Last year, I visited the amazing National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, in the great state of Texas. This exhibit stayed with me. 🇦🇺 The tank. The gun that knocked it out. And the voice of the man who survived inside. The battered vehicle is an American-built M3 Stuart that served with Australia’s 2/6th Armoured Regiment in New Guinea. On Christmas Eve, 1942, Sergeant Jack Lattimore commanded it during an attack near Buna’s old airstrip. Japanese gunners had positioned a 76.2mm gun to fire directly at the advancing tanks. A shell punched through Lattimore’s Stuart! One crewman was killed outright. Others were wounded. Fire broke out inside, and ammunition began exploding. Lattimore escaped, but his wounds cost him a leg. The tank remained on the battlefield for three decades before being recovered in 1973. Today, it stands in Texas, alongside the Japanese gun identified as the weapon that knocked it out. Beside the exhibit, a video lets visitors hear Lattimore recount what happened inside this very vehicle. Standing there, you can see the damage, and hear a survivor explain what it meant. A tank in a museum becomes something much more personal when the man who commanded it tells you how he got out. 💬 Which museum exhibit has stayed with you long after your visit? Follow @Vanguard_WW2 for more stories of the people behind World War II.