Alsace, France Armor monuments, bunkers: Maginot line

[vcleary]

The following video and pictures are from a recent visit to the southwestern corner of Germany, where the country's border meets France and Switzerland. Just over the Rhine River a few miles (2-3 miles in some cases), into the rural regions of Alsace France are a number of armor displays where Sherman Tanks, tank destroyers and artillery pieces remain today, that have been dedicated as monuments for battles fought in the region. Most of the monuments are dedicated to French soldiers who were killed in the region, or whose remains are essentially still intact at the location within the armor vehicle. There were quite a few Shermans and tank destroyers. Also, of note, the VERY small village of Holtzwihr within this region, has erected a monument on the rural road location where Audie Murphy made his famous stand and was awarded the Medal of Honor. Pics are below. It's not easy to find. Without help from previous posts on the web and studying Google Maps, I would have never found it. A link to the main museum in the area is included at the bottom.

 

 

 

LOCATION:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casemate_de_Marckolsheim_Sud

 

ANOTHER GREAT SOURCE: tracesofwar.com

 

[woodsman]

Thanks for posting this. Looks like that they are doing some continusly restauration-work on the vehicles. Must be worth a visit. There are also two M-10 Tanks in the area, but both of them are in a bad shape. One is at the Ouvrage Hackenberg in Veckring, the other one at the Ouvrage Four-a-Chaux in Lembach.

 

[Redleg13a]

Are you saying some of this armor still has crew members inside? If so, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have dead crew still inside a vehicle on display. Especially TD's since they are open topped.