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Panzer III arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas today


Rakkasan187
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Rakkasan187

Some of you may know that I am the curator of the 1st Armored Division and Ft Bliss Museums at Fort Bliss, Texas.

 

We have been going through preparations for a redesign of our museum to start sometime this September. We will be closed for about 18 months as we go through the redesign.

 

We have been rewriting the storylines for 1AD, Ft Bliss and the US Army NCO Museum will also be located in our facility.

 

We have been reaching out to other Army museums obtaining artifacts for display when we complete the redesign. We have been restoring vehicles and obtaining new ones for conservation and preservation. 

 

The following is the text that I wrote for the 1st Armored Division and Ft Bliss Museum FACEBOOK Page.

 

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. 

 

A FACEBOOK follower was able to provide a little more information about this Panzer III, and they revealed that it was recovered from Tunisia and the original 7.5 cm KwK L/24 gun was replaced by a 3.7 cm (37mm) gun when the tank was located at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. 

 

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.

 

I just wanted to share this with everyone.

 

Best regards, stay safe

 

Leigh

 

P.S.

 

We recognize that the condition of this tank is not the best at the moment, and very extensive and deliberate restoration will be done on this vehicle BUT once completed it will be exhibited inside and out of the elements. 

 

 

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Rakkasan187

I found a photo of this tank from the 80s when it was at Aberdeen. A little better condition that what it is currently but we are confident that the tank will get the restoration and conservation it needs.

 

I took this picture the summer before I shipped out to Infantry School at Ft Benning.

 

Leigh 

 

 

Aberdeen Proving Grnds July 1984008.jpg

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Rakkasan187

Great Eye Preppy Picker..

 

We have a FACEBOOK follower/researcher who was able to provide a little more information about this Panzer III, and they revealed that it was recovered from Tunisia and the original 7.5 cm KwK L/24 gun was replaced by a 3.7 cm (37mm) gun when the tank was located at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. The Aberdeen staff took the 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 this PzKpfw III Ausf N. 

 

We are still searching for a replacement, but we may have to keep the 37mm in place for the time being. 

 

Leigh 

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Preppy Picker

Very interesting information Leigh thank you for the explanation. They should reunite the Pz3 with its original barrel.

Prep

 

 

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Proud Kraut
1 hour ago, Preppy Picker said:

Very interesting information Leigh thank you for the explanation. They should reunite the Pz3 with its original barrel.

Prep

 

 

 

I´m thinking the same, it needs a 5cm barrel again. Thanks for sharing this, Leigh!

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Rakkasan187

After getting some replies on the FB page of the museum, another follower was able to find this image of the restored and rebuilt PzKpfw IV Ausf D with the original 7.5 cm KwK L/24 gun that came out of our Panzer III.

 

We will be looking around the Army Musuem Enterprise Collections to see if there is a spare 7.5cm gun out there. We will do everything we can to restore this tank.

 

Thanks again for everyone's replies and interest.

 

I will post another relic that was restored shortly. 

 

Leigh 

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Skysoldier80

It is really a shame how these pieces of history are in such poor condition.  I am really curious why was there a 37mm added to this tank?

 

The German pieces are In worse condition. Since being stored at Benning than they were when they left Aberdeen.  There are some very rare tanks from that collection.  Why are they not prioritizing the really unique pieces of armor.  A PZIII seems a little more common.
 

I know it is a slow process to save them, but we can only do our best.
 

Even the few remaining tanks at the Patton Museum that are outside are rusting away.  I just visited there last summer.

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Rakkasan187

Skysoldier,

 

Based on the information we have currently, the gun was removed to restore another Panzer IV that was captured in Sicily. We are still researching the why's of this removal, but based on more information, the gun was removed for educational purposes for students at the Ordnance Facility to study foreign artillery pieces. Understand that the Army Musuem system has gone through many changes over the years and we are doing the best we can with limited staff and of course limited funding. We are attempting to prioritize and preserve the vehicles based on numerous criteria which I won't get into. Many of the installations that have tanks outdoors are working with their local installation maintenance facilities to establish a rotating conservation plan. The vehicles displayed outdoors do get rotated through the process of conservation and preservation but on a quarterly basis. When funding is available during a fiscal quarter, vehicles are assessed and determined how much they would cost to conserve. Vehicles vary in price as well as conservation that is done to them. If that money is available in the quarter, then we can do either single vehicles or multiple vehicles depending again on some of the factors I mentioned above. We also have to get on the schedule of the installation maintenance facility and when they are available to restore our vehicles. The weathering of the vehicles as well as the climate and temperature changes from Maryland to Georgia do have drastic effects on the wear and tear of the equipment and obviously storing them outdoors does not help but we have saved many of these vehicles from becoming range targets. 

 

Each installation has their own working agreements and schedules. FORSCOM installations such as Fort Bliss have a priority mission of ensuring the 1AD vehicles are ready for movement, and then the priority goes to installation vehicles such as fire trucks, and other installation support equipment. The museum vehicles are plugged into the maintenance calendar and worked on when time permits. In regard to TRADOC installations where there are schools such as Sill, Benning, the priority is similar to FORSCOM installations. The Maintenace facilities have to keep the equipment used to train Soldiers operational before they can work other projects, and I can't speak for the other installations as far as man-power shortages, but I know at Ft Bliss the civilian companies that work on the equipment are short staffed and are doing double taskings.

 

At the present time we have a T-34/85 Soviet tank that was captured in Bosnia as well as a M3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicle at the restoration shop and we are making arrangements to move an M8 Greyhound there in a few weeks. The funding for this quarter has been expended and we expect the funding approval for next quarter to come soon so we can plan on moving the PANZER III and an M4 Sherman to the facility in July.

 

We are doing due diligence and the best we can to conserve these pieces for future generations, it just takes time, but we are making progress and the support that we have so far for initiating this project has been remarkable. The 1st Armored Division Museum has been working very hard to obtain provenanced pieces of Armor and equipment that was used by the Division or used by the Division's adversaries. Many of the pieces are quite rare and difficult to obtain for exhibit since they are part of another museums core collection. 

 

Best regards

 

Leigh 

  

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