Overloon Tank Museum
Museumpark 1, 5825 AL, Overloon, Netherlands
Visited October 2024
My third visit to this museum, but this time taking along my son and a camera that worked.
I visited in 2023 and to my horror the camera I’d brought with me decided that it had had enough of taking pictures, and went on strike. So for me, a return to Overloon was a necessity.
Taking my son to a few museums whilst visiting the SMC model show was great too. He likes history, and has been to many shows and seen models of vehicles; but it’s nothing like seeing the real thing.
Noted as the largest collection of historical Military vehicles in Europe, this is very much worth a visit for anyone who likes tracked and / or wheeled military AFV’s.
The display features a lot of German and American vehicles, but there are a couple of British pieces there too.
Some of the displays are set out as vignettes with “shop store” dummies dressed in period uniforms posed with the AFV’s whilst other vehicles are parked fairly close together, but with space to get around them to take photos.
A lot of the tanks and soft-skins are still in running condition and there is a full weekend in May that you can go and see them being driven around the roadways in the park that surrounds the museum. I believe that sometimes spectators are allowed to ride on the vehicles too, but I’m not certain if this requires prior arrangement / booking and how much it costs.
Staff at the museum are very helpful and very willing to talk about peculiarities of individual displays, and appear to be very knowledgeable too.
Although everyone has their favourites – mine being the two Dragon Wagons and the Panther Tank – there are a lot of different trucks and tanks to catch the eye.
One addition to the museum, which I found very moving was the remains of a Lancaster Bomber – a lot of components, spread out on the silhouette of the full sized aircraft – that had crashed with the loss of all it’s crew members.
The crew are named and it is very sobering to note their ages and see the very broken remains of their aircraft, knowing that it’s very likely that they knew they would not survive as the bomber plummeted to earth.
Another moving display is the British Churchill tank with a wreath of red poppies laid on it’s hull front. The wreath has been laid every year by the last surviving member of the tank crew, in memory of his fellow soldiers that have died whilst operating the tank.
Entry into the museum is fifteen Euros, and yet again the café is excellent and well worth stopping off for a coffee and a cake.
I’ve split the photos up for ease of viewing, separating Axis and allied vehicles, and hopefully this small selection will interest you enough to consider visiting the museum if you’re ever in the area.
I'll begin with pictures of Allied vehicles, and post a second article with the Axis displays next time.
