Battle of the Bulge tour

[the_old_un]

Two years ago wifey and I with a couple of friends from Armortek went on this really excellent tour.

http://www.armortek.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1793

Amongst all the horrors of this stage of the war was the defence of the Spa F1racing circuit.

http://www.spa-francorchamps.be/en/

It was used by the allies as a huge storage base for logistics and in particular fuel. The attack on this base was not defended by Telly Salavas as depicted by the film but by the Belgian army. The huge straight was in effect a rather large runway.

We have been on a few of these battlefield tours and they are fascinating to go round especially if a member of a your family was involved.

[PanzerJohn]

Nice trip that, I wish they would get the KT undercover and do some in depth restoration.Its pretty mucked up inside, but when you see what the SDKFZ guys did with the JP it would be a relative walk in the park.

[the_old_un]

Hi John that tank is a mess. Most of the mud guards are crude repros and the tosion bar sus has collapsed. A few years back all the hatches were welded as certain well known brit collectors were robbing it all the time.

A lot of historians state that this was the main battle tank at that particular battle. Erm.... Only 14 of them were used and the vast majority broke down like this one. The front glacis shell marks are from passing US tanks taking pot shots after it broke down.

The Panther Ausf G was the main tank in that battle.

Sven has a tremondous archive of the whole battle and knows the complete history of every German tank found knocked out.

[Martin Bull]

It's OK - I brought it home with me.....;)

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/jgfive/Ardennes11/Ardennes11216.jpg

[the_old_un]

MB how on earth did you get that passed Customs? :LOL:

"Its a piece of junk"

On a serious note some of these battlefield tours are excellent and well worth going on. The only drawback is the mamouth coach journeys but we found that it was better to go to Dover by train and stay overnight.

Jersey shortly and we are really looking forward to it.

[Martin Bull]

You're right - Battlefield tours are a great introduction and some of the guides/speakers really know their stuff. Been to the Ardennes so many times now that I tend to do what Mrs B calls 'Bulltours' with a distinct :rolleyes: expression....

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/jgfive/Ardennes11/Ardennes11102.jpg

;)

[the_old_un]

MB have you done the bridge to far tour?