Ram Kangaroo in Mill, The Netherlands

[Alex van de Wetering]

Today I made a trip to the Ram Kangaroo in the village of Mill and the War museum in the village of Overloon, the Netherlands.

I just want to say that Hanno Spoelstra did a great job in bringing the Ram to Mill and bringing it to a presentable display. It looks great!
I made several pictures for a possible scale model project.

So, if anyone of you is in the Netherlands and near the village of Mill (near Nijmegen) , just take a look at this rare fantastic Ram Kangaroo.

Alex van de Wetering, The Netherlands

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Alex, on behalf of the Regiment - I am the Association's official spokesman - I thank you for your interest and comments!

I'll let Hanno himself take the kudos for this magnificent achievement.

For those of you not familiar with this monument, you can access the relevant information at the following links:

The story of the recovery, restoration and presentation of this Ram Kangaroo:

http://www.mapleleafup.org/vehicles/.../restore7.html

http://www.mapleleafup.org/histories/1cacr/index.html


The Kangaroos' website (courtesy MLU & Hanno, plus others):

http://www.1cacr.org/

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Alex van de Wetering
I just want to say that Hanno Spoelstra did a great job in bringing the Ram to Mill and bringing it to a presentable display. It looks great!

Thanks Alex! Please keep in mind though this memorial was made possible because of the efforts of all involved (see New Life for a Ram Kangaroo) - a project like this is never a one-man job!

I made several pictures for a possible scale model project.

If you come up with a plan for a good scale model project, let me know as I'd like to build one for a 1CACR veteran.

Regards,
Hanno

[Alex van de Wetering]

Hanno,

Indeed the story of the restoration is also very interesting. The thing I like about the Mill monument, compared to other tank mouments, is that the Kangaroo lookes like it could drive off at any moment. You don't see lights and a towing cable on most tank monuments.

A 1/35 scalemodel is still a problem. Resicast from Belgium has a nice Ram Kangaroo kit, but it's guite expensive.
I think I'll convert/scratch a Kangaroo using some Sherman parts.
The plan is to use Tamiya Lee or resin aftermarket running gear, Italeri chassis, Tamiya..Dragon or aftermarket resin 3 piece transmission. Offcourse the biggest challenge is offcourse the hull, which will probably be a base shape out of plastic-card and putty to cover it and create the right shape according to some key measurements and comparison to pictures of the Mill-Kangaroo. It will probably be applying putty, sanding, comparing to picture and than applying putty, sanding, comparing to picture etc. etc........until it looks right!

I have seen 1/76 drawings of a Ram Kangaroo once, maybe that could be a starting point.
The AFV-interiors-site has some info on the interior, which could probably be build using resin aftermarket Sherman interior-sets as a base and scratching the rest.



Alex van de Wetering

[TColvin]

Alex, or anyone else.

I see you visited Overloon as well as Mill.

The museum at Overloon began life as the Museum of 3 British Infantry Division (3 BID), which had thrown the Germans out of Overloon and Venraij in very bitter fighting. It is 3 BID's destroyed equipment that forms much of the outside display, and was donated by the Division. The Museum was opened by Maj-General Bolo Whistler, GOC 3 BID in, I believe, 1946, and there is still a plaque on the wall commemorating the event and presented by Whistler; at least I hope it is still there. I visited it for the first time in 1947 as a child with my father who fought in 3 BID.
At some point then and 1985 when I next visited it, the association between the Museum and 3 BID vanished. The Museum was hijacked for another cause. The question is why was it, and how was that possible? BTW; there were Dutch and Canadians serving in 3 BID. Nine Dutchmen - at least two of whom were relatives of Dr Wiegersma of Deurne - were signed on from the areas of Deurne and Helmond and went one to each battalion as Dutch-German-English translators and liaison officers. The Canadians were the 20 odd famous Canloan officers serving in every battalion, and who wore the CANADA flash. There were so many in 2 East Yorkshires that German civilians referred to the unit as Canadian.

Mill is famous as the site of 2 TAF's airfield. It was the base of 146 Wing with 193, 197 (one of the pilots was Richard Hough) and 266 squadrons flying Typhoon IB (Bombs), and 257 and 263 (Rockets). It was the last airfield built or commissioned in the area.

Mill was built to the north of the Peel marsh on heath land. Surveyed on December 10th, plans were completed by December 19th and the first sod turned on January 1st, 1945. Two feet of peat were scraped off to expose an excellent base of sandy gravel on which PSP (Pressed Steel Plate) was laid. The peat was mounded around dispersals to provide blast protection for the aircraft. A new airfield layout was adopted which found great favour with the RAF on account of its operational simplicity. There was a central flying strip with a wing located on each side. Taxi-tracks ran parallel to the strip and from these the aircraft standings (two for each squadron) led off at right angles. There was a perimeter road for motor transport.
The construction in January was undertaken in very bad weather with continuous snow, sleet and frost, and the strip became a frozen mass of sand and snow. Consolidation and grading became impossible but the deadline was insisted on and in desperation the PSP was laid on top of frozen sand and snow during January 1945. On January 30th the thaw came and the Engineers were diverted with all their materials to emergency repair of the roads for Veritable, and to converting the Goch - Uedem railroad into the main truck route to the Hochwald. The strip and half the field were completed with civilian labour by the evening of February 7th. The following day after their first sortie over the Reichswald, 146 Wing flew in and took up residence. The other side of the airfield was completed by March 7 and 35 Army Cooperation and PR Wing moved into it from Gilze Rijen.
"The end of the airfield came soon after the crossing of the Rhine, for we moved on to fields elsewhere and the RAF wings went too. I do not think it was ever used again. It was a good field and it is interesting to note that, in spite of laying the PSP on the frozen sand, the track bedded down beautifully and gave no trouble at all".
Is there a sign showing its location? If not, could that be arranged? A map or plan could be placed next to the Kangaroo with directions to the vanished airfield for those interested, and perhaps the above printed on it by way of explanation.

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

That was fascinating! I've of course been to both Overloon and Mill (with Hanno), but I've never heard of the airstrip before. Hanno's on a week's vacation effective this morning, but I know he'll pick up on this thread the moment he's back online... he does have contacts in Mill, so he may have something to add!

Geoff

[TColvin]

Sunray.

I should have added, Geoff, that a source used for the bit on Mill is After The Battle, which also has photographs. Richard Hough remembered it as a sea of mud. Not far away is Uden where Harry Crerar had his HQ.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Oh,

If I had known that a bit earlier......Last week I was there with a friend of mine and it would have been interesting to look where the airstrip used to be, allthought it will probably have a large amount of houses built on it in the meantime!!
Well, maybe on a next trip!
I have been to a former airstrip in Normandy, France (near St. Mere-Eglise) some years ago. They do have a monument/plaque over there. The former strip over there is still a large flat surface and can therefore still be regognized, maybe the Mill area can also still be regognized.....????

The Overloon museum has been changed a lot during the last years. When I was in Overloon about fifteen years ago with my father (I am 24 now), the museum still had most of its vehicles stored outside, which gave it something special. You would just walk through some woods and see a vehicle every once in a while. The other special thing was that most vehicles were "victims" taken from the battlefield, like TColvin allready pointed out and that they were just displayed "as found", for instance they have a M4 Sherman which was hit by some "88"-rounds and has a complete bougie pulled of and the turret displaced. But offcourse this outside storage isn't very good for the vehicles, so some years ago the museum started "restoring" a lot of the vehicles and putting them in a newly built museum building. So the museum has lost some of its "specialty", but is still worth a visit! They also got some new vehicles for display, like a Staghound, a LVT Buffalo taken from the Maas river and sadly enough also some russian equipment, like a Josef Stalin-2 (?) and even some " modern" equipment like russian T55! The museum thinks they also have to show some things from other conflicts after WW2 to show visiters that war is terrible. This policy has led to some discussion over here, but it is always hard to follow the decisions museum-staffs make.
I can name a few:
The museum in Arromanches museum in Normandy brought their LCA landing craft to the scrapyard some years ago because they didn't have the money to restore it. This LCA was a real Arromanches/Normandy veteran that arrived and stayed on the Arromanches beach on 6 june 1944!
Overloon sold the engine out of their Panter G to Bovington Camp tank museum in Great Britain in exchange for some "new" Panter Tyres to restore the Overloon Panter G for static display.

Like I allready pointed out, the Overloon museum is still worth a visit because of their rare vehicles.
Some of them: Valentine Bridgelayer, Sexton, Sherman Crab, Conger carrier, Churchill, Staghound, Archer, Cromwell, German Wurzburg radar etc. etc. I'll post some pictures in afew days.

Alex van de Wetering

[Alex van de Wetering]

Hi Guys,

I can't tell you much about the Conger. The Overloon Conger*) is one of the outside displays and the "normally open-top" of the carrier is Therfore closed up with welded on steel-plating. So I can't look inside to see what it lookes like.
I'll post a picture of the outside of the Conger in the upcoming week.

In the meantime, here is a picture of the present status of the Ram Kangaroo in Mill.

Alex

*) Moderator's note: the postings on the subject of the Conger were split into a new thread "Universal Carrier With Conger Device".

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by TColvin
I should have added, Geoff, that a source used for the bit on Mill is After The Battle, which also has photographs. Richard Hough remembered it as a sea of mud. Not far away is Uden where Harry Crerar had his HQ.

Like Geoff said, that's fascinating! I've been to Mill a good few times but never heard mention of the airstrip before. Probably because I was too focussed on the Ram Kangaroo

Anyway, I'll ask the local history association for more details.

I've searched for "Mill" in the After the Battle contents list and found Issue No. 20 has an article "Airfield Construction in Holland - Eindhoven, Volkel, Grave, De Rips, Heesch, Helmond, Petit Brogel and Mill." Will have to dig out that copy from the attic...

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by TColvin

At some point then and 1985 when I next visited it, the association between the Museum and 3 BID vanished. The Museum was hijacked for another cause. The question is why was it, and how was that possible?

Tony, never knew it was a 3 BID museum first! The association must have vanished during the time it was not politically correct to give lots of attention to military history, the type of heroic men and machines, that is. The museum became the National War and Resistance Museum, placing greater emphasis on the occupation and opression than on the military action that took place around Overloon. One of the major artefacts depicting the fierce tank battle, the Sherman "Cookie", was recently sold. The museum is now called the Liberty Park. We have no real recent military tradition like the UK and Canada, so why try to remember, eh?

This video (turn down the corny music) gives a view of the days when most of the artefacts were still outside.

H.