KKND Slovenia's video: Slovenia: Park of Military History Pivka Part 2: Zastava cars Tank Artillery Collection

MILITARY STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 33-110 FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR Technical heritage enthusiasts will also be impressed by the currently largest and heaviest exhibit piece in the Park of Military History – the German military steam locomotive 33-110 from the Second World War era. The 95-tonne and 23-metre-long locomotive was first produced to serve the German war machine, only to turn into a peaceful locomotive that greatly contributed to the reconstruction of Europe afterwards. Its transformation occurred after the end of the Second World War, when the 33-110locomotive arrived in the former Yugoslavia as a part of the war reparations. The 33-110 locomotive is especially important for the national technical heritage since it is the last steam locomotive in Slovenia to be used for regular railroad traffic until its retirement in 1978. RICH NATIONAL TANK-ARTILLERY AND AIRCRAFT COLLECTION The main collection of the Park of Military History is a national tank-artillery collection. Aside from the vehicles from the Slovenian liberation war in 1991 and the vehicles from the Slovenian Army, the collection also comprises tanks and cannons from the Second World War, namely from the First and Second Tank Brigade, as well as vehicles from the period of the American military aid to former Yugoslavia in the 1950s after the Tito-Stalin dispute, which brought the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the bloc of communist countries bound to the Soviet Union. Among the more attractive Second World War-era and post-war armored vehicles in the collection are the American M3A3 Stuart tank, the Soviet T-34/85 tank, the American M4A3 Sherman tank, the M36 Jackson self-propelled gun, the Scout car and the M8 Greyhound armored vehicles, as well as the post-war American M47 Patton tank as the heaviest tank in the collection of the Park of Military History. The collection of military vehicles is constantly being complemented by attractive newly acquired exhibit pieces. Three of the most recent additions were the British Bren Carrier transport vehicle, the American M7 Priest self-propelled howitzer and the American Harley-Davidson WLA motorbike, all of them dating from the Second World War and presenting part of the equipment of the Yugoslav partisan units. The Park of Military History also houses valuable artillery pieces. The collection includes some extremely attractive artillery weapons, such as the American and British licensed versions of the Bofors 40 mm guns from the Second World War, the Yugoslav M55 20/3 20 mm and the German Flak 30 and Flak 38 guns as well as the legendary German Flak 88, representing one of the best artillery weapons of the Second World War. The Soviet SU-100 is a valuable example of a tank destroyer, while the heavy artillery is represented by the American 155 mm “Long Tom” howitzer. Two American gun-towing vehicles are also on display, namely the M5/M5A1 half-track and the M5 HST towing tractor. The Soviet artillery from the Second World War is represented by the ML-20 152 mm howitzer and the famous ZiS-3 76.2 mm, while the Yugoslav artillery is represented by the M-48 B1 76.2 mm mountain gun and the M-63 “Plamen” 128 mm multiple rocket launcher. On display in the Park of Military History are also several military vehicles from the period after the Second World War and from the period of the Cold War, which were at one point used by the Yugoslav People’s Army. Among other vehicles, the collection includes two tanks – the Soviet T-72 and the Yugoslav variant M-84, which presents the greatest success of the Yugoslav military industry. Other vehicles in the collection that also stand out are the Soviet 2S1 “Gvozdika” self-propelled howitzer, the Soviet ZSU-57 57 mm and the Czechoslovak Praga M53/59 30 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery, the BVP-M80A infantry fighting vehicle, the Soviet BTM-3 trench-digging machine and the tank simulator on the basis of the T-55 tank.