Info on the Littlefield collection

[Matt Wiser]

I'm surprised three of them-the LVT (A)-5, the Mark IV H, and the Jumbo Sherman, didn't sell.

[Olefin]

Wonder who bought the operational vehicles with working armament? Considering the Ukranian rebels were stealing WWII tanks and artillery out of museums you wonder where they went to.

[Twilight2000v3MM]

The Panzer IVH was a mess. It was there but mostly gutted. It would of been a very expensive restoration.

[Targan]

Apparently the Littlefield Collection had a WWII Australian-built Cruiser Mark 1 Sentinel Tank, and it's been brought home to its country of birth:

Resurrected Australian Sentinel tank

[TrailerParkJawa]

I visited the Armor museum outside of Cairns. Its really worth taking a look. They had one of the those Australian M113's with a turret. Cant remember the name but it was cool to see it up close.

[Legbreaker]

You mean like these at Puckapunyal?
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[StainlessSteelCynic]

Some background on those vehicles for those who might be interested.

The M113 with the Saladin armoured car turret is referred to as the FSV (Fire Support Vehicle) -- 2nd picture, vehicle on the left, drab green paint with no cam.
The 113 with the Scorpion light tank turret is referred to as the MRV (Medium Reconnaissance Vehicle) -- 1st picture with black cam stripes and red star (it was used as an OpFor vehicle after being retired from the recce units).

In recce regiments the 113 fitted with the T50 machinegun turret is referred to as the LRV (Light Reconnaissance Vehicle) whereas in cavalry/mechanized infantry units it's referred to as an APC. The T50 turret is a Cadillac Gage turret more familiarly seen on their series of V100/V150 armoured cars -- third pic, normally fitted with 1 x .50 M2 and 1 x .30-06 M1919A4 but obviously they aren't fitted here.
It wasn't at all unusual for the LRVs to mount 2 x M1919 MGs in the turret instead of the (local lingo) 30/50 combination

The FSV was built to fulfill a fire support (ahem... light tank) role until a decision about the M551 Sheridan light tank was made. At the time the Sheridan was viewed favourably in Australia but it was not yet available for purchase.
As it was, both the M551 and the M114 were subjected to trials here and both were considered unsuitable for our geography and needs so the FSV, meant as an interim vehicle, lived on for a while.

While many websites state that the FSV was replaced by the MRV, that is generally, but not strictly, correct. The FSV was used in cavalry regiments (who were typically used in the mech infantry role) were it was a fire support unit for the M113 APCs.
The MRV was (and absolutely is) a fire support vehicle, it's full governmental name is evidence of that**, however it was taken up by reconnaissance units rather than cavalry regiments. So while the MRV is a replacement for the FSV, the cavalry units basically lost their fire support and the recce units gained it, using the vehicles in a completely different role to the cav regiments (hence the name change to MRV instead of keeping FSV).


** Carrier, Fire Support, Full Track M113A1 (FS) Scorpion Turret