Posted on 04/04/2013 11:58:49 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
STUTTGART, Germany The U.S. Armys 69-year history of basing main battle tanks on German soil quietly ended last month when 22 Abrams tanks, a main feature of armored combat units throughout the Cold War, embarked for the U.S.
The departure of the last M-1 Abrams tanks coincides with the inactivation of two of the Armys Germany-based heavy brigades. Last year, the 170th Infantry out of Baumholder disbanded. And the 172nd Separate Infantry Brigade at Grafenwöhr is in the process of doing the same.
On March 18, the remaining tanks were loaded up at the 21st Theater Sustainment Commands railhead in Kaiserslautern where they then made the journey to the shipping port in Bremerhaven, Germany. There they boarded a ship bound for South Carolina.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Arrived in Munich in ‘66 as part of the 5/32nd of the 24th. Spent Jan-Feb 67 in Graf, Hohenfeld & Tennellohe (sp on all of them) I was in the M60 A1 at that time.
On May 4th, the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were found in the Reich Chancellery garden. A SMERSH operative saw part of a grey blanket at the bottom of a shell crater. The crater was dug into and two bodies were found along with the bodies of a German Alsatian and a puppy.
Very early on May 5th, the bodies were taken to Buch in northeast Berlin, where SMERSH had its headquarters. Such was the secrecy surrounding this, that not even Zhukov was informed about the discovery. Dental records and thorough dental checks proved to Vadis that the body was that of Adolf Hitler.
On May 7th, Moscow was informed that Hitlers body had been found. From that time on, it was kept under the greatest of secrecy.
In 1970, the Kremlin decided to dispose of the body. They claim that it was buried beneath an army parade ground in Magdeburg. SMERSH had kept the jaws of Hitler, used in their dental checks. This was confirmed by Yelena Rzhevskaya who was the interpreter used by SMERSH when Hitlers dental staff were questioned at Buch. The NKVD had kept Hitlers cranium. Both of these have been found in Moscows archives in recent years. In the mid-1990s, the Russian authorities claim that they exhumed the body of Hitler from the parade ground in Magdeburg, burned it and then flushed the ashes into the towns sewage system.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/death_of_adolf_hitler1.htm
I’ve got my certificate hanging on my wall. It’s rather difficult hanging that on my lapel.
And Korea is really South Korea's problem. Why are we still there?
Ask Saddam......
Things do rust in the desert, but there is no reason to put heavy tanks on the border, what has happened there that calls for heavy tanks, what purpose would parking the tanks on the border serve, why do you want them there rather than where they are needed for defense or training?
The majority of my Army career was spent in Germany.
Cherry jumper! ;)
No old buddy, the Army agrees with me.
I was still a month short of being conceived when you were there. My Dad was in Germany ‘51-’52 as an MP. He loved it there.
Perhaps too much Hammer’s Slammers lately? ;)
Thanks for remembering.
No missile defense, no tanks, defense cuts — people get ready.
Thanks Timber Rattler.
and the Korean bases - ROK is more than capable of defending herself these days
Pilatus P-6. Designed by the Swiss for landing on very short runways in the mountains. The US Army had two of them in Berlin flying out of Tempelhof. Interesting that the Army would fly an aircraft designed for short mountain takeoffs and landings in a flat city with wide open streets.
I was talking about “decades” ago...
And so was I. M48 tanks in Vietnam used the same rubber track blocks they did in FT Knox. I don’t know when the US stopped using steel track, but I guarantee you it was before they started using me in 1964. The large rubber tread on the track blocks provided better traction than flatter steel tread. It also weighed much less.
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