draganm

There are also some bushes that superseded 2 different types of needle rollers that were used. I still have to machine these up but have all the material at hand.

why are front loaders sometimes parked with the bucket used as a jack to lift up front end of vehicle? Usually with Hydraulic machines they tell you to release pressure in Hydraulic systems when not in use.

Interesting find, pretty complete as far as I can see except for engine. Also looks like little to no rust due to very dry Colorado weather . Must have come out of Ft. Carson which supplied a lot of training to troops headed to the war in Europe. asking price 4600 pounds

https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/5350205686.html

love the picture of the seller in the background too, straight from an Episode of Combat Dealers :-)

Would this be the one?

Marseille Sherman

This M4A4 Sherman tank commemorates the fighting for Marseille from 23 to 28 August 1944. The tank participated in the fightings and was disabled by a German grenade on 25 August 1944. 3 occupants were killed instantly.

In the Alsace town of Mutzig in 1940 they dug a big trench in the mainstreet to stop the advancing germans. As they took the town they had to fill the ditch fast to advance their vehicles. So they took an captured Renault FT-17 tank and dumped it in the ditch and filled it over with dirt. It was later asfalted over. So now the big question is the renault still there? At your shovels...:-D

I heard a little rumour that it might be in Australia!

Also, you get the impression from their web-site that the really heavy resto's for them are not done in-house but farmed out to specialists in the EU. I can only imagine what it would take to weld that pile of parts back together into even just a rolling chassis.

The operation to rescue almost 1200 allied airmen shot down over Yugoslavia in WW2. The primary allied agent in Yugoslavia, George Vujnovic, a Serbian who worked for the OSS and made contact with the Royalists (Serbian Chetniks ) and Partisan Communists to facilitate the rescue, died recently.

Here's a documentary and interview with him , mix of English and Serbian (with English sub-titles).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbMOglryTKs

In gratitude, the US and other NATO actors bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days in 1999 in order to create the "State of Kosovo".

any day now, with the trees removed should see some better GPR images

The works were originally planned for Monday but rain meant the tests had to be postponed until Tuesday.

 

"We already know, namely, that under the earth there is a train. We need three days of good weather to carry them out," Koper told a press conference Monday.

The pair will use a metal detector, ground-penetrating radar, and a magnetometer, which is used to detect whether objects have magnetic fields.

"Now that the area is cleared of scrub these studies will be much more accurate," Koper added.

Local officials have suggested that because of the annual winter snowfall in Poland digging may not start until the spring.

Arkadiusz Grudzień, a spokesman for the local magistrate in Walbrzych, said "at the moment, we are focusing only on noninvasive testing stage." It was "too early to talk about extracting anything," he added.

 

 

alright dammit, it's been 4 month now, we've see this stuff on "Combat Dealers" where it was purportedly not for sale , etc. , now it's just disappeared.

Where has it gone? Is it with Compton or Wheatcroft or did the king of Jordan get this? (hopefully not)

well looking at this from a practical point of view, and Eastern Europeans are nothing if not pragmatic.

1) if there IS a train down there, then it's not going anywhere, so what's the rush?

2) if there isn't , then why rush and kill off the hype/tourism prematurely?

in other words, no rush.

I do hope I don't have to wait till summer of 2016 to see them pull out that Brumbar :sweat:

Any cobbler would be able to re-sole a pair of boots or shoes for very little money, we even have one in the little town I live in.

Or, what am I missing here,

thanks for the news, so it was indeed metal fatigue and not any fault of gun operators. That's good information to have out there.

Even though it won't change the tragic outcome of this incident, I think it's very useful info for anyone who is firing an antique gun , especially ones that have seen as much use as the former Bosnian M18's. I think for old cannons some magnaflux checking would be minimum , heck if it was mine I would have it X-rayed. Better yet, have a competent shop machine a new one.

well a quick search shows

1) declare misfire

2) re-cock firing pin, re-fire round

3) wait a period of time based on hot or cold bore

4) open breach, partially slide round back out and rotate 90 degree's

5) re-fire

6) remove and toss out loaders hatch

Number 4 & 6 is enough to kill any curiosity I had or desire to fire one these (or even be in the turret).

and just when you think the story can't get worse,

Preston was the owner and president of Sergeants Towing Inc. in Portland. One employee said Preston was a wonderful man and they are just focused on keeping his company working. Preston leaves his wife and two daughters behind.

at any rate Feds and an ATF are all over it now

http://www.ktvz.com/news/explosion-in-tank-east-of-bend-injures-2-possible-fatality/36082806

http://www.thenews.pl/1/6/Artykul/226650,Polish-city-pressing-on-with-hunt-for-Nazi-gold-train

in other words "Drilling for Tourism" is the extent of it for now

I've read that this was not totally uncommon during wartime either. Was there a standard procedure that thank crews were trained to take for a mis-fire?

I imagine if there as a Panther bearing down on you the misfire was the least of your worries but otherwise in training there must have been some kind of recommended procedure no?

Maybe these guys were feeling rushed with the presence of a film crew on site?

wow, incredible how quickly that went wrong. Good reminder of how these machines are not toys, they were designed to kill. They got off better than this guy though

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-tank-runs-over-man-20150824-story.html

Anyone see a movie recently about Hellcats vs. Panzer 3's? I watched "making of" on you tube and inside the Pz -III (an excellent copy), there was a plaque above the drivers visor that said " those are your friends out there, never forget that this machine can kill and maim instantly", or some such.

just realized, if it was en Ex Yugo tank, that gun would have been fired ot hell and back. Especially during the Bosnian conflict. The metal probably fatigued , but it will be interesting to hear the official report. You know ATF is going ot be all over this

well if your going ot go out, might as well be doing something you love right? Sad for the young man though , 20 is just too short a time on this Earth

[h=6]The home of Crook County resident Chuck Hegele was selected to film an episode of a new Discovery Channel reality show[/h]by: RON HALVORSON/SPECIAL TO THE CENTRAL OREGONIAN - Bob Chatt (left) and Owen Thornton, military pickers and stars of the upcoming show Combat Cash, haggle on camera with tank owner Steve Preston (right).

Ron Halvorson

People living near Chuck Hegele — Lone Pine's Cannon Man — are used to hearing things go boom, and to windows being rattled. By now, even a row of cannons lined up alongside an alfalfa field and pointed at targets on the distant, rocky, hillside gives but scant pause.

A World War II-era tank rumbling down the road, now that's another story — especially when such a tank is being led by a camera crew in the back of a pickup truck.

Hegele’s place, it turned out, was the locale for an episode of a new Discovery Channel reality series produced by Rob Lihani, filmed last Wednesday.

“It had been working under the title ‘G.I. Dough,’” explained Lihani, “but now it’s called ‘Combat Cash.’ It's about our two military collectors that buy and sell all sorts of military stuff for all sorts of clients.

Bob (Chatt) has a company down in Southern California in which he deals with this stuff all the time, and Owen (Thornton) is one of his picking partners. Owen is a guy who knows the stuff inside and out, and the two of them partner up and do different picks, buys, deal with clients, and that sort of thing.”

It’s a nice premise for this series planned to debut in December, but that doesn’t explain how the production ended up at Hegele’s, where the tank came from, or even why this would be an interesting story.

According to Hegele, he first met the tank’s owner, Steve Preston, through a third party, and a few years ago, Preston — whose hobby is collecting all things military — needed a legal place to store some propellant he acquired. Hegele obliged. Later, Preston was in the middle of restoring the tank, but after finally finding the breach, he was stymied by a futile search for ammunition.

“Bob and Owen, they go all over and they buy military stuff,” Hegele said. “So they buy these eight (shell) cases and find out, ‘Hey, there’s a guy out there in Oregon that’s got a tank.’ So they called Steve up, and ‘Hey, I’ve got some bullets you need.’ But he didn’t have anybody (with the license) to put them together. What would I charge him to put the projectile together?”

Preston — who admitted to a fascination with tanks since grade school — at last owned a completely restored M-18 “Hellcat” tank destroyer, replete with live ammo. He talked freely about Rachel (named after his wife), his preoccupation for the last 12 years.

“It had originally come from Yugoslavia,” he said of the Hellcat. “There was an arms collector over in England that bought 20 of these, right from the Yugoslavian military, and shipped them to the U.S. to be sold to collectors, and museums, and things like that. It’s an American World War II tank destroyer, but the U.S. Army deemed it surplus back in the ‘50s, and sold them off to third world countries like Yugoslavia, Venezuela, etc.”

“It was pretty complete,” Preston continued. “None of the accessories that you see on it were on it, and it needed to be completely refurbished inside and out as far as paint goes. The first thing I did was restore the outside of it cosmetically, sanded it down, repainted it. Made sure mechanically it would run and drive, and then over the last 10 years I restored the inside of the turret, and continued to gather all the parts and accessories for it. It’s kind of like building a model, except for in a much bigger scale.”

The M-18 is special, according to Preston. Buick built 2,507 of them from 1943-1944 (his is a ‘44), each with a 76 mm main gun, and weighing 38,000 pounds. Noted as the fastest tracked vehicle of World War II, it had a top speed of 60 mph.

The episode of Combat Cash took most of the day to film. There were takes and retakes. Shots were not in chronological order. What will be seen on the screen will not necessarily be how it really happened that day at Hegele’s, but with a tank, a supply of live shells, and willing participants, there was little doubt as to how the day would end.

Crowned with period helmets, the tank crew (Preston, Chatt, and Thornton) sat in the turret as Hegele gingerly passed up a shell, all under the watchful eye of the camera. A warning was shouted, and then seemingly simultaneous, the blast and smoke from the tank’s cannon was matched with a thud and cloud of dust on the hillside, a thousand yards away.

Windows rattled.

“Extreme satisfaction” is how Preston characterized the moment.

“It’s been a goal of mine for 12 years — as long as I owned it — to fire it, so to be able to realize that dream after 12 years was just really, really a good deal for me.”

This is terrible, what a horrible accident. Sounds like they were firing live rounds. Breach block failure?

filming for a movie?

http://www.kgw.com/story/news/local/central-oregon/2015/10/27/explosion-gun-range-near-bend-sheriffs-office-says/74711904/

BEND, Ore. - Two Oregon City men died after an explosion inside a World War II-era tank at a firing range east of Bend Tuesday, police said.

“This is a tragic day," said Sheriff L. Shane Nelson. "Two families lost loved ones, and our hearts and prayers go out to them."

Austin Lee, 22, and Steven Preston, 51, were helping with a film project featuring the tank when the accident happened around 3 p.m.

"The film crew was capturing video of the tank destroyer firing rounds," said Sheriff Nelson. "The video was to be used as part of a display of the tank destroyer at a future exhibit." He added that the explosion occurred inside the tank.

Paramedics responded quickly and tried to save the two men, but they died at the scene, state police said.

The film crew was working at a Deschutes County firing range operated by the Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association, near the town of Millican, about 25 miles southeast of Bend.

Preston's Facebook page shows a photo of what appears to be the tank, surrounded by a smokey haze created by a fog machine. Other posts show the tank on display in various locations, surrounded by flags.

He also writes about an episode on the Discovery program, "Combat Cash" where he apparently purchased vintage military shells for the tank and fired at a target. Local TV station KTVZ did a story on that show when it was filmed in Bend in 2011.

those pictures are definitely the train version of "Alien Autopsy" :-D

Fun none the less though, wouldn't it be great if whatever is down there is actually that pristine and not a rusted, dirt covered mess.

sad and unusual to see and accident with one of these on land, doesn't seem like a vehicle that belongs on a freeway going 60pmh anyway?

last 2 times there was accident with one of these in Arkansas it sank in seconds and 11 people drowned, another stalled on a river and was hit by a barge, 2 people drowned.

Had to treat her as a non-runner for shipping purposes. Adds to cost but a lot cheaper than missing the ferry due to not starting when needed for loading.

 

It's all your fault!!! But thanks anyway :-D

Well I'm glad it's authentic ,to justify your efforts, and that it went to a good home. There's lots of of odd and unexpected stuff out here in the Wild West, and you never know what kind of armor , weapons, vintage vehicles and airplanes, etc. will turn up in some isolated property in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention the scary property owner , usually with a sign that says " if your looking at this, I'm looking at you, thru cross-hairs"

oh, There's a WC51 just down the street from me in Brighton too, I'll post a pic later :-D

Both German and Italian soldiers witnessed that the gold was real. The Italian army in the 1960s funded a 72-million-lira excavation in a desperate attempt to find the treasure, employing hi-tech metal detectors and even water seekers. Local miners, now dead, said they had taken part in burying the treasure and many partisans fighting the Nazis saw the gold lorries enter the mountain and never exit. In 1989 a baron even went on a search, authorized by the government.

All Quiet on the polish front though? You'd think they could have drilled a hole and dropped a camera by now, unless the siding is completely collapsed and buried.

very nice truck

interesting loading method. Curious, why not just drive it onto the trailer?

It only broke surface last month, so hasn't made it on the lists yet. Give the bloke a chance.

Interesting, looks like it's on private property, an organic farm of some sorts in Cuba

so who's gonna conctact ole Heysoos with an offer for his "Sherman" ?

Jesus Leiva, a Cuban who has a tank for personal use and, most likely is the only civilian who has such a machine in Cuba. It keeps parked in the backyard, while a troop of children rises chains, hangs the barrel, enters and exits the turret; It is also painted pink.

 

For is not no big deal, a tank of World War II, part of the environment El Progreso, his organic farm with more than 25 kinds of fruit trees and precious woods.

 

According to its owner, who does not budge, this is the last of seven Medium Tank M4 Sherman, who sowed Batista during the first half of the 50s of last century in the Residential Road Tunnel, as he was known to this Key area dubbed Havana. Locals themselves argue that Sherman was used in a training ground for military exercises, which existed in the same place during the days of the territorial militia that Fidel Castro founded in 1980.

From what links I've found, that Comet's the only survivor, seems that once the Cubans were sent Russian kit, the rest were scrapped.

Here's another one of the Comet.

 

so surviving Shermans in Cuba?