Donated Sherman tank and howitzer have arrived in Poland

On 11 April 2011 an agreement was signed in Brussels between the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk and the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History in Brussels. It stipulated the donation of a Sherman M4 Firefly tank and a British 25-pound MKII Howitzer to the Museum of the Second World War. Their transport was made possible by the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to NATO, and especially Ambassador Bogusław Winid.

Both pieces are of the kinds used by units of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. Sherman tanks were used by the First Armoured Division led by General Stanisław Maczek and, beginning in June 1945, also by the Warsaw Armoured Division. Howitzers of this type were standard equipment of nearly all artillery units.

The tank and howitzer were transferred to the Centre of Land Forces Training in Poznań, where they will be reconstructed and conserved by a team headed by Major Tomasz Ogrodniczuk of the Armoured Weapon Museum. They will be exhibited in Poznań until the opening of the Museum of the Second World War, which is being planned for 2014.