges -- this is the only bradley in a museum other than the prototype at Aberdeen.


Scorpion TD.


60" US WW2 searchlight. And yes, it still works.


M1917 light tank. Basically US Produced Renault FT-17; very rare; sice most were scrapped after WWI, and a lot of survivors were cut up in WWII for war scrap drives.


Sergeant York DIVAD! Second Most AWesome Weapon Evar.


M551 in process of restoration


M42 DUSTER


M103 heavy tank. Because Marines don't need mobility.


T-34 in it's natural environment -- the rubble of nazi germany.


Mechanical Mule with 106mm Recoilless Rifle


Back of a 25mm M242 Bushmaster cannon, showing indicator of what part of it's firing cycle it's in


M108 SP Howitzer. This is the M109's retarded brother. A mere 105mm, it died very fast.


M60A2 "Starship". This one actually runs. They crushed a car with it at a recent museum festival.


Panzer IV. This is not a Nazi Murder Machine, but a Syrian Murder Machine, captured by the Israelis. Traded to the AAF museum via a trade with the IDF Armored Corps Museum at Latrun.


HONEST JOHN!


Towed VADS


NIKE HERCULES



The museum has a huge 1/35 scale map of a belgian town for staging awesome R/C tank battles.


That's a AH-1S Huey Cobra with the rare dual 40mm grenade launcher turret fitted.


Iraqi T-72A captured in 1991; you can see how they have a lot of space for more exhibits, or restoration tear down work.


Swiss Military Bicycle. This was designed in like 1993 or 1995 to replace aging Model 1905 bicycles for which spares were becoming hard to find. 30 year life required. This was acquired when the soldier who had it was allowed to keep it when the last bicycle units were disbanded in 2004.

Some more comments. It's quite surprising how many of the histories of the AAF's stuff read:

"Found in military depot, awaiting destruction on firing range..."

But nothing tops their Sherman's story:

Link

This W.W.II surplus M4A3E8 Sherman was given to the Central Islip Psychiatric Hospital just after the war to be used as a bulldozer moving coal piles and railroad cars near their powerhouse.

Central Islip Psychiatric Hospital was the world's largest psychiatric hospital to be built, housing some 15,000 residents in the early 1950's. This hospital was notorious for employing new treatments, which included shock therapy and prefrontal lobotomies.

This tank was a special one too. Of the more than 40,000 Shermans built during the war, only 50 were constructed with the M2 plow blade and were used by the Engineer Corps for construction projects during combat.

This tank fought its way through mounds of coal, snow and dirt for some 14 years at the hospital. The saga of CI's armoured vehicle did not end when the maintenance department retired it in 1960. When the hospital converted its coal plant to natural gas, the tank was no longer required. It sat for many years having parts stolen off of it and eventually the hospital did not want it any more. What do you do with an unwanted 36 ton tank?

Instead of disposing of their tank in some traditional way, which would have cost the State of New York some money, they simply had their new front loader dig a hole near the powerhouse and bury it under the sod. After the hole was dug and the tank rolled into the hole it was discovered that the hole was not deep enough. To serve as a quick fix the hatch was torch cut off and the tank was filled with earth. Then to hide the tank for what some thought was to be forever, 2 twenty yard trucks of earth were dumped on top.

The tank was stuck in gear, so it would not roll. It still had its original green OD paint after all those years under ground. It was also filled with Long Island dirt and sand. The tank basically remained in its orginal dug up condition for some 24 more years. It was never planned to be restored as the museum felt that the old girl was historically unique as it was.

But, since the museum has moved off Long Island, the museum directors have toyed with the idea to do a cosmetic restoration to the exterior of the vehicle. And so it has been done. The vehicle was cleaned inside and out of all the Long Island dirt and sand that still invaded the steel beast. The museum sand blasted it, and during the blasting we found the vehicle's serial numbers and also the wonderful orginal name that was painted on the side. The Sherman has had its teeth put back in the turret with the installation of the correct mantlet and cannon. All fenders were repaired along with hatches and lights.

Translation as follows:
Upper left, Airborne tag.
Upper right, Sinai campaign ribbon.
"TOLAR telescope
Sinai Campaign
1956"

I have no idea what TOLAR could mean.

Ace Pace wrote:I have no idea what TOLAR could mean.

The book that tells you what is what in each room said that it was captured off a british field gun used by the Egyptians in '56.

And for Stanislav:

Ace Pace wrote:Translation as follows:
Upper left, Airborne tag.
Upper right, Sinai campaign ribbon.
"TOLAR telescope
Sinai Campaign
1956"

I have no idea what TOLAR could mean.

Recoilless cannon
תותח ללא רתע

The swedish tank is a Stridsvagn m/74. They are upgraded from the Stridsvagn m/42.

God I love the Panzer IV. Such an adaptable, flexible design. Not just a teenage wank-idol designed more like a pillbox on treads than an AFV.

That Scorpion TD was interesting. I didn't know anyone other than the Soviets kept building Gunned Tank Destroyers past 1945. Man I miss the days of 40+ tank classes. Would you like some Assault Gun with your Medium Tank? How about a side of Armoured Car?

Shep, you can tell the museum staff they should ask a random Pole to translate the fucking postcard before writing complete nonsense under it.

The only thing I heard about "Armored Dogs" were failed Russian attempts to turn dogs into suicide bombers, but they encountered problems since the dogs couldn't tell T-34s from German Panzers.

But I mean, the Poles wouldn't have any problems, since telling a cavalry horse from a German Panzer is so easy that even a dog can do it.

I kid, I kid. What does the postcard actually say?

It comemmorates the fictional dog Szarik from a popular PRL war epic "The four tankmen and their dog" (it sounds better in Polish ).

Seriously, this is pretty damn embarassing. They also got the general's uniform wrong

ARMORED DOGS? NOOOOOO!!! *cries* I used to so love "Czterej pancerni i pies"! Bad, bad people, what have they done to poor Sharik. That's atrocious. Someone should mail to the museum staff.

Stas Bush wrote:ARMORED DOGS? NOOOOOO!!! *cries* I used to so love "Czterej pancerni i pies"! Bad, bad people, what have they done to poor Sharik. That's atrocious. Someone should mail to the museum staff.

I'll do it

I suppose they translated it using a dictionary or something, but pancerni is a word that's difficult to use for a non-native speaker. It's a male plural form of pancerny (armored), but the male plural form can only be used when referring to either heavily armored knights or tankmen. Since English doesn't differentiate between male, female and neutral nouns, they probably took a dictionary and went: "Aha! Pancerni = plural of armored! Pies = dog! The postcard is about armored dogs!"

All in all, that's really embarassing

You call your dogs pies?

I guess this is an interesting example of linguistics and getting things totally confused and downright wrong. And if it can happen in respectable museums today with a language that's still in use - then who knows what fun stuff could've happened in history!

Stas Bush wrote:ARMORED DOGS? NOOOOOO!!! *cries* I used to so love "Czterej pancerni i pies"! Bad, bad people, what have they done to poor Sharik. That's atrocious. Someone should mail to the museum staff.

*blink*

It took me a second to realize what the hell is going on.

It's clearly a capitalist plot to spread misinformation about the Eastern Bloc. We must retaliate with nuclear hellfire! (just let me know in advance so I can hide)

For those of you confused as to what the hell we're talking about, the postcard is actually referring to this.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Thanks for the pictures, Shep. Do you have any more of that room full of guns?

I'm kinda ashamed at how many of the pictures I guessed wrong on.. Oh well, I got the T-34 right, and that's the most badass picture in there.

MKSheppard wrote:

M59 or M75 (not sure), that's undergoing restoration.

The one on the left is an M75, the darker on on the right is an M59