Last Thursday Roskilde Flying Club invited for an exciting tour to the arms museum at the Egholm Castle where one can also see the Draken, a Swedish fighter.
Draken (“dragon” in English) was the first supersonic aircraft deployed in Western Europe, and was manufactured by SAAB during 1955 – 1974. As many as 651 aircraft were built that served mainly in Finland, Austria, Denmark, and Sweden. In Denmark, 51 Draken aircraft were deployed by The Royal Danish Air Force. Below is a photo of the Coat of arms of the Squadron 725 from the Draken displayed in Egholm. “Cave adsum” means “Beware! I’m here”:
Ole Falck (front), the owner of the museum, welcomed us. Ole explained how this museum was build, and told us interesting stories about how some of the items were purchased and brought home. Torben Heindahl (in the background) is a former Draken pilot from the squadron 725; later in the evening he told us many exciting stories complemented by pictures from his time with Draken at the Danish Royal Air Force.
Listening with the Draken in the background:
Ole Falck began collecting weapons from the age of 16. His passion for weapons and history led to opening a museum in 2012 that houses a large collection of arms dating back to the 17th century. Our guided tour started from the WWII section.
One of the unique items on the photo below: a flag from the Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. A couple of years before the WWII, Hitler fell on the sidewalk and damaged his right shoulder. His body became crooked, and he therefore had his own tailor. Hitler gave that flag to his tailor as a reward for the excellent job.
Carlsberg item from the WWII time:
A very special and a new item in the collection. The story behind this beautiful car is horrible…
A Russian T-34 from Berlin May 1945. It was purchased as fully operational in Czech Republic, and not that many years ago:
We were overwhelmed by the extensive collection of the museum, and the thrilling stories Ole told us during the tour.
Our evening continued with the presentation of Torben Heindahl by the side of Draken. It was inspiring to hear about his time at The Royal Danish Air Force and with Draken. Below we are having a coffee & cake break, and share our admiration of the experiences from the evening:
In the end of the evening we had a chance to walk around and see the exhibition a little more. Christian and I climbed up to see the Draken’s cockpit:
Here is how it looks like:
Four hours went quickly, and we wished we could stay longer, so exciting it was to see the museum, and to listen to the commentary and stories from Ole and Torben. Many thanks to them for this rich in experiences evening, and to Arne Haugaard for organising it.