Fnurban #34 Duxford redux

There's been a period of quiet here, partly due to being away on holiday; to 'get back in the saddle'  I will take this opportunity to put up a picture-heavy post, and try not to be as verbose as I can sometimes be! 

Following my first visit to IWM Duxford in July,  I was able to return there in late August, and this time had a good look around the 'Land Warfare' display.  I managed to take a decent number of photos of the exhibits I was most interested in, so without further ado:

Valentine tank

6-Pounder A/T Gun

Lloyd Carrier

Very glad to see a Lloyd Carrier, I was not at all familiar with them. I like the tea-mug kept handy for 'brew-up' at any opportunity! 

 

wasn't this an Airfix kit? AEC 'Matador' and 5.5in Gun ?

the classic 'Quad' tractor and (behind) 25-pounder gun

Monty's desert command tank (the actual one, I believe?)

and the opposition: German 10.5cm howitzer

and ( I think ) 75mm abd 59mm PAK anti-tank guns

plus of course the dreaded '88'

'Hanomag' half-track (in fact a post-war Czech copy)

Jagdpanther tank destroyer

the Jadgpanther has had a section of the hull side cut away to show the interior, and we were kindly allowed a closer look at that: 

 

it was striking how the entire cabin is taken up by the gun!

Finally, some representatives of the Red Army: 

T-34/85 of course

and Joseph Stalin (mk II, I think?)

Following the WW2 vehicles, there was then a display of Cold War and later kit with some interesting stuff such as T-55, Centurion and Chieftan tanks, but I confess I did not photograph many of them, we had reached something of a surfeit of AFVs and lunch was calling!   Nevertheless this was a really interesting display with some highly relevant vehicles and weapons for me - I was particularly interested to see the Lloyd carrier, having acquired some models of it for my 'D-Day Dodgers' British forces. 

Sadly however, parts of the 'Land Warfare' area were closed, and the guides told us that this is because the whole thing is going to be closed. Not sure what will happen to the collection - there was some suggestion they might be dispersed around the other halls at Duxford, presumably to be displayed alongside appropriate aircraft, but I'm not sure really how that would work. Or would they be better moved to other IWM sites, given that Duxford is really about aircraft?  We shall see. 

 After lunch we had a good look around the main hall 'Air Space' display of British aircraft, which has a splendid collection, as you can see from just this photo : 

hmm... Lancaster, Sunderland, Vulcan, TSR2, 'and many, many more' - and there is a Concorde in the same hall!  

the English Electric Lightning is quite something..

..it's basically all about the engines!

Outside there was a lot of flying activity as usual, we were lucky to see the B-17 Flying Fortress taking off.   Also nice to see this C-47 'Dakota', no doubt coming to an Arnhem commemoration right now..

and finally we were able to get a fairly close look at the PBY Catalina being maintained on the tarmac, another favourite of mine. 

 

If you have £15,000 to spare, it seems you can become a 'shareholder' of this aircraft, though I'm not sure what privileges that gets you, apart from probably being asked for more money to look after it! Good for those who do, of course. 

All in all another excellent day at Duxford, highly recommended if you like this sort of thing! Having taken out an IWM membership, to get the full value we need to visit HMS Belfast and the Cabinet War Rooms, both in London, and those visits are indeed being planned, no doubt leading to more posts on this blog!   

One piece of actual ( albeit virtual/remote) wargming has been fitted in: this week I was lucky enough to be invited to join Jon Freitag's  re-creation of the opening phase of the Battle of Shiloh, 1862. 

I took the role of one of the Confederate commanders, and the picture shows the 'traffic jam' of our units as they crowded in to the attack!  Jon will doubtless put up a battle report soon, in the meantime his description in a recent blogpast of the game as featuring some surprise, jubilation, despair, and a lot of laughter  sums it up pretty well! Thanks Jon, and the other players, for a great game. 

That's all for now, next time perhaps some painting progress can be reported on, or a certain amount of military history interest gleaned from my recent holiday. Until then keep well, everyone.