Dave Arnold and his crew at the Isle of Wight Military History Museum are set for a real challenge. They’ve rescued a rare 1945 COMET Tank from an Army firing range. It’s been shot to hell and they only have four months to get it ready and running for the crowds at Tank Fest 2006. We’ll see tons of action in the shop as they tear it apart; overhaul the engine; strip, sandblast, paint and put it back together again. Along the way, we’ll find clues in the form of serial numbers and markings that retrace the war-time mission of tank and crew behind enemy lines; from the crossing of the Rhine to confrontation with the deadly Panzerfaust, and the final race for Berlin.
Jacques Littlefield is a nice guy with a whole lot of tanks. In fact, with over 300 military vehicles, he has the largest private tank collection in the world. Jacques’ team is currently working on the jewel of his collection, the extremely rare and coveted PANTHER. This one has been rescued from the bottom of a river in Poland and it has been – literally- blown to pieces. The damage and the mechanical complexity make this the toughest and most expensive job Jacques’ crew have ever done. But the damage also contains clues that lead us back to the scene to reveal what really happened to tank and crew on their final day of battle.
The American M4 Sherman is the best known, most widely used tank of the Second World War. It is also the most controversial. Was it the all-American tank that won the war or a completely under-designed death trap? We go to the Isle of Wight Military History Museum, where Dave Arnold and his crew are about to try something no one else has ever done before. They are going to chop two destroyed Shermans in half to piece together one good one. If they can pull it off it will be a testament to the most revolutionary aspect of the Sherman’s design – American-style production engineering allowed for production on a massive scale. It will show just why the Sherman, despite its flaws, remains one of the most important tanks ever made; and one of the many reasons why the Allies won the War.
We go to the Tank Workshop in Tooele, Utah where a crew of dedicated restorers race to finish a very special project. Their boss, Karl Smith, has gathered the largest private collection of World War II vehicles in the United States, and he’s throwing a VE-Day party with a big surprise. The crew has discovered that one of the M-18 HELLCAT Tank Destroyers in the collection is the same machine that a local veteran served in during the Second World War. They have two weeks to tear it apart, install a new engine, and get it running so they can take one very surprised veteran for the ride of his life.
Featuring restoration of an Panzerjger Tiger - Elefant. One of the largest heaviest tank destroyers ever built, the Elephant was brilliant on paper and terrifying to behold. But in 1943, the Germans sent it into battle without having ever tested it. Under fire, the massive monster turned out to be a sitting duck for courageous Soviet fighters who learned they could disable it with a simple Molotov cocktail. The Elephant is possibly the rarest surviving tank from World War 2. Only 90 were ever built and now only two are thought to exist. At the US Army Ordnance Museum, you will see a crack team restore a rusted beat up machine that has been left on the sidelines since 1944.
Featuring restoration of an A41 Centurion Tank. Fast, smart, deadly, the British designed Centurion is one of the greatest tanks of all time. A champion in Korea against the Chinese Red Army, afterwards virtually every army in NATO wanted one. The Centurion is so adaptable that armies in South Africa and Israel are still using it. Even today, Centurion innovations live on in modern tanks. In this episode, we will meet two crews working on Centurions. The first crew volunteers at the vast Imperial War Museum Duxford in England. They have all the time, spare parts and manpower they need. The second crew toils in a small museum in Oshawa, Canada. Relying on volunteer energy and miniscule budgets, they're aiming to get their Centurion finished in 10 years.
Featuring restoration of an M-24 Chaffee Tank. In this episode, you'll meet Joe Garbarino, CEO of Marin Sanitation, a massive garbage and recycling business in San Rafael California. Joe's true passion is his collection of military vehicles. And one of his pride and joys is the M-24 Chaffee. Fast, dependable, armed with an excellent 75 mm gun, some historians say this was the best light tank of World War 2. Every year on July 4th, Joe and his team join a local Independence Day parade. But this year, somewhere inside its massive hull, the M-24 has sprung a leak - and the leak might keep it out of the parade.
Featuring restoration of an Soviet BMP Tank.Unveiled in the mid-1960s, the Soviet BMP was the world's very first infantry fighting vehicle, a brand new concept for the modern nuclear battlefield. The BMP was designed to protect soldiers from radioactive fallout and allow them to fight from within the vehicle. But the BMP never fought a nuclear war. Instead it fought conventional wars in the Middle East where it was outclassed by its vastly superior American counterpart, the M2 Bradley. Greg Taylor is one of the world's most experienced tank restorations experts. He's spent years trying to get a BMP brought into his backyard in the Nevada desert. But he's got an impossible mission on his hands, rebuild a Cold War vehicle without enough money or time and with only part time help from his friends on weekends. The brutal mission pushes Greg to his breaking point.
