In 1999 I had the pleasure of
traveling to Ft. Knox, Kentucky to visit the Patton Museum there. I say “there” because its German armor has
apparently now moved to Ft. Benning, Georgia.
I’ve always been interested in WWII because my father participated in it
in North Arica and Italy. Perhaps there
are millions of Baby Boomers who share the same interest because the old
veterans are not gone yet and their memories live on in their children. Those of us with military backgrounds enjoy
seeing the old tanks and vehicles of that era.
Speaking of tanks; the King Tiger 332 towers over the rest. Because I’m not good with a flash camera, the picture is a little dark, but still not bad. I measured the tread with my elbow. It’s exactly the width from my elbow to the tip of my longest finger or one cubit for you who are Biblical scholars. It had a crew of five, but somewhere along the way they’ve taken the dummies out of the turret. There’s a video on You Tube of the 332 showing the turret empty. Why the tanks were sent to Ft. Benning is a puzzle to me.
A German Mark III Sturmgeschutz or 75mm
self- propelled gun was there with an interesting story behind it. It was dug out of a bog outside Leningrad
(now St. Petersburg) in 1994 after it had mired itself there in 1944 and was
abandoned. It’s like “Ice Man” from National Geographic: old, very well
preserved, and even its ammunition was still there. I was surprised at the barrel because you
could wiggle it and I did. You’d think
it would have been as rigid as the framework it sits in. A German 88mm anti-tank gun was not far from
the Sturmgeschutz. The gun was so effective that
the Germans mounted it on its Tiger tanks.
I also saw General Patton’s Sleeping Van. It is a 1942 GMC 6x6 with gravity fed water tanks over the wash basin and a very comfortable bed. Officers got all the perks, especially at that level. Despite all Patton’s mastery of the battlefield, he was still superstitious like Napoleon. Also displayed were the contents of his pockets at the time of the car crash that killed him after the war. I noticed a “Smiling Buddha” with its little pot belly, but perhaps it was just a good luck charm that a lot of people carried at the time. His luck expired that day.
