Visited the American Heritage Museum (Collings Foundation) located in Hudson Massachusetts in July 2019. It just opened in May of this year. The main emphasis there is armored fighting vehicles, and for that it is highly recommended. Ordnance is also included in many of the displays, which most museums don’t often bother with. Ordnance should be prominently included at every war museum. One could almost argue that the ordnance is the most important thing and all else is simply a delivery system to get the ordnance from the factory to within range of the enemy - be it man or machine, tank or rifle. Definitely an A++++ museum but some of the ordnance on display could use some improvements as noted below. They start with WW1 and end with current equipment.
Amazing M3 75mm GMC, fully equipped, with brass in the ready rack (although without primers). Walkway right above it so you can see inside. My favorite display. Beautiful.
View from above. Nice 2 pounder with spent cases laying around. On closer inspection they were bofors A.A. cases but an A for effort. It would take 10+ years to find that many 2 pounder cases here in the US. Bofors cases are dimensionally good substitutes.
Nice Pak 40 and HE round.
Sherman cut-away. Wrong fuzes on 75mm tank ammo in the racks. Should be M48 PD/delay. Tank gunners were trained for indirect fire but not with timed ammo. Also need markings (Super, Normal or Reduced) on the casings. How are they going to hit the target without knowing?
Less common KWK40 HEAT round by the Stug. Nice case!
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as the German ordnance department proved here.
Very nice 57mm ATG display - no problems finding the right cases for this gun here in the US.
Jumbo, but they really screwed up by putting a pre-WW2 HE round next to it. They really should remove that.
Another beautiful job with this M8 HMC including M5A1 cases scattered around. Staircase so you can really appreciate the restoration effort.
M18 - they didn't get this quite right. Post WW2 steel cases instead of brass (at least paint them!), wrong fuze again, should be marked "Shell" instead of "CTG"
IS-2 with massive 122mm wooden HE shell.
88 nicely displayed
Post WW2 Korean war era Priest (high mounted 105 for higher angle fire) with rounds displayed so you can see them - nice touch.
Amazing M3 75mm GMC, fully equipped, with brass in the ready rack (although without primers). Walkway right above it so you can see inside. My favorite display. Beautiful.
View from above. Nice 2 pounder with spent cases laying around. On closer inspection they were bofors A.A. cases but an A for effort. It would take 10+ years to find that many 2 pounder cases here in the US. Bofors cases are dimensionally good substitutes.
Nice Pak 40 and HE round.
Sherman cut-away. Wrong fuzes on 75mm tank ammo in the racks. Should be M48 PD/delay. Tank gunners were trained for indirect fire but not with timed ammo. Also need markings (Super, Normal or Reduced) on the casings. How are they going to hit the target without knowing?
Less common KWK40 HEAT round by the Stug. Nice case!
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as the German ordnance department proved here.
Very nice 57mm ATG display - no problems finding the right cases for this gun here in the US.
Jumbo, but they really screwed up by putting a pre-WW2 HE round next to it. They really should remove that.
Another beautiful job with this M8 HMC including M5A1 cases scattered around. Staircase so you can really appreciate the restoration effort.
M18 - they didn't get this quite right. Post WW2 steel cases instead of brass (at least paint them!), wrong fuze again, should be marked "Shell" instead of "CTG"
IS-2 with massive 122mm wooden HE shell.
88 nicely displayed
Post WW2 Korean war era Priest (high mounted 105 for higher angle fire) with rounds displayed so you can see them - nice touch.
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