Category: Walk-around

The last of its kind: Breda Panther

Posted on September 30, 2018July 11, 2019 by Melcher

In the heart of the city of Breda, the Netherlands you will find the Wilhelminapark: a quiet and calm place. You can come to peace on one of the benches around the pond, or you can, of course, walk up to the massive tank located at the corner where the roads Wilhelminapark and Paul Windhausenweg meet. This unique tank is

Tiger II – part 1

Posted on May 22, 2018October 1, 2018 by Melcher

Musee de Blindes houses the only Tiger II still running today and they’re pretty proud of that. Even though by design this monster is hardly suitable to run for long marches the museum was able to keep this specimen running even after some 74 years after it first left the factory. Last weekend, the vehicle travelled to the Netherlands where

Leopard 2A4 “FIN”

Posted on February 3, 2018February 8, 2018 by Melcher

What we have here is what I first presumed to be a Leopard 2A4FIN: the Finnish variant of the Leopard 2. It is, however, some sort of hybrid as it seems to lack all features that are typical to a Finnish Leopard. In 2002 Finland procured some 124 Leopard 2 tanks of the A4 standard from the German army’s surplus

BT-42

Posted on December 23, 2017December 23, 2017 by Melcher

The Parola tank museum has a large collection of Russian tanks, some of which happen to be extremely rare — or ones that could otherwise only be found in Russia itself. One of these rare vehicles is the BT-42: a Finnish modification of the BT-7. During the Winter War and later the Continuation War, Finnish troops captured some BT series

Leopard 2 prototype 120 mm

Posted on December 4, 2017October 1, 2018 by Melcher

In this post I’ll look at another Leopard 2 prototype (yes, again!). This one can be found in the Musée de Blindés in Saumur, France. In contrast to the prototype I discussed on this site earlier (you can find that post here) this specimen is equipped with a 120 mm gun. During the design and trial period for the Leopard

Vimoutiers Tiger

Posted on August 30, 2017July 30, 2019 by Melcher

During August 1944, the German Wehrmacht lost a good deal of equipment during the closing of the Falaise pocket. On the 21st of August some five German vehicles found themselves eastward of the city of Falaise where they squeezed through the Falaise Gap. They managed to escape the pocket and headed towards the Guerquesalles area. Approximately 5 km from the