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- Doug_Kibbey

- Garry_Redmon

- JimWeb

So when are they loading & shipping the container full of the volunteers who were only there for the armour to the new location?

They will be put in a state of suspended animation, shipped to Benning in the last load and put into storage until the new museum is built. It may be five or more years from now, but they won't have aged a bit and will be ready to get to work.

I hope they remember to put air holes in the crate. Don't want what happened to those other guys to happen to you.

Well it looks like it being a choice between beer or air....

Crates ??? Hell no, to expensive. Any personnel shipping south will have to ride in one of the tanks on the back of a truck.

That would be the only way to go,......

Of course, if I were to be one such south bound 'passenger', I would want to be on one of the operational tanks. When the convoy makes a rest stop,......they would return to an unloaded truck, and track marks heading back on the north bound side...

No worry though, I have no plans to migrate to 'grunt-land'.

Regards
Don

Just wanted to update those of y'all who might be interested.

Yesterday, we reached an important goal on Cobra King. After several months of trying to remove the roadwheels, a task that has proven a whole lot more difficult than envisioned,.....WE DID IT!! (yeah)

After a long process of tool fabrications, the last two RWs were removed from CK.

The replacement RWs have been exchanged and await the time when they will be installed on CK.

Paint removal continues using various methods continues.

The replacement track with the 'Duckbill end-connectors' is being tinkered with to ensure its proper length. The track has 84 blocks per side, and CK requires only 78 blocks per side, so we are seperating the excess blocks. Those will inturn be used to mount in the spare block racks on the rear of Cobra King.

Gsrry should have some good photos to post on AFTA, so stay tuned for updates.

As always, the work continues
Regards
Don

Well done!

An interesting find today, while taking some detailed photos of Cobra Kings hull interior stowage racks....



For the first time, I happened to notice that one of the compartments was closed. Never really paid attention to it, until today.

The securing latch was locked so I popped it open and opened the door, only to find.....



It appears that this equipment has been sitting in this compartment since 1945!!!

The fuel can nozzle and original operator manuals were hiding in Cobra King, waiting for someone to find them.







A truely amazing AND very unexpected find !! In total there were 5 manuals.

Left there by the final crew members of Cobra King in March 1945! Unbelievable!

Regards
Don

Wow!! Incredible find!! They certainly need to go on display with Cobra King after the restoration is finished.

WOW!!! I was speechless when I read this and saw these photos! What a great find, Don!

"fuel can nozzle" ... yeah, we all know what it's REALLY called.

Geoff

Geoff,
Please email me at mhaines75 (at)woh.rr.com
I have a couple new Schweinfurt photos that you might like for your website.


Don,
that find is the kind of thing I beleive we all dream of. Great stuff!!!


Thanks,
Mike Haines
victoryineurope.yolasite.com/

Interesting that they have the preliminary operating instructions rather than a TM, and a M10A1 SNL (same engine and drivetrain) rather than one for the M4A3 or the M4A3E2 supplement.

Kurt

I was thinking that these suppliments were handed out during the 'upgun' modifications.

Since they appear to be 'new' or at least not showing any signs of day to day field use, I assume the manuals were never used by the crew, just stashed away.

The more common use manuals would have been 'dog-eared' and dirty. Perhaps kept in the BOG or drivers compartment for easier access by the individuals more likely to use them. In which case, those manuals and/or maint log book would have been either destroyed by the interior fire, or taken by a 'Souvenir hunter' at any point in CKs, post war years.

A staggering thought, that an unknown individual (or family) could have Cobra Kings logbook stashed away.....!?

THAT would be an unbelievable find....!

Regards
Don

Someone actually put the manuals where they are supposed to go-impressive!
Dan

A staggering thought, that an unknown individual (or family) could have Cobra Kings logbook stashed away.....!?

Someone might have, but they probably got thrown out along with other stuff when that person got too old and shuffled/pawned of to a retirement community and their possessions were rifled through by greedy opportunistic distant kin trying to make a quick buck that have no idea that old junk "Grandpa" kept might be of some historical value.

My advice to all that have stuff like this is to make it known to family or have a will to prevent it's loss. Remember, the old saying works in reverse too,

"One Mans' treasure is another Mans' trash"

I received some welcomed news last night. Work continues on CK and with the greatful help of the Motor Pool Staff, here is how Cobra King appears now.





With some work to remove the troublesome #1 L/S & #1 R/S bogie asseblies the entire suspension is removed.

Here is another sample of original paint from under the #1 R/S assembly.


Thanks to Chun for the photos & update. I hope to be able to spend some time on CK tomorrow. Work will continue...

Regards
Don

Will it be restored with the famous "First in Bastogne" graffiti?

Yes, that is the plan.

One of the issues has been trying to figure out the stencilling under the 'First In Bastogne'. Since only the one photo seems to exist, its been a bit difficult trying to 'read' the side of CK. With the assistance of a number of sources, we think we have an idea of what is stencilled on the tank based on photographic examples of other tanks.

Its amazing how much background information has been learned from 'photo-forensics'. This way, once CK is finally completed and exhibited (where ever that might be...?!) she should be near identical to the Dec 44 photograph.

I hope to be able to be onhand to see that. It would be a personal sense of gratification to see it completed.

At least that is the goal of the current project.

Regards
Don