Notice to visitors!

Visitors are cautioned that the pavilion "Naval Air Modeling" in "Olden Times-Toys and Modelling"
is under construction.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Piana delle Orme big collections : Olden-times Toys.

Toys is a kind of collection where nostalgia, memories of childhood and fancy play an important part.
In Italy this kind of collection became popular round about 1970, unlike the Northern Europe and the United States where, since the Thirties, toys-collecting was a widespread hobby.
Piana delle Orme collection includes motor car toys, aircrafts, ships, technological toys, didactic toys, working vehicles, robots and space-ships, rail-way modelling, military vehicles, police and firemen cars, tin soldiers.
Ingap, Marcheselli, Heinrichsen, Corgi, Solido, Dinky Toys, Lima, Marklin, Schuco, Gama, Rivarossi, Xiloplasto, Figir, Chialù, Elastolin, Lineol, Nardi, Rovello are the main makers.

Piana delle Orme big collections: Olden-times farming machines and olden-times vehicles.

Usually the farm- tractor collector is strictly bonded with the ground and treats these old working machines lovingly.

Beyond the sentimental factor, the olden-times tractors are cornerstones of the modern agriculture and are milestones which have marked the journey towards well-being.

Piana delle Orme collection is composed of about 350 specimens . They include from the first loco-mobile to the petrol-engined tractors.

Hot-heads and diesel do not miss: Fordson, Fiat, International, Bubba, Lanz, Bulldog, Ferguson, Landini, John Deere, Farmall, Pavesi, Toltoti, Fotomeccanica, OM, Orsi are the represented trade marks.

Beside these there are carts, three-wheelers, vans, motorbikes and buses.

Piana delle Orme big collections: Olden- times Military Vehicles.

Piana delle Orme big collections : The Weapons

Skipper’s story, the aircraft which came from the sea

The Story
On 31st January 1944 – nine days after the landing of Anzio – this aircraft landed on Capoportiere waters, in Latina, because of an engine breakdown. The U.S.A.A.F. pilot Lt. E.E. Parson – 86th Squadron 79th Fighter Group – to whom the aircraft was entrusted, baptized it “ Skipper”. That day the Curtiss P40L was fortuitously piloted by Lt. Michael Mauritz.

The recovery
The recovery of the aircraft, 54 years after its landing, was due to the members of the ARCHEOSUB Association, and especially to its President Angelo Silvestri. The aircraft laid on a 10 metres sea- bottom and was at a short distance from the beach.
The morning of 11th January 1998, the Curtiss came out of the sea-bed and was carried to Piana delle Orme in order to be immediately treated with the agents required to its conservation. State Police and the Harbour master’s office helped for the operations of recovery.

The Curtiss P40L.
The Curtiss P40L
The Curtiss P40L Warhawk was mainly used for tactical support, where it proved to be very reliable, although it was quite a heavy aircraft, slow in gaining height and not particularly easy to handle.
However, it was a very important aircraft for the United States and their allies, which used it on every front of the Second World War.
Only 700 “L” version Packard/Rolls engined aircrafts were manufactured.
“Skipper” is thought to be the only sample left of this version.

Michael Mauritz - The story of a pilot
Michael Mauritz was born in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1921 and when he was 21 he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.
He got the pilot certificate and, then , he took part to the war in North Africa against Rommel’s troops.
After the landing of Salerno, Mauritz and the 79th Fighter Group were moved to Capodichino base in Naples. On Monday 31st January 1944 he was at the command of the Curtiss P40L and he took off to make a reconnaissance on Anzio.
During the flight on the Pontine coast , he noticed serious overheating problems at the engine and he was forced to land on sea. The pilot carried out this operation skilfully.
While his aircraft was slowly sinking, he reached the beach on a lifeboat, but he was soon caught by Germans.
Lt Mauritz was thought to be missing by the 79th Fighter Group but, helped by partisans, he managed to escape from the prison camp of Laterina ( Arezzo).
After a long escape across an Italy tortured by war, helped and fed by country people, he finally managed to rejoin his unit.
In September 1998 Michael Mauritz was invited to Piana delle Orme for the presentation of Skipper and, then, he imputed the breakdown of his fighter to a probable sabotage.
So the parachute - inexplicably found in the engine during the recovery – had a sound justification.
The old pilot died in May 2006. He left us an unforgettable testimony of those war days, filtered through his bright awareness and his great sensitivity.
The uniform, worn impetuously while doing his duty, never modified his character of peace man and his lifelong quest for dialogue.
To him we give our heartfelt thanks.

Story of the Sherman DD, the propelled tank

La storia
Between the 5th and the 20th July 1944, a Sherman DD, an amphibious tank, sank in the Gulf of Salerno. The tank was destined to Battipaglia Training Center where the 753rd Tank Battalion 6th Army Corps stationed and where it was preparing the imminent landing in the South of France ( operation Dragoon).
In Battipaglia there was the ITC - Invasion Training Center – where the armoured battalions were being trained for using the new amphibious tanks Sherman DD, employed in Normandy on 6th June 1944 for the first time.
The training course lasted three weeks.

The amphibious tanks
The amphibious tanks were set afloat by a LCT ( Landing Craft Tank) and thanks to a ramp-shaped extension, expressly built for this use. Once the beach had been joined, the whole rubber protection – used for the tank’s floating – was dropped or, according to the conditions, was immediately detached together with the support frame.

What happened in Battipaglia
During one of these training phases a DD tank bumped against a LCT projection and damaged the floating system. Unfortunately the pilot died during the sinking. It was TEC4 Walter Kumecki, coming from Michigan ( USA) but Polish by birth, who now rests in the American War Cemetery of Nettuno.

The recovery
The recovery of the tank has to be attributed to a group of friends from Salerno, fond of sub-aqua diving, who informed the U.S. Navy about their discovery. From the U.S.A. the recovery and rescue- ship “ Grasp” arrived in order to regain the DD and bring it to Fort Knox Museum. But this operation – documented in a film made by B&B Film – was not successful and the tank set on the sea-bed again.
On 18th May 2002, after some arrangements settled with the B&B Film - which owns the exclusive of the images of the recovery and restoration of the amphibious tank - Piana delle Orme succeeded in the recovery.


The restoration
The restoration showed considerable difficulties. Each part was dismantled, cleaned up and treated with particular anticorrosive chemical components. The Tank Museum of Bovington in Britain collaborated on the restoration by supplying the construction plans and the details of the DD tank.
Some parts of the engine have been replaced with original spare parts, all the gears and the movement mechanisms have been dismantled and reinstated. The Duplex Drive system has also been reinstated : the valves pump up the rubber muffs, the sheet raises and the tracks move with the propellers.


• The restoration in numbers

- 693 the SHERMAN DD manufactured in all between March 1944 and February 1945;
- 3 the existing DD tanks: one is in Normandy and another is in England. The third one is in Piana delle Orme and is the only complete and perfectly working tank;
- 58 years the period the SHERMAN DD laid on the sea-bed;
- 24 metres the depth the SHERMAN DD was in the Gulf of Salerno;
- 35,55 tons the weight of the tank just out of sea water;
- 16 travelling hours required to move the SHERMAN DD from Salerno to Piana delle Orme;
- 6.000 working hours necessary to the restoration;
- 500 cm3 of mud and sand taken away from the inside of the hull;
- 200 of oil used for the gear and the differential gear;
- 100 metres of iron pipes required to rebuild the floating frame;
- 95 metres of rubber pipes required to rebuild the swelling muffs;
- 60 m2 of rubberised fabric necessary to rebuild half of the side- belt;
- 4 the SHERMAN tanks preserved in Piana delle Orme Museum.

Piana delle Orme - Unique Examples

FAIRCHILD C-119

It is the Perseo-35, a Fairchild EC-119 G manufactured in 1953 .
It was first employed by the Indian Air Force, then it was given to the United Nations in Congo. In 1961 it was given again to the 46th Air Group and in 1975 the aircraft, modified for electronic war activities, passed to the 71st Electronic War Group of Pratica di Mare ( Rome).
The Perseo-35 carried out its last flight on 31st October 1979. It was absolutely the last C-119 operating in Italy and Europe. Destined to Vigna di Valle Museum, after years during which it was in stock in Pratica di Mare Airport, it was acquired by Piana delle Orme Museum in 1998.

ATTENTION: SPECIAL EFFECT!
An original hydraulic system allows the rotation of the propellers.