Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Tank Firepower

Another view here of the Voodoo jet inside LeBreton Gallery.


This looks like a wreck- with good reason. It's a World War Two era Valentine tank, a British design and Canadian manufactured armoured beast used by the Soviets. In January 1944 during a Soviet offensive in the Ukraine, it fell through the ice and sank. It was recovered over four decades later, and in 1992 was donated to the Canadian War Museum by the Ukrainian government. It's interesting to see what years of submersion can do to one of these.


The interesting texture on one of the tanks caught my eye.


Three other tank legacies of that war follow- the Panzer, the Sherman, and the T-34.


And here we have the view when one starts to leave the Gallery.

32 comments:

  1. Huge "toys" .. :)
    I love your header, it's beautiful.

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  2. Seen all those at the Tank museum in our country and some of them working

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  3. The voodoo jet suspended from the ceiling looks amazing.

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  4. It must have been difficult to get that heavy thing out of the water! love the new (Winter) header.

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  5. A nice present from Ukraine, a wreck of a tank!

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  6. Fell through the ice and sank... what a tale of the northern region of the northern hemisphere. So interesting that you got it back.

    Janis
    GDP

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  7. I love your new header photo! That reminds me of Ottawa like (almost) nothing else!

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  8. must have taken a huge effort to bring it back to ground!

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  9. I'm impressed from the second shot !
    Grand new header, William !

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  10. The last photo gives some idea of how huge the gallery is. You showed a tremendous amount of Canadian history in this post.

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  11. An impressive display. The textures of the old tank are fascinating. And love the scene in your new header photo.

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  12. @Linda: it's a great name for a fighter jet.

    @Orvokki: thank you!

    @Bill: I'm fascinated when I walk around this part of the museum looking at these vehicles.

    @Lauren: that is definitely one item they had to move in while the museum was still under construction!

    @Janey: I can just imagine the sheer amount of work that went into the recovery.

    @Marianne: it is different, mind you, but I like the idea of seeing something like this that has taken damage as opposed to doing restoration work on it.

    @Existe: thank you.

    @Janis: and not only through the ice, but into a swamp, so that would have been a contributing factor too.

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  13. @Tanya: I've always been impressed by that jet and its placement here. It would not have fit at the old museum!

    @Furry Gnome: it's now colder than it has been as of late, but it'll take awhile before the Canal is open for skating.

    @Tex: the logistics of raising that tank would have taken a whole lot!

    @Karl: thanks!

    @Norma: I agree.

    @Red: it's a very large space, but well used. They had screens in here earlier on Remembrance Day for watching the ceremonies from the War Memorial, hence all the chairs.

    @Gemma: thanks!

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  14. One of my favorite planes as a kid.

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  15. I can think of better museum pieces but great post, anyway.

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  16. Interesting stuff William as always, I wonder whether the crew of the tank that sank through the ice managed to escape...

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  17. @Ciel: they're meant to.

    @Sharon: I've always thought so.

    @Beth: indeed!

    @Revrunner: it's a stand-out!

    @Eve: thanks!

    @Geoff: I think they did. I'll have to doublecheck.

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  18. I didn't recognize the name of the Russian tank, but the other ones I did. Great pictures.

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  19. Glad to read that the crew got out safely. I would guess that the tank fell into fresh water; saline would have done even more damage...?

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