Article about: I posted this on FACEBOOK last week when the Panzer arrived. We have a long way to go for restoration. The primary issue right now is that the tracks are frozen, and it won't roll. We are wo
I posted this on FACEBOOK last week when the Panzer arrived.
We have a long way to go for restoration. The primary issue right now is that the tracks are frozen, and it won't roll. We are working with our restoration folks to see what we can do to get the tank to roll. We will need to find a solution in order to move this inside the museum after the restoration is complete.
The First Armored Division Museum is very excited to share with its museum followers, the Ft Bliss community, and others of the arrival of a World War Two German Panzer III tank to the museum this morning.
The tank arrived from the Armor and Cavalry Training Support Center at Fort Benning, Georgia.
We have offloaded the tank and it will be going to the Fort Bliss LRC for a very detailed and deliberate conservation and preservation project sometime in July.
We are in the very early stages of gathering information on this tank, so we will update everyone when we have more detailed information but here is some general information about the Panzer III.
The Panzerkampfwagen III, commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II to include North Africa against the 1st Armored Division. The official German ordnance designation was Sd. Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight other armored fighting vehicles and serve alongside and support the Panzer IV. It was decided that since the Panzer IV had more development potential, it was redesigned to mount the long-barreled 7.5 cm KwK 40 gun. The Panzer III effectively became obsolete and was supplanted by the later Panzer IV. From 1942, the last version of Panzer III mounted the 7.5 cm KwK 37 L/24, better suited for infantry support. Production of the Panzer III ended in 1943. However, the Panzer III's capable chassis provided hulls for the StuG III assault gun until the end of the war. Many older Panzer IIIs was rebuilt as StuG IIIs in 1944 and 1945.
We would like to thank the staff of the Armor and Cavalry Training Support facility at Fort Benning, Georgia, The Center of Military History Transportation and Movement Office, the Movement Branches at both Ft Benning and Ft Bliss, the Transport company who hauled the tank and Southwestern Industrial Contractors and Riggers who provided the crane support here at Ft Bliss to offload the Panzer. Without the combined efforts and support from everyone at both ends, this move would not have been possible.
Some Armor enthusiasts have provided some wonderful information about the tank that helps with its history.
This tank was recovered in Tunisia. The original 7.5 cm KwK L/24 gun was replaced by a 37mm gun when the tank was located in Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. The director at that time (40+ years ago) took a 7.5 cm KwK L/43 for display out of a rebuilt PzKpfw IV Ausf D that came out of Sicily and replaced it with the 7.5 cm KwK L/24 out of the Panzer III Ausf N (Which is the one we have now). Our tank may also be a Panzer III Ausf L (late hull) but we are still researching to get more information.
I remember seeing this tank at Aberdeen when I was getting ready to go into the Army in 1983-84. It looked a lot better then but again we are making progress to restore this tank and get it indoors.
The first two images are of the Panzer at Fort Bliss, Texas,
The next two images are when it was at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.
The last image was the one I took in July 1983-84 when it was still at Aberdeen.
The last image of the restored tank is the one that was captured in Sicily and the gun in that tank was from our Panzer. This tank is at the Ordnance Musuem at Fort Lee, Virginia
Looking forward to finding out more information about the tanks history..
This stuff is used by US Army, has TACOM approval too, link below.
It is an excellent penetrant, can be open atmosphere sprayed as well per US Army regs. PPE needs to be worn when sprayed to protect against oil inhalation.
Treat frozen hinged/roller pin locations by spraying, allow it to sit 24 -48 hours, then treat again. It may take 3 or 4 treatments over a 2-3 week period to penetrate the locations completely.
We sprayed this product on over 10,000 tactical vehicles at Schofield barracks, USMC uses it as well for their tactical gear. With petroleum hydrocarbon contamination in the ground threshold at over 5,000 PPM, we never exceeded 3,500 PPM threshold at the main corrosion control center at Schofield. We were mandated to have quarterly soil sample tests done at the rear exhaust area of particulate mist as well as storm drain out fall that collected rain water from the tarmacs parking lot were the equipment sat for 24 hours to drip before wash rack clean up.
The image of the crew in front of the MTV, thats the # 10,000 piece of tactical equipment treated.
We treated the Engineering companies dozers, the Artillery companies dozers and CUCV's ( used prior to dozer acquisition to produce flat ground artillery emplacements) and both entities advised how well the product work to keep hinged and pin points free to move. Every piece of equipment USARPAC as well as HIANG and USMAC had was treated.
DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to sell this product, the post is to advise a way that might be efficient and easy to use to get the tracks free of the Panzer.
Panzer III arrives at Fort Bliss, Texas
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