MAP CONTROLS: Use slider or mousewheel to zoom, and hold down left mouse button
to drag.
KEY: Location markers are coloured from Green meaning exact to Red meaning
gone or unknown (details here)
|
Click here or on the image for this location's profile page
|
Location Category ID:
|
5610
|
|
Address: |
Via della Migliara 43-5, 04100 Borgo Faiti, Latina
|
|
Telephone: |
+390773258708
|
|
Email: |
info [at] pianadelleorme.it (Replace [at] with @)
|
|
Opening Times: |
0900-1800 (last ticket 1600) Mon-Fri, 0900-1900 (last ticket 1700) Sat-Sun (November-March)
0900-2000 (last ticket 1800) Mon-Fri, 0900-2030 (last ticket 1830) Sat-Sun (April-October)
|
|
Official Website: |
English
Italian
The Collection
Vehicle Gallery
|
|
Other Links: |
Centro Modellistico Torinese
Sherman DD
|
|
Latitude, Longitude: |
41.4433175
,
12.98401594
|
|
Location Accuracy: |
6
|
|
Tanks Previously Here: |
|
Piana delle Orme is a historical park intended to display one of the broadest collections in the world, covering aircraft, tanks and other military vehicles, locomotives, carts, radios, weapons, farming machinery, trams and buses, tools and thousands of other objects. Dedicated to the 20th Century, the museum complex represents a journey through 50 years of Italian history. Fourteen themed pavilions tell the traditions and culture of the countryside, the great reclamation works and the Second World War, and also show the vehicles at the beginning of industrialisation, and the toys which children enjoyed in the past.
The armoured vehicles in its collection include a British Bren Carrier and a German SdKfz 251 half-track.
|
Piana Delle Orme
| Location ID: | 5610 | | Latitude, Longitude: | 41.4433175, 12.98401594 | | Location Accuracy: | 6 |
Click
here or on the image for this tank's profile page
|
Unique ID: |
1051
|
|
Serial Number: |
|
|
Registration: |
|
|
Name: |
|
|
Other Identification: |
|
|
Click
here or on the image for this tank's profile page
|
Unique ID: |
1050
|
|
Serial Number: |
|
|
Registration: |
|
|
Name: |
|
|
Other Identification: |
|
The model of this Sherman is unknown (according to the official website there are 4 Shermans in the collection).
|
Click
here or on the image for this tank's profile page
|
Unique ID: |
1047
|
|
Serial Number: |
|
|
Registration: |
“USA 3091532” painted on sides.
|
|
Name: |
“CRAZY CAT” painted on sides.
|
|
Other Identification: |
Allied stars painted on nose and hull and turret sides. “1∆-13∆” and “C-8” painted on nose and rear plate. Fitted with steel chevron track.
|
This Sherman is in running order and has taken part in film work. Displayed beside it is a Wright R-975 Whirlwind nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine as used in the M4; presumably it has come from or is intended for use in this tank.
|
Click
here or on the image for this tank's profile page
|
Unique ID: |
1048
|
|
Serial Number: |
|
|
Registration: |
|
|
Name: |
|
|
Other Identification: |
Fitted with rubber chevron track.
|
This Sherman is in running order and has taken part in film work. It has signs of small-arms projectile damage on the right side indicating it was probably recovered from a range. Displayed beside it is a Chrysler WC Multibank engine as used in the M4A4; presumably it has come from or is intended for use in this tank.
|
Click
here or on the image for this tank's profile page
|
Unique ID: |
1049
|
|
Serial Number: |
|
|
Registration: |
|
|
Name: |
|
|
Other Identification: |
Fitted with steel chevron track.
|
Between 5th and 20th July 1944 a Sherman DD sank in the Gulf of Salerno. The tank was destined for Battipaglia Training Center where the 753rd Tank Battalion, 6th Army Corps, was stationed and where it was preparing for the imminent landing in the South of France (Operation Dragoon). In Battipaglia was the ITC - Invasion Training Center – where the armoured battalions were being trained to use the new amphibious tanks that had been employed in Normandy on 6th June 1944 for the first time. The training course lasted three weeks.
During one of these training courses a DD tank bumped against an LCT projection and damaged the floating system and sank. Unfortunately the driver died during the sinking; he was TEC4 Walter Kumecki, fom Michigan, USA, but Polish by birth. He now rests in the American War Cemetery of Nettuno.
The recovery of the tank is attributed to a group of friends from Salerno, keen on sub-aqua diving, who informed the US Navy about their discovery. From the USA the recovery and rescue ship Grasp arrived in order to recover the DD and take it to the Fort Knox Museum. But this operation – documented in a film made by B&B Film – was not successful and the tank sat on the seabed again.
On 18th May 2002, after some arrangements settled with B&B Film - which exclusively owns images of the recovery and restoration - Piana delle Orme succeeded in the recovery. This was from a depth of 24m, and as lifted the tank weighed 35t. It then took 16 hours to transport it from Salerno to the museum.
Even after recovery, the restoration presented considerable difficulties, and eventually took 6000 working hours. Large amounts of mud and sand were removed from inside the hull. Each part was dismantled, cleaned up and treated with particular anticorrosive chemical components. The Tank Museum of Bovington in Britain collaborated on the restoration by supplying the construction plans and the details of the DD tank. Some parts of the engine have been replaced with original spare parts, all the gears and the movement mechanisms have been dismantled and reinstated. 100m of iron pipe was used to rebuild the skirt frame, along with 95m of rubber pipe and 60m2 of rubberised fabric to rebuild half of the skirt. The Duplex Drive system has been reinstated: the valves pump up the rubber tubes, the skirt raises and the tracks move with the propellers. It is displayed with half the skirt in place so its mechanism can be seen more easily.
|
Click
here or on the image for this tank's profile page
|
Unique ID: |
1052
|
|
Serial Number: |
|
|
Registration: |
|
|
Name: |
|
|
Other Identification: |
Fitted with rubber chevron track.
|
|