Ex-USN battleship BB-55 North Carolina resting in peace as a memorial to all the north carolinans killed during the second World War. She earned a total of twelve Battle Stars for her service during the War.

Another view of the North Carolina. First commissioned of the USN's modern battleships, she received so much attention during her fitting out and trials that she won the enduring nickname "Show Boat".

Ex-USN Wildcat on static display. The complete restoration & followup maintenance of these Warbirds are absolutely fantastic as can be seen from this view. This particular navy Wildcat is minimum fifty years old and it certainly doesn't look like falling apart to me!

Nice close up view of the striking nose art painted on the same airframe. This particular Wildcat was restored in the Atlantic measure II camo scheme with uncommon nose art. Nose art was normally not found on the Atlantic fleet during the second World War!

Close front view of the P-40 Warhawk. This aircraft seems to see much more actions in the far east rather than the european theater. Probably the best known usage during the war by the bold 'Flying Tigers' who volunteered to fight against the Japanese even before official US involvement.

Port side view of the ThunderBolt on static display. The "dipped" wingtip design is clearly shown here. This unique design is said to enhance the wing lift for the slow hog at low level by creating more lift vortex. Even with half a wing blown off & loss of one engine, this hog is still flyable! In fact, some A-10 pilots flying combat sorties in the Gulf War returning to their airbases with serious battle damages that is not possible at all for other airframes.

Close view of the Ex-USN CV-10 Yorktown. Earlier carrier designs in the United States are all of straight flight decks until they realised the advantages of angled deck first studied by the British. Since then, the Americans started to adopt the new deck design on all of their carriers.

Another view of the Ex-USN BB-55 North Carolina from the port side. Funny thing here is this restored battleship now spots a three tone grey camo scheme which is not common in United States Navy tradition?

Front view of an early IDF Merkava in Latrun Museum. This view distinctively shows the unusual small frontal turret profile. Imagine a Merkava in hull down ambush position, do you think you can really spot one?

Ex-USAF B-17 "Texas Raiders" on static display. Everyone should still remember the cool movie "Memphis Belle" a few years back? I realised then that in their bombing world, it's always sweetheart, friendship, courage & lastly not forgetting the good old "Jerry" rather than Honour & Glory!

Nice view of another Flying Fortress nicknamed "Nine 0 Nine" rolling down the runway for departure. I believe the Israelis did used these bombers as Maritime Patrols during their first war in 1956! Surprisingly, they survived the war & were decomissioned then by the young IAF.

Another view of the same aircraft climbing for height a few seconds later. Anyone have any idea on the operating costs to maintain the flyability of this aircraft, do share with us?

Close up view of the B17 "Nine 0 Nine" nose art. In actual war, the yellow bomb markings symbolise combat missions of the particular airframe and the flags symbolise enemy planes shot down. These markings should be the actual war records preserved till today for this bomber.

IDF M60 Magach 7 in Latrun Museum. Possibly, this Magach does not even belongs to the museum but rather the IDF since one of the crew member is still working on it! If you are crazy on IDF armour, do not miss out Latrun Museum if you happen to visit Israel one day.

A permanent display of Russian designed T-72 in Latrun Museum. The IDF almost captured Syrian T-72s destroyed in one late tank battle during their 1982 Lebanon operation. Their recovery teams were rumoured to be only a few hundred metres from the burning site! However, strong Russian & Western pressures for immediate ceasefire came in unexpected & the recovery teams withdrew from the site.

Another view of the T-72 display. The Israelis claimed that their local IMI designed sabot rounds to be one of the main factors for the T-72 kills in Lebanon. This indirectly enhanced local defense industry position in the world & as a result see commercial success at a later date.

IDF Merkava 3 in Latrun Museum. Same as the above Magach 7, this vehicle could be another property of the IDF temporary loaned to the museum for a period of time. As far as I know, permanent displays unlike this vehicle are normally stripped clear of any moving parts.

Another view of the same vehicle in Latrun Museum. This view clearly shows the mine plough/roller attachment points on the front hull which are available on all frontline vehicles. This is for immediate transfering of the engineer equipments to any nearby vehicle from the disabled vehicle.

Rare view of original British designed Centurion in Latrun Museum. IDF Centurion is probably the most heavily modified & upgraded among all the users in the World. The white chevron marking is one of the smartest way in military security on keeping the unit ID from enemy intelligence.

This view shows unknown origin (Eqyptian?) Russian designed T-34 captured by the Israelis. This vehicle appeared to be destroyed by her own crew before abandoning, but the actual case being a perfectly aimed grenade lobbed by the Israelis!

A permanent list of the many thousands of soldiers from the IDF Armoured Corps fallen since the first War. To date, more than 4600 have perished to keep Israel free. This is also my small reminder to everyone down here that War is never sweet, never WAS and never WILL. So give PEACE a chance if you can.....

Another view of the same Magach as above. The completely redesigned turret can be seen clearly in this front view. Additional armour has also been added to the hull front to increase the overall hull thickness.

One of the two Mekavas prototypes resting permanently in Latrun Museum today. Ever since Merkava production started off in the late 70s, Israel has never really looked upon her suppliers for new AFV orders.

This view shows a modified T-55 in Latrun Museum. The original 100mm main gun was replaced with British designed L7 105mm gun favoured by the Israelis. As far as I know, only a few reserve units used this in Yom Kippur War. All of them have since been retired in the 1980s.

This view shows unknown origin (Eqyptian?) Russian designed T-62 captured by the Israelis. Many T-62s were destroyed & abandoned in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. The amount of Arab AFVs collected after the war was so high that many ended up in metal scrapyards. Even though this vehicle was repainted in Egyptian colour during the restoration, there is really no way to verify the true identity of this vehicle.