The American Heritage Museum is open today! Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Open 10am to 5pm.
Hello all good people! The American Heritage Museum will be open on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 20th, 10am to 5pm. We are looking forward to seeing you soon.
The American Heritage Museum is excited to announce the launch of a new restoration project aimed at restoring a rare and historically significant piece of original World War II armor: the Type 97 Tankette “Te Ke,” used by the Imperial Japanese Army.![]()
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Read the full article at: www.americanheritagemuseum.org/2025/01/rare-japanese-type-97-tankette-te-ke-restoration-project-b...![]()
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The Type 97 Tankette was a light armored vehicle developed and employed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Introduced in 1938, the Te-Ke was designed as a reconnaissance and infantry support vehicle, embodying Japan’s focus on lightweight, mobile forces. ![]()
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The Type 97 Tankette was powered by a 65 horsepower, inline 4-cylinder diesel engine, giving it a top speed of around 26 mph. It featured a two-man crew: a driver and a gunner/commander. Armament included either a 37 mm Type 94 tank gun or a 7.7 mm Type 97 machine gun, making it effective against lightly fortified positions and infantry but inadequate against heavier tanks.![]()
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Our particular project vehicle has been determined to be a variant of the Te-Ke that was specifically designed as a gas scattering vehicle to either deploy chemical agents such as mustard gas or other chemical agents offensively or similarly scatter agents to counter poison gasses defensively. Vehicles in this role carried their scattering agents in a towed tracked trailer and though we do not have one of these trailers, we are actively looking for one to add to the restoration.![]()
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The rare Type 97 Tankette will be restored at the American Heritage Museum by our restoration team over the next 3-4 years and will include a full overhaul of the original and rare Ikegai air-cooled diesel engine that is part of the project. We intend to restore it to operational configuration as a running tank and it will eventually become part of an enhanced exhibit documenting the years leading up to World War II. The restoration team is seeking any technical materials, drawings, or documentation of the Type 97 Tankette type – so if you have any resources to assist, please email us at admin@americanheritagemuseum.org
A huge THANK YOU to our hardy re-enactors, dedicated volunteers, and enthusiastic guests for braving the cold and muddy conditions this past weekend for the Battle of the Bulge History Experience! This was our first cold weather outdoor experience and we were happy to welcome so many visitors who took part, deploying in the M3 Half Tracks to our slice of the Ardennes Forest! Please enjoy a selection of photos from Warren Disbrow and Roland Brooks from the weekend! Let us know if you think we should plan another in 2025! #AmericanHeritageMuseum #battleofthebulge #tanklife #WWII #worldwar2 #WorldWarII #WorldWarIIHistory #1944 #visitma #hudsonma
Looking for an adventure with the kids during school break? Come visit us at the American Heritage Museum! We are open today (Monday 12/30) and tomorrow (Tuesday 12/31), 10am to 5pm. Fun activities and Jim will have the game board set up.
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Speaker Series: Angels Against The Sun – The battle for the Philippines and occupation of Japan
June 30, 2023 @ 2:00 pm, ending 3:30 pm
$10 – $20
Join us for our AHM Speaker Series with James Fenelon author of “Angels Against the Sun: A WW2 Saga of Grunts, Grit and Brotherhood.” In the tradition of Band of Brothers, Fenelon offers a boots-on-the-ground perspective of the 11th Airborne Division—nicknamed ‘The Angels’—in their daring campaign to liberate the Philippine Islands. The Angels’ combat operations were some of the most dramatic of the war, ranging from miserable jungle battles to the gritty urban combat required to push the Japanese out of Manila, the Philippine’s capital city of over 600,000 inhabitants.
The 11th Airborne were trained to enter combat via airdrop: by parachutes and engineless gliders. They were one of five such divisions created by the US Army during the war and the only one sent to the Pacific theater. There they were pitted against two merciless foes: the Imperial Japanese Army and the combined forces of monsoons, swamps, insects, mud, privation and disease.
Based on exhaustive archival research, including interviews, letters, and diaries, Angels Against the Sun takes readers on a soldier’s journey from the routine of stateside training to the diversions of football, boxing and distilling moonshine before descending into the hardships and tragedies of war. Written in a highly engaging, character-driven, narrative-style, this book will be compelling to all nonfiction readers.
