I love history,because when you think you know all about something...you get surprised by something new. I never in a million years thought that in September 1941 there was a bear cub on Camp Edwards, yet here is the proof, a photo of said bear with a soldier and the inscription stating the date and location. I am going to send the photo in to the Cape Cod Times write to know section to see if anyone remembers the, I am sure, very interesting tale of the Camp Edwards Bear!
I have also contacted the Cape Cod Foundation org. to see if we can legally set up a fund to help the museum raise money to acquire 5015C status. Another option would be to have an existing 501 3C take us under their wing.
NATICK WWII MUSEUM REVIEW
The Natick WWII museum was amazing. It had so many intriguing artifacts it was in fact a little overwhelming. It is hard for me to admit this, but they might have too much stuff on display for the amount of space available. It was a lesson for me for future displays. It reminds me of a quote, I think it was by Bismark, "He who defends everything, defends nothing" If you try to tell the story of every artifact you overwhelm the visitor and they learn nothing. Don't get me wrong I loved the place and highly recommend it. They are working on plans to enlarge their facility which will be great.
There is a M4A1 Sherman tank on display. I love the M4A1 Sherman with it's cast hull and curvy silhouette. This is a very special tank. The tank originally fought in Tunis. It was damaged and left there when the fighting moved to Sicily. The tank could still be driven and was loaded on a ship heading back to America as ballast. She was then outfitted with wider track and her main gun was replace with a flame thrower. The tank was to be used in the invasion of Japan. Luckily she was never needed. I call her a M4A1 but according to the Museum her proper designation is M4-2-B1-E9.
The Museum allows you to handle many weapons (something I want us to be able to do at our museum)
They had a lot of items from Massachusetts resident (at the time of WWII) George S. Patton Jr. Here is old blood and guts himself and an Eagle he brought home from Nuremberg.
It is nice to see that the American sense of humor has not changed completely!
NEW ITEMS
I picked up a couple of British/Canadian military hats at a yard sale. I was thinking why would the museum want these? Then I remembered we had British units on the base during WWII. We had the British AA Composite Battalion visit and British RAF pilots stationed here providing Convoy Escort out of Otis. I will have to check my book on the 43 visit to see if they wore these covers. The officer's cap is missing it's badge it would be cool to get one that matches one of the ones worn here. Speaking of matches...here is a match book cover for Artillery men serving under the Eastern Defense Command.
I picked up a book on a Searchlight Unit hoping they served at Camp Edwards, or contained information that would enlighten me on what it was like to be in search light unit.. no such luck. This unit was out of Texas and went to the Pacific and there is not a lot of detail on the men's operation of the lights.
CAMP EDWARDS BULLETIN
We acquired a copy of the last Camp Edwards Bulletin. It is in rough shape. I am going to photo graph or scan it to share it. Rather than do it all at once I plan on releasing one article or item a day on our Facebook Page. Use the link below to get there. Once there please Like and Follow us!
Joseph Yukna, Co-Founder
joeyukna@gmail.com
capecodmilitarymuseum.org
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twitter/capemilitarymus
774-487-0325
