05/17/2026
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6770 were gifted an anti-tank gun with the closure of the Sharonville VFW Post in 2020. It sat behind the VFW post until 2023 when ownership documentation was updated from TACOM to the VFW.
The VFW organized several fundraisers to pay for restoration of the anti-tank gun, and in 2026 auxiliary member Junior Riggs, organized the complete restoration of the piece. It was unveiled May 16th at the monthly Happy Hour for Heroes with an es**rt by the New Richmond Police Department.
The VFW Members would like to thank Junior Riggs for coordinating the restoration of the piece. Thank you to New Richmond Development Corporation for the use of their shop and tools. Also, a huge thank you FB remediation and employees Tom Barger, Junior Riggs, Byron Townsend, John Godlewski and Chris Day for all their volunteer labor. This represents months of painstaking sanding, needle scaling, priming and painting. Thank you Jason and Wendi Mellott for sharing their expertise on painting and Jim Zajbal at PPG for donating the OD Green military grade paint which would have been correct to that time frame.
In the end, all the VFW needed to cover was new tires.
During restoration, two plates were found on the anti-tank gun: one explained where the tank was made in 1945, the other showed where it was transferred after the end of WW2.
The 90 MM T8 Anti-Tank Gun was an experimental towed anti-tank gun developed for the US Army during WW2 to counter heavy German tanks like the Tiger and Panther. There were only 200 made in 1945 at Watervliet Arsenal in New York and only one made it to Europe. None saw combat because the towed guns were being replaced by self-propelled tank destroyers by the end of the year. The serial number of the anti-tank gun is number 189 out of the 200 made.
In the anti-tank role, it was designated as the 90mm gun T8 on carriage T5. The carriage caused significant problems. The combination of the 90mm gun and the T5 carriage was very long, so the trails of the carriage could be folded back to reduce their length, while the gun could rotate by 180 degrees so the barrel was facing back over the trails when being towed. However, trials in January 1944 showed that this design didn’t work. A more conventional carriage T5E1 was designed, but this failed trials in June 1944. Finally, the T5E2 passed its trials, ready to be used on a batch of 600 guns that had been ordered.
The first three T8s were completed in 1944 and the entire run of 200 by June 1945. Only one actually reached Europe during the war, with the Zebra mission, which took a number of experimental weapons to the front. However, by this point towed anti-tank guns had been discredited and there is no record that the T8 every saw any combat.
After the war, the 90mm gun was used by the anti-tank batteries of the Airborne Divisions, even though they were too large to be carried in any of the available aircraft. They were replaced in the early 1950s. This anti-tank gun was transferred to Rock Island Arsenal, a US Army installation in Rock Island Illinois.
It is fitting that this Anti-tank gun will be displayed at VFW 6770, a post which was founded in 1946 by WW2 Veterans. This piece will continue to be a central part of the display and will be used in commemorative parades in New Richmond. The VFW recognized Junior Riggs for his many hours of volunteer service and has awarded him “Honorary Anti-Tank Gun Driver” for all Memorial Day and 4th of July parades.
