Americans, to their credit had M3, M3A1, M5, Sherman, M24/ Chaffee, M3
Halftrack, Staff Car, M20 Armored Car. Also PACK 75. Flying air cover was a
P51 Mustang.
The Patton Museum group manned their Sherman, one of the Hetzers, and the
M3 Stuart. They are all owned by the museum.
Germans, had several Armored Cars, one built by Mike Scholer, of Riverview
Florida, a beautiful Sd.Kfz.232, eight wheeled beauty, as well as 2-Hetzer
tank destroyers, 2-PACK36 AT Guns and the secret weapon..a beautiful 88mm
Anti-Aircraft Gun . Several sidecar equipped motorcycles and correctly
dressed motorcycle troops were seen. Also several Kittenkrad tracks were
towing the light guns as well as a beautiful Damog 3/4 track ?. Not sure
about that one.
Doug Kiesler, of Kiesler's Police Supply fame, was most proud. His armored
contingent supplied a Kittenkrad, Damog, M24, Stuart models M3A1, M5, M3.
Alao a M20 armored Car, M3 Halftrack, Staff Car, Pack 75 and the PACK 36
and the 88! All from his personal collection. Of special note was the all
female crew of his very nice M5 Stuart!
All of the AT guns were live, the 36mm and PACK75/36, all fired . The 37mm
guns in the Stuarts and the 75mm in the M24 were live as well. The 88 had
been converted to 75mm.
The Germans had a troop force of over 75 . Their camp was impressive and
detailed. To see them in uniform, marching in full combat gear, supported
by Armor.........wish I had B&W film............
I would think a like number of US Troops were in attendance as well. All
dressed and equipped with some fine, NFA weapons of all varieties. Most
rigged to fire blanks.
On Saturday, the Army provided nice, late 1999 issue 75mm blanks for the
gun demo. The 88 was most impressive in a ground role...but in the Anti
Aircraft role was superb! Nice report with lots of smoke from the muzzle. I
had trained with Doug's crew on this gun and was able to operate it and can
tell you it is an awesome piece. It has an ominous appearance and I can
only imagine the respect that the allied forces must have had for this
weapon in actual combat. Doug's 88 is in immaculate condition, just having
been acquired from a famous Museum.
On Sunday, the US Army comes driving up in a late model Ford Supervan
loaded with MG's. Loaners for the party, 1919's, all varieties and M2HB's,
all rigged for blanks. All the vehicle crews checked out weapons and
installed them on their vehicles.
Then, a M37 power wagon towing an ammo trailer delivered the ammo and more
cases of 75mm blanks. Gotta love that! Ammo, Guns, Blanks, all provided by
the Government. Hard to believe.
Yours truly, gunner in a M3A1, driven my Matthew Brown and Commanded by
none other than Mike Brown. Mike had worked for over a month to make sure
all vehicles had the correct, operating commo and radio equipment. As the
battle began, the armored forces of both side traded rounds, supported by
ground forces. Air cover by our P51 was impressive as he came in low
several times to strafe. Very NICE! The roar of that P51 coming in low.....
My tank was knocked out and burning, but not before we took out a German
Armored Car.................setting it afire. Sitting in the center off the
action, we got great photo op and took advantage of it.
In the end...the M24 Chaffee dueled it out with a Hetzer, disabling it and
causing the crew to surrender...caught on tape and with the roar and smoke
of the 75mm and small arms fire..very impressive.
Overall Command for all US armored forces was provided by Doug Kiesler from
the radio equipped Command Car. The American forces were victorious, but
for a while.....it was in doubt, with the 88 having unleashed over 30
rounds on our guys. It was pretty impressive to see the German AT gun crews
manning the guns, especially the 88.
Well..other than the sunburn and the heat...all that attended had a great
time. It is open to the public each 4th of July.
After the day was over we were allowed to convoy all the armor around the
Ft Knox Base to a holding yard, some 6 miles. Riding in the turret, we
paralled a hi way for a time and gave the people on it an interesting
sight...all that WWII armor in a column, crews dressed in WWII garb got
lots of horn honks and waves.....and the passing of yards full of Tanks,
APC's and Artillery.......and Apache Helicopters...WOW!
The only casualty of the day was the Patton Museum/Hetzer that broke down
on the march. The Black Wool clad, SS Commander..sitting atop his disabled
tank was a sight. The Army sent out a M88 recovery Vehicle and towed it
back to the storage yard for repairs. Our column had to leave the road to
allow the M88 to pass....those GI's must have laughed at our tanks....so
dwarfed by the M88.....
Well...that's about it.....had a great time....also ran into Tripp Whitlow
and a good friend, Lance Varga, a fellow paramedic from my Fire
Department. Both clad in German, SS attire.
There was a guy there with a 1/3 scale RC model Tiger Tank that was
unreal! Lots to see.....make plans for the next Fourth......at Fort Knox.
Don't forget the live fire, CALFEX demo there in August.....Full tilt
boogie live fire....open to the public..see your tax dollars at work!
Jon
sunburned and tired.......
===
To unsubscribe from the mil-veh mailing list, send the single word
UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of a message to <mil-veh-request@skylee.com>.