Another museum in Dresden, and more interesting than the other sights, quite frankly. Situated in a partly rebuilt armoury and barracks complex towards the outskirts of the city it covers the German army (Heer) from the middle ages onwards … and pulls no punches …
Waste not, want not. This was an old medieval Bombard which would originally have been mounted on a sled-like, wheelless, base – but as technology progressed, the owners had it mounted on a wheeled carriage, probably in the early Renaissance. It is unlikely it saw much use in that form, however, as it was simply too bloody heavy to drag around at any speed, even for use in Sieges.Reiter’s armour and long barrreled wheellock pistol of the sort used during the 30 years war. The Reiter would, typically, be used in a caracole – the formed a circle in front of the enemy and rode around in the circle at speed, firing their pistols into the enemy formation at the nearest point … and, theoretically, if/when the enemy broke they could charge … or other shock-cavalry units such as Curaissers could do so. Typically they had at least four wheellock pistols, and might have as many as six.Neger manned torpedo. It was based on a standard torpedo – it couldn’t submerge but it could carry a real torpedo slung underneath. A really marginal weapon idea – about 200 were manufactured and deployed and 80% of the crews died, often because the darn things simply capsized and they were difficult to escape from. They managed to sink one DD and three Minesweepers.
The big drawcard that was easy to photo (being outside and well lit, of course), was the vehicle park … including the usual West German homegrown stuff as well as their US/European made bits and bobs, but also including a lot of Russian stuff that was used by the DDR’s Volksarmee.
VolksarmeeZSU-23-4 ‘Shilka’ SP AA vehicle. BTR-152 Armoured Personnel CarrierBRDM-2 Armoured Scout VehicleLeopard Mk1 Armoured Engineer VehicleMobile Patriot SAM vehicle.M-577 Command Post is Bundeswehr markings and camouflage
There was a lot more, especially inside, but, as is all to common, the lighting was rubbish and/or seemed to be deliberately placed to reflect off the glass display cases … in both cases making it impossible to actually take usable photos … even with Flash, I suspect (though that wasn’t allowed).
Lots of stuff on the Volksarmee and the Bundeswehr and how they interacted with their allies and civilian populations … all quite interesting, but, again, nothing in the way of written material that you could purchase in the sparse museum shop … not even in German.
phalanxgamesdesign.com 