36 thoughts on “Puckapunyal Military Museum (Australia) Photos”

1. bulldog camo looks more like a fail graffiti!

   • In to Australia countryside it looks quite ok

   • I was thinking the same. Nice tanks btw, but most of them in horrible condition……

     • Puckapunyal tries to keep the tanks in the best condition they can (the M4A2, Crusader and AFAIK the Cromwell and AC1 are all in running order, plus some others not shown here), however it is located on an active military base and as such the museum staff are essentially current or former RAC troops who volunteer their service (no civilian volunteers are allowed as far as I’m aware) and they can only do so much to look after the collection, especially seeing as the Museum is run by the defence force and they regrettably have more pressing concerns for their budget than the museum’s collection (on the upside most of it is generally under cover with some exceptions)

   • nice pics, 59 is very cool.

2. Wish I could take the Type 59 from that museum and add it to my garage in WoT.

   Jk. I would drive it to school and work daily.

   • Don’t forget the ammo for traffic! Load HE !

3. Nice! Where did they get a hold of the 8,8?

   • North Africa. The Aussies fought against the Afrika Korps.

     • Right! Thanks.

4. Those tiny holes must be from MG hits, not HEAT testing as that would have just gone right through. M4 tanks did not have the hardest cast armour by any standard. Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

   • It looks more like shrapnels…

5. Is that a penis in front of the Sentinel?

   • Just wanted to write that :D.. indeed it resembles a cock..:D

   • No, it a penis cover of an Aussie. Big stuff there m8. Bushtucker makes real men.

     • Or maybe it’s ment to deflect shots ..IS-3 has a pike nose, Sentinel has a cock nose.

       • I think its psychological warfare. The Germans will see it and just commit suicide from self pity.

         • Stalins balls of steel r nuthing agains the Aussie steel cocks. Yuri, suck on this.

           • aussie steel cocks> stalinium+bouncinium combined

             • Aye!

   • Its always only a matter of time before penis jokes appear when Sentinel AC is mentioned…

     • I thought that was the case whenever you appear? :-)

       • oh bullocks

       • I dont like you anymoar :c

   • No, its clearly the death star

   • Its actually an armored shield for the water-cooled machine gun.

     • Nice euphamism Vaelys. Them Oz-landers must be pretty active to have water coolers under the “shields” of their “machine guns”.

6. should i go to the Indonesian Army Museum and photo the smallest tank collection in any museum ever? discounting the amphibians, the only tank there is a M3 Stuart. being a mostly-sea country means there’s more planes and boats than there are tanks here =|

7. Matilda II with Dozer Blade.

   Because regular Matilda just isn’t slow enough :D

8. That’s an interesting Crusader…I thought by Crusader the Cruiser tanks lost their sub-turrets?

   • the earlier models still had the single sub turret with an MG (this one is a mk I crusader with the 2 pounder), they were generally removed from the design after the decision was made to upgrade the crusader with the 6 pounder gun but they were also removed in-situ by their crews.

     The crusader was never used by the Australian army and this particular tank was sent to Australia for desert testing and so it could be examined as part of the Australian tank program. The current gun on the tank is actually wrong (its a 37mm instead of a 40mm 2 pounder) and anecdotal accounts claim that the original gun was actually taken from the tank and mounted on the first prototype AC1 sentinel tank for testing purposes (no other 2 pounders being available at the time)

     • Crusaders were used by Australians in combat in North Africa, along with M3 Stuarts.
       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2/9th_Cavalry_Commando_Regiment_%28Australia%29

   • If I recall correctly the crusaders were built with the machine gun turret, but most were modified to remove them and the hole platted over as they were next to useless.

     Also I think British and I guess Commonwealth tank doctrine was to issue one tank with a bulldozer blade per tank squadron to assist with entrenching as cold war doctrine was to fight a defensive campaign from hull down positions.

9. quick bit of extra info

   Both Centurions are Mk Vs with the 20 pounder gun, Australia never used the 105mm on the Centurion having upgraded to the Leopard 1A4 (designated AS1) instead. The Centurion with the dozer blade isn’t an AVRE or anything, its just a Centurion with a dozer blade (regular tank crew ect).

   Both M4 Shermans, the Cromwell, Crusader, the M24 Chaffee and the M41 Walker Bulldog were never used by the Australian Army, they were imported either as a part of a vehicle selection trial or for tropical and desert testing in Northern Australia (yes there are both deserts AND jungles in Australia). M60s and M551 Sherridans were also trialled in the 70s although the Australian Army rejected the M60 in favour of the Leopard and the M551 offer (essentially the US made a deal where Australia let them test it in the jungle and desert and in return if the Australian army liked what they saw they could have first dibs on any exports) was rejected due to multiple perceived faults
   (track grip was worse than the M113, sticks and dirt tended to clog the engine air intakes, tended to get swamped when attempting amphibious movement, unburnt propellant from the main armament tended to exit the breach after a round{HE} was fired presenting a risk of cook off)

   also AFAIK those dents on the M4 sherman are from machinegun fire, as it was used as a small arms range target. The other Sherman is an M4A2, a third M4 was sent to Australia but it was eventually used as a Range target and subsequently scrapped

   • Hiya.

     For what it’s worth I was told during the tour that the Bulldog served in vietnam. “Served” may mean that it was combat ready sitting in a shed though.. Lol.

     The story I was told about the pockmarked sherman is that it was used for live fire machinegun training until a round came in the drivers periscope. The entire side of it is more or less the same as the turret pic.

     The Type 59 was captured by AVRN troops at hai-lang on july 4th 1972 and gifted to Australia, it was rebuilt in working order in Australia in 1980 at which point someone decided to paint “dog” from footrot flats on the rear left side.

10. Isn’t that a Churchill AVRE in the background on the first Cromwell picture… would seriously like that one added to the game :)