Auction: Melbourne Tank Museum

[Tony Smith]

I'm can't really say too much here as what I do know is all hearsay, and I'm not certain that it did come from the right part of the horse's anatomy. As stated above, the AWM is primarily concerned with the provenance of items and their documented link with Australian servicemen in war. As a Memorial, they are not a technical museum that needs every example of every vehicle ever used by the Australian Army, but only those that relate to a particular theatre of war, and more importantly, a particular action or battle, or a particular person.
John Belfield had at his museum one of the Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go tanks that were knocked out at Milne Bay in 1942, a major battle honour for the Australian Army. This battle was the first time the Japanese Army had been defeated in battle, an outstanding feat considering they had been fighting since 1931! How this iconic relic ever got out of the hands of the Army or the AWM (sold for scrap?!?), I'll never know, but it has now been bought by the AWM by prior negotiation because it was, for them, the jewel in John's collection.
The Sentinel tanks, (of which the AWM already has 2) while an amazing milestone in the development of military technology in Australia, never saw action and were only used for training. I also understand that Mike Cecil has a different point of view regarding the AC3 being an accurate restoration, using as it does range-recovered bits, unfinished castings and components from a Grant. Is it the Holy Grail or just a Replica? I'm glad that it exists to look at and touch and would love to own it, but my objectives are not the same as the AWM's, and they are not the same as John's, who has done tremendous job of saving bits of Australian technical history.
That said, I don't understand why Puckapunyal wasn't in there trying to secure these unique tanks for their collection, which IS more of a technical collection. Maybe the money wasn't available?

At the risk of incurring their wrath for inaccurate reporting, perhaps we could invite comments here from Mike Cecil or Maj Paul Handel to clarify matters?

Pic:
"1942-10-01. NEW GUINEA. MILNE BAY. AN AUSTRALIAN MILITIA OFFICER WHO TOOK PART IN THE MILNE BAY FIGHTING, WITH AN ENEMY TYPE 95 HA-GO LIGHT TANK KNOCKED OUT DURING THE UNSUCCESSFUL JAPANESE ATTACK. "