München = Munich to us English speakers

Of interest to me because of the Deutches Museum. There is also one of the more notorious concentration camps here, it is effectively within the city limits and can be reached by suburban train (I am told).

Deutches Museum

An Me-163 Komet, the world's only successful rocket propelled aeroplane, these caused quite a stir when they were first encountered. The allies had no answer to them. There biggest problem tactically was that they only had 15 minutes of fuel. The fuel was higly corrosive and in a crash or if it leaked was quite capable of disolving the pilot!

Below is the Me-262 jet fighter, but for Hitler's interference in its development this aircraft type alone could have significantly lengthened the war. This particular example was flown to Switzerland by its pilot who preffered to surrender to them than the allies. Eventually the Swiss handed it back to the Germans after the war. It is in very nice condition.

Unterseeboot Eins

To us English speakers this is U boat number 1. It was under sentance at the end of the first world war to be either scraped or sunk. The then curator of the Deutsches Museum had the foresight but most importantly the energy to see that it should be preserved. He worked hard and eventually convinced those in authority to release the boat to the museum. It was part of the arrangement that it would be sectioned for display (and thus demilitarised).

You are looking into the engine room area of U-1. The submarine is complete other than those sections of the hull removed to make it a display. Very difficult to photograph, but imagine a whole submarine sitting in a building with the conning tower projecting up through a hole in the floor above. Likewise there is a complete V-2 rocket that goes through several floors.

Into France

We departed Germany and re-entered France via Strasburg; after the "korrect" attitude of the Germans, France came as a bit of a shock, despite having been there only 4 weeks before. We were basically headed back to Calais in order to make our way to Beltring for the "War and Peace Show".

On the way we detoured to find and look at the church where my grandfather was wounded in WW1 and also to see some of the Maginot Line.

This however is much easier said than done. The French are not at all proud of the history of the Maginot Line forts and it is rare to find a signpost indicating the location of one. I had found a website before leaving Australia that listed the majority of the forts, so armed with the list and yet another Michellin map we managed to locate roughly 60% of the forts we were looking for.

Luckily there are some French who actively preserve some of the forts and several can be internally toured, though opening times are very limited.

As my knowledge of Maginot architecture is effectively zero; below are a selection of photo's of different forts and there features. You will note the weather had reverted to what we experienced in Normandy. A day before we had still been in the 2 week heat wave in Germany!

Armoured Forces Memorial

My record keeping fails here. All I can recall is that this site is on the "D18" road and is in the WW1 area.

The first picture is of a rather unique armoured car. It is a Panhard EBR-75 or EBR-90 and is feature wise a mirror image at each end. Effectively it has no front or back, having a drivers position at each end, with the engine in the centre. The steel wheels can be lowered for cross country use.

The 2nd photo is of an AMX-13 light tank, though the gun is a 90mm! These vehicles had a "nodding turret", effectively the turret is in 2 pieces and the gun is fixed to the upper one. Elevation and depression is achieved by the whole upper turret "nodding", whilst traverse is per normal tank design of a turret bearing ring.

Well, that's it for Europe. We then headed back across the channel and saw Dover Castle (worthwhile), sundry tourist sites and Bovington Tank Museum (seperate article to this series). The military holiday continues by clicking on the link below.

To continue, click = England 99 part 1