APG Elefant restored

kimtheredxd · Post by **kimtheredxd** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:28 am

Where are the pics from? any more info on this tank like the history etc?

Panzer_M · Post by **Panzer_M** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:48 am

Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland...US Army Armour Museum.

This was the Elefant captured in Italy '44...near Anzio IIRC

Planning a trip up next fall before the snow

olifant · Post by **olifant** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 12:43 pm

Very cool find Mike! This must be the only surviving piece?

exether_mega · Post by **exether_mega** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:46 pm

wish they store it in a warehouse. So sad to see all those armor rusting outside in a sad grey paint sheme.

phil

Panzer_M · Post by **Panzer_M** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:08 pm

1 of 2

Kublinka(Moscow) has a Ferdie in it's collection(inside display)

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:29 pm

Looks fabulous... It's nice to see they are at least making some attempts to restore some of the pieces that were in dire need of it. Note the pitting from the shell glancing off the mantlet...I like they way they did that, wonder if this was from actual combat, or if they "modeled" it. If I'm not mistaken they had a Soviet B4 203mm tracked howitzer there at one time, last I saw it was in pathetic condition, it's too bad because these are extremely rare outside the former Soviet Union.

http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/ ... witzer.htm

Panzer_M · Post by **Panzer_M** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:53 pm

APG scrapped alot of stuff since the war.

A Karl Morser with it's rail transport, a Pz I ausf. F (80mm Armour on a redesigned running gear similar to Panther/Pz II Lynx), and other stuff.

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:15 pm

APG scrapped alot of stuff since the war.

A Karl Morser with it's rail transport, a Pz I ausf. F (80mm Armour on a redesigned running gear similar to Panther/Pz II Lynx), and other stuff.

WOW

I know there are wealthy museums and collectors around the world that will pay BIG bucks for these things, it seems stupid and wasteful to just scrap these important pieces of history.

Post by **aferguson** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:15 am

if it was captured in Italy it should have zimmerit on it. Did they remove it during the restoration process?

Jagdpanther · Post by **Jagdpanther** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:17 am

Nice!

Panzer_M · Post by **Panzer_M** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:08 am

ostketten wrote:
APG scrapped alot of stuff since the war.

A Karl Morser with it's rail transport, a Pz I ausf. F (80mm Armour on a redesigned running gear similar to Panther/Pz II Lynx), and other stuff.
WOW I know there are wealthy museums and collectors around the world that will pay BIG bucks for these things, it seems stupid and wasteful to just scrap these important pieces of history.

someone said they also scrapped a Lynx in the 1950s...Same thing happened to alot of captured airframes saddly...priceless today to some, just wartime junk steel then.

Panzer_M · Post by **Panzer_M** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:09 am

aferguson wrote:if it was captured in Italy it should have zimmerit on it. Did they remove it during the restoration process?

No idea if it had it durning the war or not..When I saw it years ago at APG, it was painted white, and I don't think it had Zimm then either.

Post by **aferguson** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:20 pm

if it was captured in Italy it would have to have had zimmerit. All the Ferdinands left after the post Kursk period were sent back to germany, modified, which indcluded adding zimmerit and then sent to Italy.

I can't imagine the removed the zimm. I don't even know if that's possible.

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:05 pm

if it was captured in Italy it would have to have had zimmerit.

Info at Lone Sentry's site says it was captured in Italy and was originally part of schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung 653. He's usually pretty reliable, so I presume the info is accurate.

http://www.lonesentry.com/panzer/ferdin ... ivors.html

Here's another page that has pics of the same Elefant at Aberdeen, scroll down near the bottom of the page and read, apparently it had Zimm at one time so it must have been removed.

http://www.customrcmodels.com/Tanks/id101.htm