Musée des Blindés
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The Musée des Blindés ("Museum of Armoured Vehicles") or Musée Général Estienne is a tank museum located in the Loire Valley of France, in the town of Saumur. It is now one of the world's largest tank museums. It began in 1977 under the leadership of Colonel Michel Aubry, who convinced both the French military hierarchy and the local political authorities. Started 47 years ago with only a few hundred tracked vehicles, it has become a world-class collection which attracts visitors interested in the history of multinational tank development as well as professional armor specialists. From the very beginning, Colonel Aubry had made it a key policy of the museum to restore to running condition as many historically or technically significant vehicles as was feasible.
The museum has the world's largest collection of
Exhibited vehicles
Armoured vehicles are presented in 11 themed rooms. This section gives the highlights.
- First World War
- Four French vehicles are presented, some still in running condition: Saint-Chamond, Renault FTand a Renault truck.
- French Campaign 1940
- All the main armoured vehicles in service in the French army are presented: Somua S35, AMR 33 and Renault R35amongst others.
- Allied World War II
- US (M3 Lee, M4 Sherman, GMC DUKW "Duck"), British (Matilda, Crusader, Churchill tank Mk V) as well as Soviet vehicles (T-34, SU-100) are exhibited.
- Germany World War II
- 28 well preserved German armored fighting vehicles are shown, including several Marder I, Marder III, Panzer II, Panzer III, Panzer IV, Tiger I, Tiger II (functioning), Jagdpanther and Panther.
- Curiosity Room
- This rooms includes some very odd vehicles, such as a Vespa 150 TAP carrying a 75 mm recoilless rifle, and some vehicles rebuilt for historical movies.
- Warsaw Pact
- A are the highlights of this section. Some of these are Iraqi tanks that were captured intact during the first Gulf War.
- NATO
- British () are featured.
- Post World War II France
- There are some rare items in this section, including the AMX 30 and the Leclerc.
All experimental French military vehicles where development has been abandoned are kept here. The vast storage rooms are only accessible to special guests. There is an enormous library, archiving the records of the history of French armour. The museum was renamed after General Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, the creator of the French tank arm.
See also
- Tank museums
- Cavalry Tank Museum - India
- German Tank Museum - Germany
- Kubinka Tank Museum - Russia
- Military museum Lešany - Czech Republic
- Polish Army Museum – large collection of Soviet, western and Polish AFVs
- Parola Tank Museum - Finland
- The Tank Museum - United Kingdom
- Yad La-Shiryon - Israel
- American Heritage Museum - United States
- Base Borden Military Museum - Canada