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A visit to the Royal Australian Armoured Corps museum at Puckapunyal


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Vissited the Museum today after dropping my brother off at his baracks. It was a rather hot and sunny day so the light contrast in some of the shots is a wee bit high :( Enjoy the pics.

RAAC Museum link

Vickers light

vickers-light.jpg

Vickers medium

vickers-medium.jpg

Centurion bridge layer

centurion-bridge.jpg

Crocodile

crocodile.jpg

Cromwell

cromwell.jpg

Crusader

crusader.jpg

Sentinel, An aussie design in the early 40's. The ammount of slopped armour on this tank surprised me for when it was made.

sentinel.jpg

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Dude mad pics, I'm especially interested in the Sentinal as our only truly "fair dinkum true blue home grown" aussie medium tank that could have taken on the panzers or jap tanks and have a fair chance of survival.

(No, I'm not talking about taking on Tigers here... but maybe the other stuff that was around in '40 & '41...)

I really should pay a visit to Pucka sometime, I only live 2 hours from there.

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quick google search reveals

Other Australian produced circus equipment was the CS Matilda armed with an 3inch (75mm) Howitzer, the Matilda Hedgehog another bunker buster with a piece of weaponry from naval anti-submarine stores.

A spigot mechanism multi-launching 63kg-mortar bombs, in a propelling rack attached to the rear of the tank with a range of about three hundred yards

http://worldatwar.net/article/australiantank/tankpacific.html

so its basically a short range heavy mortar. I guess you wouldnt want to be too close if they fired all those off at once!

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Sentinel was a major achievement being fully cast.

The turret ring was built large enough to take a 17pdr in a turret. However by the time we were ready to go into production the US were “in” and Lees, Grants and Shermans started arriving en masse.

As it was they went off to the 1st Armoured Div which spent the war camped in WA waiting for the Japanese who never turned up. Meanwhile the Matildas and Stuarts did sterling service in the SW pacific.

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As I'm about to take up a job at Pucka (moving this week) I will be arranging a Band Of Brothers CM Club meeting there for later in the year.

Its a great Museum.

JonS They also have a Centurian up near gunnery wing showing the effects of fire...when I'm there I'll get some piccies.

Cheers

Rob

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Originally posted by flamingknives:

That Cromwell looks interesting. Long, thin gun and blanked off bow MG port.

As for the Sentinel, that's only a 2 pr. on that one - 17 pr? Surely the turret ring isn't that large?

The turret ring was substantially enlarged between that used on ACI and the ACIII, from 54in to 64in (admittedly, that was only on the experimental twin 25 Pdr vehicle but more than likely would have been adopted for the ACIV with its 17 Pdr).

What was significant was that the tests with twin 25 Pdr were noted and applied to the Firefly.

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Originally posted by Beta1:

quick google search reveals

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Other Australian produced circus equipment was the CS Matilda armed with an 3inch (75mm) Howitzer, the Matilda Hedgehog another bunker buster with a piece of weaponry from naval anti-submarine stores.

A spigot mechanism multi-launching 63kg-mortar bombs, in a propelling rack attached to the rear of the tank with a range of about three hundred yards

http://worldatwar.net/article/australiantank/tankpacific.html

so its basically a short range heavy mortar. I guess you wouldnt want to be too close if they fired all those off at once! </font>

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry its taken so long - had to dig the pictures out (took them during my basic course in 1988).

Anyway they are at:

Centurion at gunnery wing

Here are couple to wet the appetite:

Frontal shot of Centurion:

Cent1.jpg

Penetration plate:

Plate1.jpg

Notice the time lapse. The vehicles behind the plate in my shots are in the open whilst in Wubbits’ they are under cover.

I also have some snaps of cut away rounds for HEAT, HESH, APDS etc. if anyone is interested. Just reply to this or drop me a line and I’ll scan them too. (now that I’ve found the particular photo album). smile.gif

[ April 04, 2005, 02:43 PM: Message edited by: gibsonm ]

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Originally posted by gibsonm:

There is all sorts of stuff, including from memory:

17 pdr

20 pdr APDS

20 pdr APCBC (Capped Ballistic Cap)

Eintac (ATGW)

Milan (ATGW)

84mm

Somewhere I have a picture of the brass plate that identifies what is responsible for which hole.

IIRC, the Eintac went though all 16? plates.
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