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I think it's a terrible shame so many vehicles have been left to basically disintegrate. Not only that, but it's my understanding that their guts, ostensibly for pollution control purposes, have been systematically drained of oil and other fluids. Not good if anyone wants to see them run again! The AFV's and Elefant (Ferdinand with bow MG added). Chassis is that of the rejected Porsche Tiger I design and the gun the long 88 later found on the Tiger II. The Jagdtiger, by contrast, is on a Tiger II chassis and is armed with a 128mm gun.

Regards,

John Kettler

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I go to APG at least once a month to pick up diabetes meds and usually stop at the museum. I saw their JagdTiger parked next to the JagdPanther today, but of course, the Elefant is missing. They have been restoring some of the stuff there in recent years. The Tiger I went back to Germany for them to repair. Back during the Korean War there had been far more than twice as many vehicles there than now, laying out and deteriorating. They had a scrap metal drive back then to support the war effort and many rare vehicles were destroyed. One I recall reading was a PzII Lynx. I was there on Armed Forces Day in 1971 and saw two tanks still running - the WWI FT17 and WWII PzIVj that had been captured in a factory, never saw combat. They said they had to hand make parts to keep it going as they were unavailable. My next visit years later had neither one of those running anymore.

I'll be over there again for a blood test in two weeks, I'll make a point of stopping at the museum and asking the fate of the Elefant if it hasn't returned by then. BvB

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  • 2 weeks later...

On a following visit to their Kirk Health Clinic I stopped again at the museum and asked. They said that they get a budget every year to refurbish some of their stuff. Unfortunately this year after they designated what to refurbish the funds were cut. So the Elefant is in "rehab" for an unknown time. They have no idea when they'll get more money or get that and some others back. Part of government budget cuts. The Tiger is still away on loan to the Germans. The stuff that has come back from rehab looks nice. Fresh paint, etc, they even use some silver paint to highlight battle damage spots.

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I live near the Proving Grounds and sadly most of the armor is rusting away to junk as it has been kept exposed to the elements and painting over and over again sealing most joints and other aspects. Also where the paint has not been 'thickly' applied rust is a major problem.

So hopefully they are going to restore it... though I suspect they are going to store it somewhere out of sight (junk it).

In the pic you can see the grass overgrowing the tracks. When I last visited before 9/11 (it became difficult after that to get on the base for no reason) the tracks were prestine and housed a German Rail gun.

I remember as a kid we would go there all the time for birthday parties and such but as I said I have not been there since before 9/11.

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