The other day he sent me this shot of the Museum’s manned V1 rocket, currently in the workshop for repainting. He also included the caption below.
"The manned V1 is one of six in existence - this one was selected and sent back to Canada by Capt Farley Mowat. There were some 130 constructed in Germany but finding pilots was problematic. Only 17 actually signed up and had to sign a declaration that their service would result in their deaths. The first two manned rockets that were flown on test flights resulted in the pilots being killed. The pilot of the third flight was Hanna Reitsch, Hitler's private pilot. She actually landed the beast and announced that the issue with the first two flights was in the gyroscope.”
He also sent me this photo of five vehicles from different eras visible in the workshop.
Bonus points if you can identify them all. I got two right and a third close.
Cheers and blessings,
MP+
Universal carrier, MRAP, M577 command post track, Sherman tank in the back and a CWT truck?
ReplyDelete1 correct, two half correct, and a half bonus mark = 2.5 / 5.
DeleteA great job indeed, certainly safer than a V1 pilot!
ReplyDeleteI got to visit the museum a few years back when I was in Ottawa on business. It is a fantastic museum that I'd love to revisit at some point. I did love the British tea van as our one contribution to the hall of tanks
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, Paul, my parents met at a tea van. My mom was with the NAAFI, and my dad was a Canadian soldier in England. Love at first sight over a steaming urn of tea is how Dad described it.
DeleteI'll just go with what James said. He sounds like he knows and sort of stalled out into vagueness after the carrier.
ReplyDeleteHe started out well but as you said, sort of stalled out. :)
DeleteWhat a great artefact!
ReplyDeleteI visited the museum with my family last summer while we had a driving holiday around Canada. Really enjoyed it and it was great to see so many similarities between Canadian and Australian military histories.
Our countries are very similar in that respect, both Colonial militaries that earned maturity and independence for their countries. I'm glad you got to visit Canada.
DeleteBren Carrier, Ram tank in the back and a CWT 15 truck.... the other two I'm lost on.
ReplyDeleteManned V1's!? I had never known there was such a thing. Insanity I call it.
1 mark and a half mark for the other two = 1.5/5. James did better.
DeleteA great museum indeed though I may be biased since I walk past it twice a day. There was a Grizzly based Kangaroo on the display floor for a while but I understand it is in the shop being turned into a runner. There are some other interesting bits including a Biber mini sub (also brought back by Mowat), a Puppchen "rocket cannon", 28/20 squeeze bore ATG, and a German automatic weather station dropped on a remote part of the the east coast of Canada. And this is just the vehicle gallery. Well worth a visit if you are ever in town - even in the winter - we do heat our buildings after all. ;)
ReplyDeletePatG is write, we do heat our buildings. I would recommend a pint at Darcy McGees' off Parliament Hill once you're finished at the Museum.
DeletePat, does the Biber sub have anything to do with Justin Biber? :)
A somehow insane but very interesting fact about the manned V1.
ReplyDeleteThe Nazi obsession with "wonder weapons", while they were getting flooded by thousands of simple, mass produced tanks (Shermans and T34s) is indeed insane, but that insanity did leave with us with many cool artifacts.
DeleteGood work James and Dai.
ReplyDeleteHere's the DS Solution from the Mad Colonel:
"The vehicle behind the Universal Carrier is in fact the superstructure of a 1938 Dodge Command Car. The MRAP is indeed the RG-31 Nyala, the one in front is a M777 command post carrier and the turret of the far tank is an M3 Lee."
That's some kind of volunteer work I'd enjoy too.
ReplyDelete