Help the Bastogne Barracks Museum

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Hello everyone,

thanks to ColdZero for letting me know about this. If you’re looking for a good deed to start 2015 with, here’s your chance, guys.

Bastogne Barracks museum is a museum dedicated to the last major offensive of nazi Germany, the Ardennes operation and the American troops defending against the German onslaught. The museum itself has a nice collection of armored vehicles as well, some of them were even featured FTR on more than occasion. The base was the HQ of the 101st Airborne in the defense of Bastogne, it also was an aid station and ofcourse the famous response of General McAuliffe on the Germans’ demand for surrender came from this base: “NUTS!”

Now, however, Bastogne Barracks museum needs your help, as the Belgian army (that operates it) is attempting to shut it down as a part of usual peacetime cost reductions.

In order to prevent it, a petition with an open letter, directed at Mr.Steven Vandeput, the Belgian Secretary at the Belgian Department of Defense, was put together by a few fans of the museum

All you have to do is sign the petition, the goal of which are 10k signatures to make the ministry notice it. The description of the entire initiative is written in the petition link.

Personally, I believe that any World of Tanks player and FTR reader, who cares about history should sign it – there’s not that many of us and we have to “stick together” – next military-operated armor museum to be closed could be in YOUR town after all. While the demands to reduce military costs might seem reasonable in the current situation of Europe, we should not sacrifice history and remembrance on the altar of ever lower costs.

Pictures are from Bastogne NUTS 2014 public event.

The entire album can be found here.

44 thoughts on “Help the Bastogne Barracks Museum”

  4. “the Belgian army (that operates it) is attempting to shut it down as a part of usual peacetime cost reductions”

    Oh come on… if you are at peace and you want to reduce operation costs, shouldn’t you start with stuff that has to do directly with war effort? I mean this is a freaking museum, it is there to teach history to everyone.

  5. meanwhile im here, still waiting for SS to reveal that “surprise” that WG has for European Tech tree that he said he would reveal last week

  7. Signed. I think times of peace need reminder of past wars. Besides don´t want the Leopard (?) to get cold.

  9. I think Belgians should know better. Education is the best way to keep out of the wars, which I would say costs more than some museum.

  10. That’s really sad. I would hate to see such museum shut down, even if I’m far away from it. It has some strong history connections to WW2 and that shouldn’t be forgotten. Let’s hope we can keep that musem running. Signed.

  13. The Belgians may be better off channeling all their military budget in projects such as this.

  14. canzpl on January 19, 2015 at 12:12 pm said:

    meanwhile im here, still waiting for SS to reveal that “surprise” that WG has for European Tech tree that he said he would reveal last week

    a polish will always be a polish ! in a topic about a museum he talk about other nonsense crap ,and didnt even say a word about this event. like in wot , like here dear polish …dont change please !

    • Oh right, about that… well, it turns out I was wrong actually, or rather I was partially right but… it’s complicated. Wait for a week or so more.

      • SS, would it be possible to advertise this on the EU portal,forums,etc? I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would like to join in as well, but don’t know where to find the petition/FTR?

    • wow you are dumb. i commented on the newest post on ftr at the time because i was curious like many other people here, what is the secret info SS said he would do a week later. but here we go, in the best part of the internet, where some stupid cunt needs to insult a whole nation, just because he doesnt understand the basic concept of having a conversation. please dont have children because they might be as stupid as you, and that can lead to the world exploding

  15. “next military-operated armor museum to be closed could be in YOUR town after all. ”
    I don’t think Kubinka is shutting down any time soon though.
    Still, signed.

  17. Still 1.5k supporters only, let’s wait till evening – i expect much better from FTR community, sign it even if it passes 10k threshold because it means not only being read but also listened to.

  18. canzpl on January 19, 2015 at 2:45 pm said:

    wow you are dumb. i commented on the newest post on ftr at the time because i was curious like many other people here, what is the secret info SS said he would do a week later. but here we go, in the best part of the internet, where some stupid cunt needs to insult a whole nation, just because he doesnt understand the basic concept of having a conversation. please dont have children because they might be as stupid as you, and that can lead to the world exploding

    like i said …please continue to be polish :)) you just confirmed all that people know about you :))
    btw – have a conversation where you should have , not where you like :)
    ps- you are like all your people…. to smart and kind for this planet:))))

  20. hmmmm, i feel a bit dubious. part of the reason they consider closing the museum is because the guys who are restoring the tanks over there are not realy doing a lot. I know that they lack some tools, parts and basic stuff such as paint, but believe me, half off the guys over there are not realy interested in wath they do. The results of this can be seen in there multiple fuck ups,… and many off them cant be called proffesionals. Also, they are not very friendly or helpfully to civilians and volounteers.

    • Signed. At that, how about fire the management and get some new guys, who will replace some other guys aso?

      • Its not only the management. With the last defense budget cutting, the bastogne base should have been closed, but unions prevented this. The museum is actualy the only reason that couldnt be moved (because of mc aulife HQ) so thats why the base remained open, altough it became very small. So basicaly those who are still there will remain until they are retired, with no replacement.
        However, there are rumors that the museum part in the ar;y ;ight be placed entirely in civilian hands, well that could change a lot off stuff. Not sure however if it would be for better or worse, but i personaly think better in the long run.

  21. Signed from the US. I’m sure there are other places that they can manage to find the money for peacetime cost reductions.

  22. +1 and signed and posted on my Clans website as well Thanks SS and contributer for bringing this to our attention

  23. +1 and I’m off to sign it in a second but….

    …would the Belgian Govt really bother with 10k sigs unless they were 10k Belgian sigs??

    Afterall… it’s not my taxes that are paying for it… so my sig is “worth less” than a Belgians sig on this petition…?

    • They will not care.
      The base al is almost already full closed only a little part is still open.And now this part also need to close because the army need to cut back a lot.

  25. I was there in 2010, on a road trip. Just found this place while trying to find the official Bastogne Museum (which was closed, lol). It needs advertising! The McAuliffe bit of the base was ok, but the tanks dotted around the place were excellent. We got on well with the guide, who when he found out we were tanks fans, took us to the tank shed. Very impressive, including an IS3, a Locust, and a Sherman that had been used as target practice by something big. I will be visiting it again hopefully, and won’t mind spending visitor money there. Good reason to keep it open, maybe?

  26. I am not flipping the bill and do not expect anyone else to… so I will not sign, sorry for being a party pooper.