Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Second day we went to Dunkirk - first order of biz was checking out the beach. Locals assured me "on a clear day, you can see England."

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Next order of biz was the Dunkirk museum. French Renault R-35 turret. Definitely not enough room to swing a cat!

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Even worse was this Ft-17 turret. Guaranteed claustrophobia!

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Then it was off to Pond Farm WW1 to see a WW1 tank in restoration mode. 9 man crew = 2 drivers, 2 six pounder crews, everybody else a machine gunner except the mechanic.

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Escape hatch.

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Beside the tank is a 1917 truck with USA cast into the radiator shell. Owner sez it's a Ford, but I'm more inclined to say Mack.

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The motor is a 2 cylinder with redundant ignition = magneto backing up a regular distributor. Which seems to make sense given the lack of a battery/crank start.

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The fellow had quite a collection of UXO, fuses and weaponry of all types - all taken from his fields. I asked if he found a lot of bones, and he rolled his eyes. "Yes - those are found in the spring at plowing. My dog, Charlie happily brings them to the house."

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I took a bunch more pics and will post again... at the moment, a nap is calling me. Urgently. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

very fun to see , your trips have got my interest going

After the day at Dunkirk and Poelcapel, we migrated to Diekirch, Luxemburg where Andrey had booked us a hotel.

Diekirch is in mountains as seen here. Didn't realize any were around - it's very close to Bastogne so I figured it was more forest and rolling hills.

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Light rain this morning and a very pleasant aroma from wet pines. The place really puts me in mind of Estes Park, Colo.

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Hit 2 museums in Lux.

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I probably shouldn't say it, but there's rather a 'sameness' to WW2 museums - same kit displayed in life size dioramas. But it's all interesting. Not much for dioramas in the Patton museum.

Stayed the night and rolled out early to the militaria expo in Ciney, Belgium... after the mandatory continental breakfast, of course! The brown food is liver pate' loaf.

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For non-militaria buffs, the expo might not be all that interesting. This table is fairly typical - swords & German kit. I'll see if there's a youtube vid & post that.

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If you couldn't get interested in swords and possibly bogus WW2 German kit, there were a LOT of options food-wise. This piggy sammich place smelled so good, there was no way I could walk by without trying one.

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I speak no French but was able to muddle my way through the menu. I went with "le cheese" with BBQ sauce and it was pretty darn tasty! Oddly, the most popular condiment for piggy sammiches was honey, and they laid it on thick.

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Prices seemed high. My pals said they were about 10x higher than the last expo in Oct. All I grabbed was a French colonial medal I didn't already have (Morocco) and a Russian saber which is being mailed.

But it was a great opportunity to see obscure items. Need tracks for your Soviet T-34? You want 'em - they got 'em!

Your useless trivia for the day - official language in Lux is French and German - also a dialect of German my Hungarian pal said is close to the German spoken in Switzerland. "Luxumbergian"
I'll add to this as I sort through more stuff in my hard drive.

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Slava Ukraini!!

This is an older vid of the expo - the 2022 vid was mostly one vendor bragging up the stuff he was selling. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

Shaping up to be quite a trip!

Will be watching here.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

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"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

Looking through the SD card, I didn't find anything else of great interest. Mostly pics of friends at various places and shots from museums like this 24 cylinder engine from a Brit Typhoon recovered near Dunkirk.

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I stayed at a B&B across the canal from the train station in Halle which was very convenient. I liked to watch barges. The RR here seems to be 95% passenger and very little freight. Most commodities move by barge like the crushed cars here. Many barge owners actually live on them and have a car they can either drive off on ramps or hoist ashore with a boom.

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So that's pretty much it for pics. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

Your camera seems to be doing well in most daylight situations.
The barge photo's are very good indeed for an almost pocket sized camera.

There's a G-11 sitting at one of my enablers I should at least get a look at...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

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"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

Great Pic's Bud, glad you had good safe trip.

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"Like a tank with it's tracks blown off, my turret still swivels and my cannon fires, so whenever the fight kicks off, I'll likely live or die right there, where the fight begins and ends"
John Connor

great fun seeing these , one day it would be fun - just need the time , whoever said retirement afforded you time to do things you wanted to do was lying , it aint so ,

All four of us had a great time. It was good to be on the road again with friends. Good memories ....
A

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In the end, there can be only ONE

I'll ask Sean (my son) to download the pics from my cellphone. Might be a couple there worth posting. We were lucky with the weather, no rain at all. Weird .... Thx to Frederik's wife we had comfortable transport (she got the Porche that weekend and we got the Toyota Landcruiser) A good time was had by all. A

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In the end, there can be only ONE

That Typhoon had a powerful Napier Sabre sleeve valve engine.

A few more taken by Andrey.

Life size diorama with original kit.

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Another - both are in the main museum in Diekirch, Lux.

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Brit tank in resto mode at the farm near Poelcapel, Belgium. Pic includes a tourist for
size comparison. (looks a lot like me)

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Head-on view of the tank. Me and the fellow restoring it. Andrey sez the tank is being taken to England this summer for temporary display. Owner sez he'll have it running and clanking around by then.

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Slava Ukraini!!

For a quick trip, you sure packed a bit of "go and see" into it.

Interesting pics!

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

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"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

i was thinking the same thing - no sleep involved i guess , great coverage , thanks for sharing with us