> This lack of data is a common problem, Jim and I have emailed at
length
> about the location of this Jagdtiger <snip>
I'm sure the mystery will reveil itself in time...which I'm sure is
some of the interesting facets of recovery...finding out the vehicles
service life and history. I might harken it to the photographs I have
of the Pz IV/70(A) at the armor museum in Saumer, France and, some
time later, finding photographs of the very same vehicle taken at the
time of the vehicles capture.
> Almost all of the recovered/restored German armour ends up in one or
two
> locations in the USA and is unavailable for even respected authors to
> view and record, regretfully. This particular vehicle is an even
rarer
> device with an 88mm gun owing to the shortage of 128mm units and was
> only ever a prototype but when needs must it was no doubt pressed into
> service, to be accurate it is then a SdKfz 185.
I think thats unfortunate indeed...and I would love to know the
reason(s) why this is so and these vehicles cannot be viewed,
photographed, nor information recorded...even by the best of
authorities in the armor field. A shame, really. One can only hope
that at some future date, those vehicles can be viewed by the public.
Even the National Air & Space Museum facility at Silver Hill, MD,
which houses quite a number of very rare aircraft ( such as the Gotha
Go229, Blohm und Voss Bv155B, and Nakajimi Kikka to name a few ) are
open to the public, albiet in a limited way. The Patton Armor Museum
at Ft. Knox allows, after requesting such from the curator, one to
view select vehicles in their storage sheds which aren't open to the
general public.
According to Wolfgang Schneider's
"Elefant-Jagdtiger-Sturmtiger:Rarities of the Tiger Family", the 88mm
gun was modified to fit the Jagdtiger ( this modification being known
as the PAK43/3, Version D ), the gun being so modified by Hallesche
Maschinenfabrik of Lippstadt. They delivered the weapons to the
Nibelungen Works where the vehicle was being built beginning in 1944.
Of the 74 Jagdtigers built, Schneider says there is no record of how
many of them left the factories armed with the 88mm gun.
> A well known collector here who advertises in W&T bought a complete,
> undamaged, operational Panther from a Russian museum <snip>
> The vehicle was "stored" in a field, it is still there, except the
> engine has now gone together with the turret. Allegedly.
If this story is true....I'd be one ripped person. Pay that kind of
money for a running "Panther", only to now have it rusting, turretless
and engineless, in some field. Somebody got rich....
Best,
Ed
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