The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum is a privately owned museum in Smithfield, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It is dedicated to tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery from the Second World War and post war periods. It was officially opened in 2014.[1]
The museum has purchased a number of vehicles and items for display from overseas, including some items from the Littlefield Collection when it was downsized. It is the largest collection of military vehicles in Australia, and the only major collection of vehicles in Australia apart from the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Memorial and Army Tank Museum at Puckapunyal. It is one of the largest private collections of artillery and AFVs in the world.[2]
The museum houses vehicles from a number of overseas manufacturers, including vehicles from Russia, Germany, Japan, the UK, the US and Czechoslovakia.
Operational Panzer IV Ausf D
Collection
The museum houses artillery dating back to World War I and vehicles from World War II and the post war period. All up the collection owns more than 100 vehicles, with more than 190 exhibits on display. A number are also in various stages of restoration and transit. The collection features a range of armoured vehicles including German, US, Australian, British and Russian examples.
A Sturmgeschütz III Ausf G is undergoing restoration and is not on display.
Other countries
Other vehicles from other countries include a Canadian Ram Kangaroo, Czech OT810, Canadian Lynx, French Panhard AML, Ford Gun Tractor with Australian Limber and British 25 pdr, and Czech Praga with 30mm AA gun
Vehicles not on display
Additionally, there are a number of vehicles owned by the museum, but not currently on display. Mostly these are still being prepared in workshops, either on site or overseas, or they are in transit to the Museum. These include a Cromwell Medium Tank, a Goliath tracked mine and close to another 25 additional planned exhibits.[3]
AusArmourfest
Sherman Firefly at AusArmourfest 2019
Every year, to celebrate the Museums birthday, the Museum hosts a three-day event called AusArmourfest. AusArmourfest gives people the opportunity to go for rides in some of the operational vehicles. In past years, some of the vehicles operated have included the Hetzer, T72, Panzer IV G, Leopard, Kettenkrad, and Sabre.
Donation of Australian Tank From Wargaming Inc
The museum hosts two rare Australian Cruiser tanks (two of six left in the world), an AC1 Sentinel and a hybrid AC1 with an AC3 turret, presented as an AC4. The AC1 Sentinel was purchased and given to the museum by Wargaming Inc, producer of the World of Tanks tank game. The Sentinel was in the United States at the Littlefield Collection when that collection sold off many of its vehicles, and Wargaming Inc desired to purchase it and return it to its original home.[4] As part of the purchase, it allowed access to the tank by Wargaming, so that they could study it and replicate it accurately for their game.
Shooting gallery and workshop
The Museum site also includes a 50-metre shooting gallery and a repair/restoration workshop where the vehicles which are in a state of deterioration can be restored. The workshop has a number of staff and can modify and build vehicles. As of 2015, the site has expanded to house more vehicles.
Tiger 1 replica
In 2016, the museum workshop undertook construction of a Tiger 1 replica. This utilised a highly accurate, partially constructed Tiger 1 that was originally constructed for the movie Fury, which in itself was an accurate replica of Tiger 131. The reconstruction utilised that upper portion of the Tiger, and also referenced original Tiger parts the museum had purchased to make the whole tank. The bottom chassis was strengthened to be able to run, the first time the museum had produced its own tank from scratch. The Tiger reproduction uses a Scania truck engine. The running gear is T55 (Track, support arms and torsion bars) M110 Road wheels and the drive/ steering component is from a T62, but it is outwardly a running, almost completely accurate Tiger 1, except for the front drive sprocket, which due to the T62 transfer case sits 200mm too high, and T55 Track. It was completed in November 2016, and is the only reproduction tank of this scale to be completed in Australia.[citation needed] This vehicle is no longer at the Museum as it was sold to another Australian collector. The Museum now houses a late production Tiger 1 in its collection.[5]
The Panzer II is the common name used for a family of German tanks used in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen II.
The Panzerkampfwagen III , commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was Sd.Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and serve alongside and support the similar Panzer IV, which was originally designed for infantry support.
The Panzerkampfwagen IV, commonly known as the Panzer IV, is a German medium tank developed in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 161.
This article lists production figures for German armored fighting vehicles during the World War II era. Vehicles include tanks, self-propelled artillery, assault guns and tank destroyers.
The Panzerkampfwagen 38(t), originally known as the ČKD LT vz. 38, was a tank designed during the 1930s, which saw extensive service during World War II. Developed in Czechoslovakia by ČKD, the type was adopted by Nazi Germany following the annexation of Czechoslovakia. With the German Army and other Axis forces, the type saw service in the invasions of Poland, France and the USSR. Production ended in 1942, when its main armament was deemed inadequate. In all, over 1,400 Pz. 38(t)s were manufactured. The chassis of the Pz. 38(t) continued to be produced for the Marder III (1942–1944) with some of its components used in the later Jagdpanzer 38 (1944–1945) tank destroyer and its derivative vehicles.
The AC1 Sentinel was a cruiser tank designed in Australia in World War II in response to the war in Europe, and to the threat of Japan expanding the war to the Pacific or even a feared Japanese invasion of Australia. It was the first tank to be built with a hull cast as a single piece, and the only tank to be produced in quantity in Australia. The few Sentinels that were built never saw action as Australia's armoured divisions had been equipped by that time with British and American tanks.
The Sturmgeschütz III was an assault gun produced by Germany during World War II. It was the most-produced fully tracked armoured fighting vehicle, and second-most produced German armored combat vehicle of any type after the Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track. It was built on a slightly modified Panzer III chassis, replacing the turret with an armored, fixed superstructure mounting a more powerful gun. Initially intended as a mobile assault gun for direct-fire support for infantry, the StuG III was continually modified, and much like the later Jagdpanzer vehicles, was employed as a tank destroyer.
The Jagdpanther, Sd.Kfz. 173, was a tank destroyer built by Germany during World War II. The Jagdpanther combined the 8.8 cm Pak 43 anti-tank gun, similar to the main gun of the Tiger II, with the armor and suspension of the Panther chassis.
The Sd.Kfz. 124 Wespe, also known as Leichte Feldhaubitze 18/2 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II (Sf.), is a German self-propelled gun developed and used during the Second World War. It was based on a modified Panzer II chassis.
The Sd.Kfz. 250 was a light armoured half-track, very similar in appearance to the larger Hanomag-designed Sd.Kfz. 251, and built by the DEMAG firm, for use by Nazi Germany in World War II. Most variants were open-topped and had a single access door in the rear.
The Sturmgeschütz IV was a German assault gun variant of the Panzer IV used in the latter part of the Second World War. It was identical in role and concept to the highly successful StuG III assault gun variant of the Panzer III. Both StuG models were given an exclusively tank destroyer role in German formations and tactical planning in the last two years of the war, greatly augmenting the capability of the dwindling tank force available to the German army on the Eastern and Western fronts.
The 15 cm sIG 33 (Sf) auf Panzerkampfwagen 38(t), also known as Grille was a series of self-propelled artillery vehicles used by Nazi Germany during World War II. The Grille series was based on the Czech Panzer 38(t) tank chassis and used a 15 cm sIG 33 infantry gun.
The Panzerkampfwagen I was a light tank produced in Germany in the 1930s. The Panzer I was built in several variants and was the basis for a number of variants listed below.
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