The largest private tank museum in the world: part two: Germans

Here's part two of our excursion to the MVTF, the Militairy Vehicle Technology Foundation. For more about the museum, which is privately owned, go here

Yesterday we looked at a bunch of American vehicles, today I figured we will look at the German WW2 tanks and other vehicles.

Here's the star of the museum: a fully restored Panther tank, only one of two fully restored Panthers in the world. 

This particular vehicle was found in a bog in the Ukraine in the 1990's and brought back to life here at the museum. 

You can see the anti magnetic textured armor on the side of the Panther 

You can see the size difference between the Stuart and the Panther, this tank is truly huge 

The museum has two 88mm Flak guns, this one actually served in Spain, before WW2. 

All the details have been restored

Here's one of my favorites: the Kettenkraftrad. This vehicle looked in perfect shape....

with original weapons mounted on the back of the halftrack 

Here are two halftracks 

and the inside. You get a good feel for the how soldiers were transported. 

I always feel ambivalent about seeing the SS logo, but no one in the museum is glorifying the dark past - it's meant for education. When I showed this image to my 9 year old daughter, she asked me about it and it gave me an opportunity to tell her a bit about it. 

Here's the Afrika Korps corner

 Check the hand grenades in on the right

and this amazing, running, BMW with sidecar. John mentioned this would probably be close to 100.000 dollars worth. 

Last post will feature British and, for my friend Tony, Russian tanks!

Here's the link to the first part of this series

SC Mike