Kinda cool, I had no idea "Cobra King", the first US Army tank into Bastogne, was even still in existence. The US military typically doesn't do a very good job of saving historical vehicles / aircraft so this is a pleasant surprise.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/features/history/cobra-king-to-be-featured-in-national-museum-of-the/article_188942af-f3b5-5b7a-b987-45cd42e825ad.html

Thanks for the info.I never even heard about the coming museum.That will definitely be on my list for a visit as if is fairly close to me.I even signed up for e-mail updates.

The story of Cobra King...

http://www.armorfortheages.com/MilitaryVehicles/CobraKing/CobraKing.html

Its journey can be traced in this article:

http://armorfortheages.com/MilitaryVehicles/CobraKing/CobraKing.html

It was damaged during the infamous Task Force Baum raid and abandoned.


"After the war, Cobra King became a monument tank, put on display at Erlangen, Germany and then from there relocated to Vilseck, Germany where it remained in obscurity, the wrong registration number painted on its side from one of its numerous repaints. In May 2001, Army Chaplain Keith Goode was checking out monument tanks while serving in Germany. He was locating serial and registration numbers of Sherman tanks on U.S. Army bases. He passed the information on to the G104 Sherman interest group in the U.S. where member/historian Joe DeMarco confirmed that the tank was indeed the actual Cobra King.

After learning this information, another member of G104 stationed in Germany, Sgt. Brian Stigall of the Fifth Battalion, Seventh Air Defense Artillery and Steven Ruhnke, First Armored Division museum curator, paid Cobra King a visit and also confirmed the serial number and passed the information up the chain of command. Along with other Army historians, including Patton Museum curator Charles Lemons, the identity of Cobra King was officially confirmed. Cobra King was then shipped to the United States and on to the Patton Museum's workshops on July 9, 2009 for restoration."

In the article "Galleries" you can see the step by step restoration as well as the different things they found as they stripped away the paint and rust.

It was moved to Ft. Benning in 2011 (where I saw it and climbed aboard). Now it'll be slated for the museum to be built at Ft Belvoir in VA.