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There is a new Museum for WWII vehicles in the Gettysburg area. Wheels of Liberation. It focuses on the Polish experience in WWII and has an extensive collection. Nearly all operational. Items in the collection range from a Mack NO to several bedfords, GS, water, gun tractor and Wireless command truck. A Cromwell, a Stuart Recce, Sexton, Fox, Otter, Staghound, Daimler Dingo, US halftracks, White Scout car, several flavors of Sherman, OQF 2, 6, 17 and 25 pounders, a 5” BL howitzer, some early Polish things like ATGs and guns and a functional TKS. Many more soft skins and other stuff. Most everything drives.

I had not read of this weapon before. Saw this on my YT recommendations. This is a low pressure launcher of tin or glass balls filled with a phosphoric mixture, effective up to 200-350m

Thinking on my own family history and the Air War over Europe...I started digging tonight. My great uncle, on my Maternal Grandmother's side (her brother) Navigator 2nd Lt Grady W. Roper Shot down over Europe, in B-17E tail number 41-9018. That aircraft was Assigned 341BS/97BG Polebrook Mar-42; transferred 327BS/92BG Bovingdon Aug-42; Attacked by Lt. Walter Meyer 7./JG26. Lost tail and three engines. Desintegrated over Lannay near the Belgian border. Monument near Mouchin on D955 direction Planard. MACR 15218. 6KIA 2POW 1EVD Pilot 1Lt Francis H. Chorak (KIA); Co Pilot 2Lt Joseph J. Fracchia (POW) Navigator 2Lt Grady W. Roper (EVD); Bombardier 2Lt Charles G. Kolodzinski (POW) Engineer/Top Turret Gunner SSgt Paul R. Gordon (KIA); Radio Operator SSgt John J. Dolan (KIA) Ball Turret Gunner MSgt James E. Lane (KIA); Waist Gunner SSgt Donald E. Buckland (KIA) Tail Gunner SSgt Malcolm Culpepper (KIA) http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/1084?fbclid=IwAR3uPxgxYV0Keimfg_eR-KaV-RfSuLJ9We2nHRYjeiWOiY_lPb75JMu6_-8

In a group of WWII warships on Facebook, they referenced this thread on Warbird Information Exchange. Very nice pics of Ulithi when it was used to stage USN fleets. http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=52966

I think it's generally agreed here that the Maus was one of the most shockingly wrong-headed AFV designs ever conceived, much less prototyped. What's never been clear to me is what the thinking behind it was. Why did anyone think a 180+ tonne tank was a good idea? Faulty analogy to naval warships? I've always found it surprising how little the Maus actually delivered for being that heavy. The 128mm was a pretty serious cannon, but on a tank that heavy I would expect rather more. Maybe a monster building demolition gun like the sturmtiger/T30 were envisioned to carry, or maybe have it bristle with secondary armament like a proper land battleship so it could be a one-vehicle breakthrough spearhead. But a single 128mm and a secondary 75mm? Seeing as they crammed that same cannon into a jagdtiger, surely the maus looked rather poor in the weight/armament area. Was there any particular logic behind this monster, or did Hitler just say to Porsche "I want a tank that goes to 11!" ?

Does anyone here know the story on why the Germans pursued both the 8.8cm KwK36 as mounted on the tiger I and the 7.5cm KwK42 as mounted on the panther? The 7.5cm weapon seems redundant, offering only slightly better armor penetration, significantly inferior HE load, and having ammo that's about the same size. Was this a political thing? I noticed that one is a Rheinmetall-Borsig design and the other from Krupp. While I'm at it, what's up with the claim on wikipedia that ammo for the FlaK 8.8s was percussion primed and the KwK36 ammo was electrically primed? Was this so? Why were the Germans so hot on having differently primed, and thus non-interchangeable versions of dimensionally identical ammunition (e.g. MG151/20)?