Is The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum in Abilene Worth It?? (Dallas: camps, live)

[fallguy]

Hi-
I'm going to Abilene with a friend who played Golf at & got a business degree in 2000 from ACU when we have time.

Is The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum in Abilene Worth It??

Thanks,
fallguy

[JamesAbilene]

I have not been in that museum, but there are several museums in the area that are worth a trip. Frontier Texas is excellent. The National Institute for Illustrated Children's Literature is excellent--its exhibitions begin here and tour nationally into museums in larger cities (i.e. San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Dallas, etc.). The Grace Museum is pretty good but mostly Abilene history. You also might want to make the air museum at Dyess AFB and get up close and personal with a number of historical war planes.

[case44]

Well, fallguy, it looks like you've added another item to my to-do list for a future road trip. I might not hit Abilene too soon, at least until gas prices somehow go down (emphasis on somehow). The museum.....and then Harold's.........

[fallguy]

Thank you to all respondents. I'll let you all know how my 2nd return to Abilene since 2006 turns out for me!!

ttyl,
fallguy

[bmccarthy95]

The 12th Armored Division Museum in Abilene Texas is a World War 2 museum which tells the story of the 16000 men and women who served in one of the most feared Armored Divisions in WW2.

The Germans nicknamed them the Suicide Division after they held their ground at the bloody battles of Herrlisheim, what some call the second and more important Battle of the Bulge. Most people know about the battle of the bulge and how Patton moved up most of his resources to save the troops at Bastogne. What is not so well known is that the Germans in anticipation of this, swung 2 top armored divisions to the south to hit the thinly stretched American lines at the Herrlisheim Gamsheim Bridgehead. If the relatively green troops of the 12th had not held their ground at great cost we may have been speaking German today since there was no one behind them to stop the Germans.

Later the 12th removed all its markings and became a "Mystery Division" as they penetrated the German lines and became the easternmost division in General Patton's race to the Rhine.

Later still the 12th moving at full speed and guns blazing took an intact bridge over the Danube River crawling with Germans and armed with six 500 lbs bombs all wired to blow at a moments notice.
That was the first time in recorded history that an adversarial army had taken a bridge over the Danube and it probably shortened the war by months. One of the men raced across the bridge under fire and cut the wires just before the telephone began to ring on the bridge shack which was probably the dotonation mechanism.

Just beyond the Danube lay the hundreds of concentration camps of the Dachau complex. The 12th liberated 11 camps in 10 days aroung the Landsburg and Kaufering area where the Germans were building underground Jet fighter factories which are still in use today.
The Germans were frantically trying to evacuate the camps and erase all evidence of the Holacaust. The rapid advance of the 12th combined with superior air power saved many lives of prisoners since the Germans did not have time to move or kill them all.

The 12th AD continued on towards Austria to secure that area and were involved with finding Werner Von Braun and his team of rocket scientists. They also were tasked to go into the mountains and help recover an supersonic wind tunnel which was brought back to the US to help our space program.

There are all kind of artifacts, displays videos, halftracks, a sherman tank. You might even run into a veteran or two. The national reunion of the 12th armored division is in Abilene TX 13-17 August 2008.

The 12th was one of the few divisions to serve under French command for a time in the Colmar, Strasburg area. Many of the soldiers were also involved in keeping the peace after the War as well, and encountered problems not unlike we have today.
The 12th trained at Camp Barkeley just south of Abiline were a huge base holding 30000 trainees and 30000 support staff lived and worked as part of the greater Abilene community. Even though the base is gone the outline is still visible from aerial photos and can be viewed with tools like Google earth.

[url=http://www.12tharmoreddivision.com/]12th Armored Division - World War II[/url]
[url=http://www.12tharmoredmuseum.com]12th Armored Division[/url]

[JamesAbilene]

Originally Posted by bmccarthy95

The 12th Armored Division Museum in Abilene Texas is a World War 2 museum which tells the story of the 16000 men and women who served in one of the most feared Armored Divisions in WW2.

The Germans nicknamed them the Suicide Division after they held their ground at the bloody battles of Herrlisheim, what some call the second and more important Battle of the Bulge. Most people know about the battle of the bulge and how Patton moved up most of his resources to save the troops at Bastogne. What is not so well known is that the Germans in anticipation of this, swung 2 top armored divisions to the south to hit the thinly stretched American lines at the Herrlisheim Gamsheim Bridgehead. If the relatively green troops of the 12th had not held their ground at great cost we may have been speaking German today since there was no one behind them to stop the Germans.

Later the 12th removed all its markings and became a "Mystery Division" as they penetrated the German lines and became the easternmost division in General Patton's race to the Rhine.

Later still the 12th moving at full speed and guns blazing took an intact bridge over the Danube River crawling with Germans and armed with six 500 lbs bombs all wired to blow at a moments notice.
That was the first time in recorded history that an adversarial army had taken a bridge over the Danube and it probably shortened the war by months. One of the men raced across the bridge under fire and cut the wires just before the telephone began to ring on the bridge shack which was probably the dotonation mechanism.

Just beyond the Danube lay the hundreds of concentration camps of the Dachau complex. The 12th liberated 11 camps in 10 days aroung the Landsburg and Kaufering area where the Germans were building underground Jet fighter factories which are still in use today.
The Germans were frantically trying to evacuate the camps and erase all evidence of the Holacaust. The rapid advance of the 12th combined with superior air power saved many lives of prisoners since the Germans did not have time to move or kill them all.

The 12th AD continued on towards Austria to secure that area and were involved with finding Werner Von Braun and his team of rocket scientists. They also were tasked to go into the mountains and help recover an supersonic wind tunnel which was brought back to the US to help our space program.

There are all kind of artifacts, displays videos, halftracks, a sherman tank. You might even run into a veteran or two. The national reunion of the 12th armored division is in Abilene TX 13-17 August 2008.

The 12th was one of the few divisions to serve under French command for a time in the Colmar, Strasburg area. Many of the soldiers were also involved in keeping the peace after the War as well, and encountered problems not unlike we have today.
The 12th trained at Camp Barkeley just south of Abiline were a huge base holding 30000 trainees and 30000 support staff lived and worked as part of the greater Abilene community. Even though the base is gone the outline is still visible from aerial photos and can be viewed with tools like Google earth.

12th Armored Division - World War II
12th Armored Division

Thanks for that information. It is the only museum in Abilene that I have not seen. I am now going to make plans to visit it. We have so many good places in that area of the city---Frontier Texas; this museum, the Grace Museum, the National Center for Illustrated Children's Literature, The Contemporary Arts Center, etc. I need to take advantage of having so many good things in this town by attending them more often.

[JamesAbilene]

By the way, fall guy, everything in Abilene is worth it....

[teatime]

Originally Posted by bmccarthy95

The 12th Armored Division Museum in Abilene Texas is a World War 2 museum which tells the story of the 16000 men and women who served in one of the most feared Armored Divisions in WW2.

The Germans nicknamed them the Suicide Division after they held their ground at the bloody battles of Herrlisheim, what some call the second and more important Battle of the Bulge. Most people know about the battle of the bulge and how Patton moved up most of his resources to save the troops at Bastogne. What is not so well known is that the Germans in anticipation of this, swung 2 top armored divisions to the south to hit the thinly stretched American lines at the Herrlisheim Gamsheim Bridgehead. If the relatively green troops of the 12th had not held their ground at great cost we may have been speaking German today since there was no one behind them to stop the Germans.

Later the 12th removed all its markings and became a "Mystery Division" as they penetrated the German lines and became the easternmost division in General Patton's race to the Rhine.

Later still the 12th moving at full speed and guns blazing took an intact bridge over the Danube River crawling with Germans and armed with six 500 lbs bombs all wired to blow at a moments notice.
That was the first time in recorded history that an adversarial army had taken a bridge over the Danube and it probably shortened the war by months. One of the men raced across the bridge under fire and cut the wires just before the telephone began to ring on the bridge shack which was probably the dotonation mechanism.

Just beyond the Danube lay the hundreds of concentration camps of the Dachau complex. The 12th liberated 11 camps in 10 days aroung the Landsburg and Kaufering area where the Germans were building underground Jet fighter factories which are still in use today.
The Germans were frantically trying to evacuate the camps and erase all evidence of the Holacaust. The rapid advance of the 12th combined with superior air power saved many lives of prisoners since the Germans did not have time to move or kill them all.

The 12th AD continued on towards Austria to secure that area and were involved with finding Werner Von Braun and his team of rocket scientists. They also were tasked to go into the mountains and help recover an supersonic wind tunnel which was brought back to the US to help our space program.

There are all kind of artifacts, displays videos, halftracks, a sherman tank. You might even run into a veteran or two. The national reunion of the 12th armored division is in Abilene TX 13-17 August 2008.

The 12th was one of the few divisions to serve under French command for a time in the Colmar, Strasburg area. Many of the soldiers were also involved in keeping the peace after the War as well, and encountered problems not unlike we have today.
The 12th trained at Camp Barkeley just south of Abiline were a huge base holding 30000 trainees and 30000 support staff lived and worked as part of the greater Abilene community. Even though the base is gone the outline is still visible from aerial photos and can be viewed with tools like Google earth.

12th Armored Division - World War II
12th Armored Division

Wow, I got chills when I read this info! Thank you so much for posting it!!! I moved to Abilene about 18 months ago and haven't been to the museum yet. But I have friends coming to visit me from Canada in a few weeks and I will DEFINITELY take them to the museum!

[catman]

bmccarthy95: Thanks for the fascinating information. I intend to visit the museum at my earliest opportunity!