The U.S. Army Ordnance Museum is a museum located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Aberdeen, Maryland, USA.
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History
The mission of the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum is to acquire, preserve, and exhibit historically significant equipment, armaments and materiel that relates to the history of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps and to document and present the evolution and development of U.S. military ordnance material dating from the American Colonial Period to present day.
Established in 1919 and officially opened to the public in 1924, to exhibit captured enemy equipment and materiel, the Museum was located in Building 314 of the Aberdeen Proving Ground and operated by the U.S. Army until 1967. Co-location with APG provided convenient access to the equipment being delivered to APG for testing after World War I. In 1965 local citizens formed the tax-free Ordnance Museum Foundation, Inc. to establish and operate a museum of these military artifacts. The Foundation is not affiliated with the U.S. Army, nor the Department of Defense. The Foundation began operation of the Museum in the early 1970s, upon opening at its current location in Building 2601 on the Aberdeen Proving Ground and operates the Ordnance Museum until this day.
The museum consists of two parts: a large outdoor collection of field military equipment and weaponry, covering a 25-acre (100,000 m2) park, and an indoor museum displaying firearms and explosives from many militaries worldwide, along with histories of their development.
The museum is open to visitors seven days a week, from 9:00am to 4:45pm, excluding most federal holidays.
Note: The museum has announced plans to move most of its collection to a massive, all-indoor museum at Fort Lee, south of Richmond, Virginia, in 2011. The museum’s move from Maryland to Virginia was directed by the 2005 round of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
- Museum Foundation
A Ordnance Museum Foundation has been established with future plans to improve the museum through the construction of a 300,000 square foot indoor exhibition area and maintenance facilities.
The Ordnance Museum Foundation, Inc. was formally incorporated in the State of Maryland as Charity #8849 in December 1991 as a non-profit, tax exempt corporation. This status as a non-profit tax-exempt corporation was recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as an authorized 501(c)(3) corporation in the Spring of 1992.
Dr. William Atwater is the former director of the museum.
Exhibits
The outdoor collection features over 200 various tanks, military vehicles, Self-propelled guns, munitions, and numerous mortars and artillery pieces from World War I era forward. A very small number of the tank exhibits have mesh covered windows cut into their armor exposing the interiors for viewing, but also leading to exposure and damage from the elements.
Sample outdoor exhibit artifacts include (not all-inclusive):
Tanks and Self-Propelled Artillery
- British World War I Mark IV Tank
- British interwar Vickers Medium Mark II Tank
- British World War II Medium Mark A Whippet Tank
- British World War II Mk II, Matilda II (A12)
- French World War II Light Tank Renault R35
- French World War II Medium Tank (Somua S35)
- German World War II Panzer III Tank
- German World War II Panzer IV Tank (three: models D,G,H)
- German World War II Panther Tank (two)
- German World War II Sturmpanzer IV Brummbär
- German World War II Tank Destroyer "Jagdtiger"
- German World War II Tank Destroyer SdKfz 164 "Nashorn"
- German World War II Tank Destroyer Marder III
- German World War II Grille Ausf. M Self-Propelled Artillery
- German/US MBT-70
- Italian Tank Destroyer, Semovente 47/32
- Italian Tank Destroyer, Semovente 90/53
- Italian Tank Destroyer, Semovente da 149/40
- Italian World War II Medium Tank; Fiat M13/40
- Japanese Pre-World War II Medium Tank Type 94 Te-Ke
- Japanese World War II Tank Type 95 Ha-Go
- Japanese World War II Medium Tank Type 97 Chi-Ha
- Japanese World War II Tank Destroyer Type 1 Ho-Ni I
- Soviet T-34 medium tank
- Iraqi T-72 tank
- US World War II M26 Pershing Heavy Tank
- US World War II M3A1 Stuart Light Tank
- US World War II M3 Lee Medium Tank
- US World War II M4A4 Sherman Medium Tank
- US World War II M20 Armored Utility Car
- US M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank
- US M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle
- US M60 Patton Tank
- US M53 155mm Self-Propelled Gun
- US T92 Light Tank
Artillery pieces
- US 280 mm Field Gun M65 "Atomic Cannon"
- German Krupp K5 Railway gun "Leopold" (one of the "Anzio Annie" twins)
- German World War II 12.8 cm FlaK 40 Zwilling anti-aircraft gun
- German World War II 8.8 cm Flak 36 anti-aircraft gun
- German World War II 8.8 cm Flak 41 anti-aircraft gun
- Soviet World War II 152 mm howitzer-gun M1937 (ML-20)
- US 105 mm M2A1 Howitzer
- US 120 mm M1 gun
- US 155 mm Long Tom Field Gun
- US 16-Inch Coast Defense Gun
Munitions
- "T12", the largest conventional bomb ever built [1] (U.S. 44,000 lb (20,000 kg) bomb), standing upright outside the front entrance to the museum building
The indoor portion of the Ordnance Museum contains a large collection of firearms, shells, hand grenades, cartridges, and educational displays. Numerous examples of artillery and mortars are on display, as is a 1942 Jeep and a M5 Stuart tank equipped with the "Rhino" Culin cutter for use in hedgerows.
References and Notes
See also
- Kubinka Tank Museum - Russian Tank Museum
- Musée des Blindés - French Tank Museum
- Bovington Tank Museum - United Kingdom Tank Museum
- General George Patton Museum - Fort Knox, Kentucky Tank Museum
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: US Army Ordnance Museum |
- External photographic catalogs / galleries
- US APG OM at peachmountain.com
- US APG OM German tanks at axishistory.com
- Ordnance Collection at Aberdeen Proving Grounds
- US Army Ordinance Museum Photos of Tanks, Armored Vehicles, Artillery, and other weapons at the US Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds
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