Normandy Tank Museum To Sell Collection

[Charlie Flick]

Bloomberg Business News is reporting the following: For sale: tanks, good condition, some used during D-Day.

 

The Normandy Tank Museum is selling its entire collection at auction next month before closing its doors because it failed to attract enough visitors. The sale includes tanks, military vehicles, trucks, aircraft and motorcycles, many of which have been restored to working order.

More than 40 armored vehicles, along with thousands of military items used during World War II and dozens of mannequins in full battle dress, will be sold on September 18 by Artcurial, a Paris-based luxury auction house. The sale will be held in Catz, a town a few kilometers from Normandy’s Utah beach, where the Allies landed to liberate German-occupied northwestern Europe in June 1944.

“We thought the museum would attract more people,” the museum’s co-founder Stephane Nerrant said in a phone interview. “The terrorist attacks had a considerable impact on visitor attendance,” he said, declining to provide numbers. French refinery-workers strikes that caused fuel shortages in May and June throughout the country also dented ticket sales, he said.

The museum opened in 2013, based on the private collection of founder Patrick Nerrant, Stephane’s father, who started buying WWII armored vehicles in the eighties.

WWII Engines

WWII was the first major conflict that extensively used engines and motor vehicles.

Compared to WWI, “the use of tanks increased greatly during WWII after a formidable industrial effort,” said Frederic Sommier, who manages the nearby D-Day museum of Arromanches-les-bains. By 1939, tanks had replaced most of the horses used during WWI, he said. Airplanes also became far more widespread and were used to couple air and battlefield attacks, Sommier said.

In addition to its collection, the venue offers tank rides and flights over D-Day landmarks such as the beaches where as many as 4,400 allied troopers lost their lives on June 6, 1944.

The 33,000 square-foot museum also has its own repair shop. It estimates the cost of refurbishing a Sherman tank at 150,000 euros ($160,000), plus labor.

 

[gwb123]

We've had an earlier thread on this, including the link to the catalog. It's unfortunate that it is going under. Operating a museum is an expensive proposition.

[swmdo]

Sad day period. Too many museums like this closing...

[General Apathy]

Carentan Tank museum closed in 2016, New museum to open 2017

 

I understand a new operator is going to reopen in 2017 in the same buildings that were used for the Tank museum that closed in 2016, it's being muted that the name of the museum will be ' The battle of the hedgerows '.

 

If and when I hear more I hope to post it here . . . . . . . . .

 

lewis.

 

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[41stInfantry]

Very sad news about the museum but at least these pieces of history will be preserved by others.