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here are some photos of the vehicles that come from Aberdeen and are temporary stored at Anniston :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cmwebbjr/collections/72157633670729320/

P-O

So Aberdeen is now empty (the museum area that is!) as all of the Anniston, AL depot vehicles were the last at the Ordnance Museum at APG. Even the former Ft. Monmouth, NJ vehicles were sent there! Doubtful if I'll go to APG again. It would seem that the entire collection has been scattered everywhere. Ft. Lee, Ft. Benning. Ft. Sill, and Anniston, AL Depot. Rick

By the way, nice selection of photos, at least vehicles can be viewed and photographed.

Great collection of photos! Thanks for the link, P-O!

It is good to see photos of lots of the stuff we never had a chance to see, being behind the fence and elsewhere at APG, but I sure would like to be able to actually go there and SEE it. Hopefully one day......

I see a lot of 'old friends' there. It's a shame that some of the stories that go with them will be lost.

Also interesting is ones I don't see. There were two T-23s recovered from 'behind the fence' sitting at Aberdeen. Hopefully they went to Ft Lee but everything I was told was that the Museum wasn't interested in them because of the amount of work they would reguire

sorry, I know it's heartbreaking for some of you... but I thought it would avoid a useless visit at APG at last.

P-O

What a shocking state some of those exhibits are in! If they can't look after the old British stuff better, send it back to us!

The T-23s are at Benning.

Are the vehicles at ANAD "excess" and not slated to go into the new museum when (if) it is ever built?

What a great photo gallery! I got to see some of these vehicles when I was a kid back in the 80's. It's a shame to see them in such a sorry state. For what it's worth, I made a post featuring this gallery in my website.

- bsmart

I see a lot of 'old friends' there. It's a shame that some of the stories that go with them will be lost.

Bob - has anyone compiled the stories of your 'old friends' into a written document or audio recording that will be preserved? It would be very sad to lose the stories and as its appears unlikely that the museum system will preserve them, do other options exist?

- vagabond

- bsmart

I see a lot of 'old friends' there. It's a shame that some of the stories that go with them will be lost.

Bob - has anyone compiled the stories of your 'old friends' into a written document or audio recording that will be preserved? It would be very sad to lose the stories and as its appears unlikely that the museum system will preserve them, do other options exist?

Some of the information was in the vehicle information files at Aberdeen. I don't know if those folders were transferred with the vehicles or stored somewhere that they can be accessed. A few were stories I pieced together from talking to staff and knowledgable visitors.

One example is Matilda (one of my favorites).

In spite of her appearance Matilda is a very lucky tank. SHe was captured by the Germans and used in one of their defensive lines (location was in the vehicle file) She was recaptured and after being stripped of usable parts was shipped to New York to be used as scrap (I assumed that was why she doesn't have a gun, engine, tracks, etc) That was where she got very lucky. Col Jarrett was there when she was unloaded to pick up some vehicles he had selected for the Museum. (I always wondered which vehicles were in that shipment) Col Jarrett saw Matilda being unloaded and simply chenged the shipping label to have it added to his shipment! So instead of ending up in a blast furnace in Pittsburgh she spent the next 70 years at Aberdeen. I believe she is one of only 4 Matildas in North America (Littlefield had a beautiful one and I think there were two in Canada)

To hear all the stories you had to be on one of my tours

Why would they deliberately ship it all the way from North Africa, simply to scrap it?

Would anyone happen to have a latitude and longitude for the location of the pieces at Anniston?? and thanks for posting the great pics.

- armyjunk2

Would anyone happen to have a latitude and longitude for the location of the pieces at Anniston?? and thanks for posting the great pics.

Maritime traffic was very one directional during the war. Ships loaded with war material left the U.S., Canada, and the U.K headed for war zones with supplies, etc. Once unloaded they needed to return for other loads. They at least need ballast. Why not load them with scrap that can be used to make more steel. It is easier and cheaper to make steel from scrap than from ore (in fact much of the steel produced in the U.S. today comes from 'reproccesed' steel). Also I have been told that the scrap value was considered reverse lend lease (as supplies provided locally by the Australians, British, etc to American troops were)

- bsmart

- armyjunk2

Would anyone happen to have a latitude and longitude for the location of the pieces at Anniston?? and thanks for posting the great pics.

Maritime traffic was very one directional during the war. Ships loaded with war material left the U.S., Canada, and the U.K headed for war zones with supplies, etc. Once unloaded they needed to return for other loads. They at least need ballast. Why not load them with scrap that can be used to make more steel. It is easier and cheaper to make steel from scrap than from ore (in fact much of the steel produced in the U.S. today comes from 'reproccesed' steel). Also I have been told that the scrap value was considered reverse lend lease (as supplies provided locally by the Australians, British, etc to American troops were)

What Bob said. Seakeeping for freighters is generally better when in ballast, and this practice was often a source of confusion to commerce raiders, such as the S.M.S. Emden in the first world war. One didn't know what one might have until a vessel was stopped and boarded. Sending raw materials back to the U.S. (and elsewhere) would make plenty sense, especially scrapable metals. Emden often sank such vessels or used them to offload captured crews onto to send to nearest ports.