I pimped/edited this post from a photo blog-post to a history-post of reasonable quality. So if you already have read this before you can read it again :D
I used to be addicted to the second world war RTS company of heroes. Because of that game I got really interested in second world war vehicles. Since I will start moving soon from the Dutch city of Eindhoven so I decided to visit a second world war museum close by. The museum is called Bevrijdende vleugels which loosely translates to Freedom Wings. Here is the website if you are interested. Most likely this name was chosen because Eindhoven was liberated by paradrops.
They have quite a nice collection of war vehicles on disply. A couple of vehicles still have functioning engines. Unfortunately, they didn't drive any around when I visited.
Eindhoven in the second world war
So the city where I lived played a quite important role during the second world war.
About ten years before the second world war an airport was constructed in the vicinity of Eindhoven. Upon invasion of the Netherlands by the Germans in 1940 the Dutch army made the airport unusable for flights. After the invasion the Germans repaired and extended the airport in a couple months and used it to perform a number of bomb runs on the UK.
Eindhoven was home to the Philips factories which produced complex radio parts for German war machine. Hence, for the Allies it was an important tactical target. The British bombed the factory in 1942. The Philips factories where located in the center so there were civilian casualities as well, 138 to be exact [1]. Here is Allied propagando video about the bombing:
Sadly, the Germans decided that to compensate for the production loss a concentration camp needed to be constructed in Vught which is close to Eindhoven [2]. This became part of the Philips factory. At a later stage in the war most of the prisoners were deported [3].
Eindhoven is located in the Southern parts of the Netherlands so it was one of the first cities to be liberated in 1944. Due to the failure of operation Market Garden most of the Netherlands had to wait until the spring of 1945 to be freed from the Germans [4].
Warmachines
Back to the museum: So the warmachines on display are more of a random collection than warmachines which played an in important role in the defense or offense in the surrounding areas.
Sherman
The Sherman tank is a medium American tank with a nice tank top :P its biggest plus point was probably that it could be produced quickly. Germans had superior engineering in the second world war but lacked a high speed production line. So USA (and also Russia) pretty much out-produced Germany. Shermans were also more sustainable than the high-end German tanks. In addition, after D-day the production of the Allied forces where well protected whereas the German production was vulnerable to raids [5].
Greyhound
I loved these in company of heroes. High speed light American vehicle that can almost hit 90km/h on an open road, hence they are appropriately called greyhounds. They are pretty bad in difficult terrain because contrary to tanks they have actual wheels. Apparently the design is good enough to be still used in some countries.
In battle manoeuvrability can be everything and these machines where very manoeufrable! During a battle in Belgium a Grey hound was able to get behind a Tiger tank and, with a lucky shot to the rear, set that German tank on fire [5].
Gliders
I did not know that the allied forces used gliders as transportation. Apparently, it was quick and cost efficient because the planes pulling the gliders did not have to land when picking up another glider.
Here you can see glider pick-up in action:
Flak 88
Flak is a German Cannon. It is short for Flugzeug-Abwehr-Kanone which means anti-aircraft cannon. However, it was not only used to shoot down planes but it also did an effective job as an anti-tank gun. A version of this Kanone forms the main gun of the heavy tank Tiger I [7]. To design a tank with such a gun is not a trivial matter because of the huge force after a shot is fired. Germans were/are just amazing at engineering.
Par II: For the second part I will be writing about the V1 rocket, radar systems and Russian tanks :)
References
[1] https://www.niod.nl/nl/vraag-en-antwoord/duitse-en-geallieerde-bombardementen-op-nederland
[2] https://www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/nl/artikel/6133/het-philips-kommando-in-kamp-vught.html
[3] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_slachtoffers_van_Kamp_Vught
[4] S. Badsey, Arnhem (1993), 1944 Operation Market-Garden
[5] https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/m4-sherman-vs-german-panther/
[6] Beevor, Antony (2015). Ardennes 1944: Hitler’s last gamble. New York: Viking. p. 172.
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_Flak_18/36/37/41
Merchandise :D
There is a MathOwl shop which sells my artsy fartsy stuff. If you got some spare money head over there. I have really cheap stuff available like these stickers They are an absolute hoot.
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