The jewels of the excellent Armour and Artillery Museum in Cairns, Australia

@ElentirENG ES 1·02·2024 · 23:31 0

Founded in 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia is a relatively young country but has had an important presence in several wars.

A tour of the fabulous National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois, Wyoming
The Panzermuseum in Munster, a museum with more than a century of German tanks

Since the year of its foundation, the Commonwealth of Australia has participated in both world wars, the Korean War, the so-called Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian-Malay Confrontation, the Vietnam War, the Gulf, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War. For this reason, Australia has already acquired an important military past that can also be seen in its museums.

One such site is the Australian Armor and Artillery Museum, a private museum founded in 2014 and based in Cairns, Queensland. Despite being much younger than other centers of this type, this museum has an important collection with more than 100 vehicles and a total of 193 pieces on display, ranging from the First World War to the present. Its dimensions make it one of the largest military museums of this type in the world.

As its name indicates, the museum specializes in armored vehicles and artillery systems, and among its collections there are outstanding historical gems, including more than twenty German vehicles from World War II, including a Tiger tank restored in 2021from parts obtained from original tanks. You can see some samples of its contents below.

An American M-4A1 Sherman tank from World War II. Behind him we see an M24 Chaffee light tank, from the same era.

An American M-26A1 Pershing tank from World War II. Its serial number is 1360 and it was built in July 1945.

A Soviet ISU-152 tank destroyer, a 1943 model used by the Red Army in World War II. This beast was equipped with a 152.4 mm cannon.

A British Army Matilda II tank from World War II. It is one of only 30 tanks of this type still preserved in Australia.

A German Panzer VI Tiger tank from World War II. It is, without a doubt, one of the museum's greatest jewels, since of the 1,347 built of this type, only 11 are preserved in the entire world, including examples like this one, which was reconstructed from parts of different vehicles.

A German Panzer IV Ausf D tank from World War II. More than 8,500 Panzer IVs were built, of which 290 were of the Ausf D and E variants. Today there are only 3 complete Panzer IV Ausf D left in the world.

A New Zealand Army M-41 Walker Bulldog medium tank. It was one of 10 tanks of this type that country had, purchased in 1960 and retired from service in 1983.

A German Jagdpanther tank destroyer from World War II. Its restoration was completed in 2022. It is another gem that is difficult to see: a total of 425 vehicles of this type were built, only 8 are complete.

A Land Rover Series 2 Gun Buggy with an M40A1 106mm recoilless cannon. He belonged to the Australian Army.

A huge Soviet 2S7 Pion self-propelled howitzer. This vehicle entered service in 1976. It has a 203 mm gun. It is still being used today in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on both sides.

A British Army Centurion tank. This model did not arrive in time for World War II. It entered service in 1946 and was a model that was very successful, being used in a large number of wars in the following years. The Israeli Army crushed its enemies with these tanks in the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. To his left we see a Czech T-72 and a German Flakpanzer Gepard, and to his right a US Army M-47 Patton.

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Photos: The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum.