Holy Roller

Victoria Park in London, Ontario has a tank.

Holy Roller is an M4A4 Sherman tank. Not just any M4 Sherman tank mind you, it is one of but a handful that survived and fought from D-Day through the Northwest campaign until the end of the World War 2 in Europe. After World War 2, Canada left all its Sherman tanks in Europe to be given to the Dutch and Belgian armies except for 4 notable tanks, and Holy Roller was one of them.

Bullet and non-penetrating artillery strikes to the tank are still visible today:

A view of the other side:

The rear of the tank:

Plaques are affixed to the tank to both tell the passer-by of its significance and to commemorate the heroism of those who served in World War 2.

Holy Roller is in good shape. Her hatches are all sealed up, the machine guns removed and the cannon plugged, but there's easy access to both look closely and to climb up on the tank.

Hodie Non Cras - Today Not Tomorrow.

May their valor never be forgotten.

Ground Battle At Thunder Over Michigan

In addition to the airplanes, there were some serious ground reenactors present.
Whenever you get some reenactors together, a battle breaks out. In this case, Americans and Brits vs the Waffen SS.

It all started when a landmine flipped a US jeep, resulting in the driver getting captured by SS troops waiting in ambush.

Hand Hoche Amerikaner!

But then they see whats coming up the road:

Schiesse! Where'd all those troops come from?

Double Schiesse! They've Got tanks! Run Away!

We got 'em on the run boys!

Charge!

Let's use their guts to grease our treads!

The Germans retreat in the face of the armored assault:

Uh Oh, the Germans have brought up a Hetzer to join the fray.

Rally on der Hetzer!

The engagement becomes general:

Fire!

Advance!

The Allies emerged victorious after flanking the Hetzer with their Stuart tanks.

It was an interesting display of World War 2 weaponry and reenactors doing their thing for an appreciative audience.

Tanks For The Birthday Good Wishes!

Thanks, and tanks to all of you for the good wishes for my birthday yesterday.

Thunder Over Michigan in addition to being an Airshow, also had had quite a few World War 2 ground forces reenactors. They put on quite a show as well including an armored battle with five Stuart tanks and a Hetzer. Lots more pics to come.

A Gloriously Fun Time Sink - World of Tanks

For addictive fun (and free) online gaming, its hard to beat World of Tanks.

You start off with a garage of light tanks and one medium tank, and using experience points gained in battles you can upgrade them and also move on to even better armored units over time. You can then get other light tanks, medium tanks, heavy tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns.

The battles are a lot of fun with lots of players on some very interesting maps and the system seems to balance the sides well so my tier 1 tank isn't getting clobbered by tier 3 or 4.

It's a pretty cool game indeed, and has a way of taking up a lot of free time.

Having played for a few hours I'm just starting to learn the basics of the game and to get some second tier tanks (and a 2nd tier tank destroyer) and it is neat how every tank has some significant performance differences.

It's well worth looking into if you like armored first person shooters.