Dragon Wagon, DUKW, half tracks head to auction to save military museum

[johnro6659]

Dragon Wagon, DUKW, half tracks head to auction to save military museum | Hemmings Blog: Classic and collectible cars and parts

[panzerwerk]

Wow I am very sad to see this collection broken up , I have been to the museum and although some of the vehicles have been reworked and are not completely original , there is still some very rare items up for sale , sad to see it go ......

Full list of items and vehicles being auctioned :

Auctions America - Collector Car Auctions

[panzerwerk]

BTW , I would kill to have that Opal Maultier or one of the RSO's , I would even be happy to get one of the smaller staff cars like the Stoewer or Horch !!! Damn I wish I had won the lottery ....

[Sixty Driver]

Sad to see the collection being broken up. They had all flavors of RSO under one roof, including what is claimed to be the sole Gebirgs RSO prototype. I drive past the museum once or twice a month and it is always dead there. I've been in there many times, saddly I dont' have time for one last visit before I come back from Alabama in February otherwise I would be there taking pics of all the stuff that's leaving. AMPS has held several nationals there, but the museum is still relatively unknown and in the middle of virtual nowhere. I'm actually surprised in lasted this long to be honest.

Interesting thing is they bought it all from a museum in Belgium. There's some obscure law about bringing US military vehicles left behind, back into the US. The whole collection sat in port for months (or more than a year IIRC) waiting to get the red tape cut. They were at the decission point of pushing all the US stuff off the boat into the sea when they finally got the go ahead to bring the stuff in. Saddly during this time some of the uniforms were damaged by moths.

This goes along with the Fort Knox musuem sending all of it's collection to Fort Benning, just when I was posted to Fort Knox. I was fortunate to have had one last look before I left for Iraq, when I got back it was all gone. Oh the humanity!!

[Sixth Vanguard]

It is sad, but honestly if it is sitting in a museum in the middle of nowhere it isn't doing me much good.

Hopefully this stuff will end up in collections people get to see and not disappear into closed door private collections.

I'm with Steve, time to go buy a lottery ticket

[M37M880]

Not sure about Sixty Drivers comment -

"There's some obscure law about bringing US military vehicles left behind, back into the US."

Returned military vehicles have been brought back from Europe for years. Some pristine vehicles have been brought from stocks of reserve U.S. vehicles given to France and Norway and then sold. These vehicles were given to these countries as surplus who stored by them and then sold as surplus.

My first MV was a WC-56 Command Car bought from France surplus after service in the French Foreign Legion. My buddy bought a minty WC-63 surplus from Norway. My CC was in such beautiful condition I drove it home from the surplus dealer. I was also at the delivery on the Brooklyn docks off a Yugoslavian container ship carring a M-18 Hellcat bought by a museum in CT.

A note on the Norway surplus, at the end of WW2, among other countries, our country gave hundreds of vehicles to Norway, who stored them in underground bunkers and maintained them all the years, only slacking off when Russia fell apart. Some of these had so little miles on them as to be brand new. I also examined a CCKW Shop Van that was completely stocked with all tools in every drawer, wrapped in cosoline. As I remember less than 10 miles on the clock. It was brought back and sold for around 17K.

As I understand it this museum still has quite a few unique vehicles but that M-26..... WOW.

Anybody remember a few years ago we saw a M-26 built in 1/6 that just knocked my socks off, I believe it was built in the U.K. ..... where else?

TTT

[Sixty Driver]

As I understand it, the US has to have transferred ownership of the vehicle in order for it to be brought back. Vehicles that were "loaned" can not. There was a discussion of a similar nature at Knox a couple of months ago. The only time you can legally buy offical US miliary equipment is after it has been through the DRMO, no matter where it was left/abandoned. If it didn't go through DRMO it is still government property. Anyway I didn't mean to make such a blanket statement.

[johnro6659]

It's a shame for sure but these museums are getting less and less vistors every year and not pulling in the money as much the cost s go up thew income goes down. I would rather see them selling off a few vehciels than close the doors forever! I am sure these museums rely on a lot of volunteer work that is probably drying up as well as large donations. I hope these vehicles get bought by other museums or places where they will be available for display it would be a shame to see them dissapear never to be seen again.

[Sixth Vanguard]

Originally Posted by M37M880

Not sure about Sixty Drivers comment -

"There's some obscure law about bringing US military vehicles left behind, back into the US."

From what I remember my Dad telling me this has something to do with the settlements reached after the war. Lend Lease countries were facing staggering repayments to the U.S. for the material we sent, most specifically the U.K. In order to lessen the burden, there were several settlements made, and part of the terms was that some material sent overseas had to be either paid for, sent back to the US or destroyed by a certain date. Apparently it was more cost effective to destroy material than to ship it back, so after a certain date if it wasn't sent back it had to be destroyed. Anything that survived would be considered contraband and could not be sent back.

Those were the highlights of what I remember. My Dad had lots of stories of how the military seemed to do things "differently" than what most would think is common sense.

Could be completely wrong.

[Rolling Thunder Tech]

Has the museum tried to obtain donations to keep the collection together? Seems like they should have seen this coming and either tried to work with other museums or loan portions of the collection out for a fee.

Leonard
RTT