eddy8men

I tried one last time on sunday to get the spares but the german guy I was in contact with asked me not to try to put any more pressure on the yard as it would ruin any future chance of a deal to salvage anything and the rate they were cutting them up they might be already gone to the smelting pot. so that was that. unless a museum gets involved there's nothing I can do and the museums were already approached before they even left the ranges ! rick

DON'T MENTION THE WAR to be fair the scrap yard guys were sound it was some higher authority that got wind of it and decided it was easier to say no. the thing that bugs me is he could have just as easily said yes, it would have been no skin of his nose. anyway no use crying over spilt milk. I searched the net last night and found 57 matilda's and crusaders at the bottom of the med and a tiger in a german pond ! that should keep me busy until war and peace ! rick

thanks guys but the truth is I still failed. although there was nothing else i could have done without spending some time in a german prison. anyway it has strengthen my resolve to try harder next time ! rick

I was told that the tanks had been offered to bovington but they were not interested !

I had one last go at trying to save something on sunday but the door was definitely slammed shut in my face. so it's a done deal they are now gone for good. there was a wartime square door bridgelayer which was particularly interesting because it hadn't been reworked with the cones over the armour bolts, it was also one of only two surviving examples. the twin ark was the only surviving example of the type and that is also gone.

love it :thumbsup:

cheers dave, I went down to crouch's yard for the transfer box and will go back with a big list when I know just what it is I actually need

When you are used to driving bedford mj's the tm is like a rolls royce

thanks guys, much appreciated. I look forward to the day I can drive it. :thumbsup:

looking forward to it !

hi fella's I bought a cheap tm with crane for range recovery tasks, (Churchill's hopefully) the truck had been used by british coal as a fitter/tyre wagon hence the crane and other mods, it was advertised as missing the transfer box which was an easy fix but on starting for the first time today it threw a load of oil out of the left side of the engine, on closer inspection it was found to be a missing pipe from the union pictured. the top pipe feeds the turbo the other the fip but i'm buggared if I can find where the missing pipe went, can someone please enlighten me as to what i'm missing and where it goes to. cheers rick

thanks sean all good points you raise there and I have to agree with them but it still doesn't make it easy to let go of the idea of saving the parts. i must be too stubborn to give up, infact you've made up my mind i'm going to try again today. i'll let you know how it goes. rick

how about a real tank like a Churchill and it's not entirely unlike a steam engine so just up your street

I can't help thinking that I should have done more, maybe if I had argued more or threatened them with a breech of verbal contract or something but not speaking german put me at a disadvantage and i'd been on the go for 27 hours straight. I just don't know, there's a part of me that wants to hire a wagon and just go back out and see if there is anything left in the yard. it's just such a waste. at least it has hardened my resolve to try harder next time round ! rick

I paid £3500 for the Churchill which was not far off the scrap price, the down side is it's in need of a little tlc. basically the wrecks are quite cheap and the restored vehicles not, you can get a ww2 british tank wreck for under £10k but try not to bankrupt yourself while restoring it. rick

the yard guys were ok, it was the marketing director that objected who was at another site but got wind of it anyway, that put a stop to the whole thing. in future I will try to go through the official channels before it gets to the scrapper. i have learned my lesson and i am going to contact david willey at the tank museum and ask him if in future he gets an offer but doesn't take it up then for him to pass it on to me because you know I won't let them get cut up or at least I will put the word out the funny (or not) thing is the tank museum would have benefited greatly as john pearson is restoring their mk7 and I am helping john so all the spares that I would have provided will never materialise now, also the Swedish tank museum got in touch with regard to their mk3 and the Belgians also need spares. so 3 museum churchills that will not get done now. f#@king makes me angry.

the whole deal changed after lunch, they had agreed to let us take parts at 300 euro per ton but I was hoping to save some of the tanks complete. in the morning everything was fine although it was made clear that we couldn't take any of the tanks without them being cut up first which was disappointing but expected. after lunch the sales manager in the main HQ some where else decided it was not worth the effort and put a stop to it which was strange as the yard guys were ok with us taking the spares, it was the upper management that didn't like it. I have been thinking who phoned them? or was it all BS and the yard guys just made it up to get us out of the way. I don't suppose it matters now, the tanks are gone and that's it. there were 6 or7 conquerors and a huge pile of parts so maybe 10 were in the yard at one point

andy you hit the nail on the head ref the tiger, the thing I was saying is that if it were any other countries tanks they would be worth serious money, why are ours different. pisses me off royaly. anyway enough preaching and on to the pics. this is the end of the line for the last Churchill ark

one of the things that made a little sad was the thought that if those ww2 tanks were from any other nation they would most likely have been saved but because they were british and no one seems to give a toss about our own nation, they were cut up and now any history they had to tell about the men that fought in them is gone and that makes me a bit sad and angry. it has also strengthened my resolve to try harder and to put the feelers out to get hold of the tanks before they end up in the scrapyard. how much one man can do is questionable but i'll give a go anyway. rick

hi fella's I got back this morning from the scrapyard in Germany and unfortunately I wasn't able to save anything not even spare parts, let alone complete tanks. the deal got off to a good enough start with us getting to the yard at 11.30 meeting up with our contact Thomas and having a look at the tanks with a view to salvaging maybe 10 ton of spares. at around midday we left for lunch for an hour and when we came back the deal was off and the scrap guys had decided It was too much hassle and not enough profit. Thomas tried his best to cut a new deal or salvage something but they weren't interested and we had to leave. I have to say it was a bitter blow to have to walk away and i'm still angry but there was nothing I could do. here's a few pics of the tanks, I will post more later. the firs two are a mk2 arv and the other three are a postwar bridgelayer

all you need to bring steve out of hibernation is the thought of a few as yet undiscovered churchills . i'm looking forward to seeing the 2 hulls that no one has heard of, apparently both quite heavily stripped but still with suspension and track. I would think they might be mk7's possibly avre's. I've arranged to meet the german chap Thomas at midday Monday at the scrap dealer so we will see, just don't expect any updates until Tuesday as Monday is going to be around 30 hours non stop. thankfully I am travelling with a dealer that has asked to come along, so we can share the driving. there is also a mk7 avre gate guardian floating around somewhere that has been gifted to a friend's ex services association so might get a look at that if it's nearby. rick

I have personally discovered how to make a small fortune from restoring old MV's. you start off with a large one !

I think that because it has passed to the scrap dealer he is obligated to cut them up so maybe demil was not his intention more like a contractual thing but anyway I plan on going out on Monday and will see what can be done. apparently the yard is full of postwar kit as well. I will take pics of everything and put them up.

these are the 3 I already knew about from the hartziel.de website

spoke again today to the german chap Thomas, the tanks are in a yard in Aachen and there are 5 churchills not 3, the 3 I posted earlier are there as well 2 other hulls that have mostly been stripped, that's the good news, the bad news is none of them can be sold complete and all would need to be cut in half apparently to meet the demilitarization rules. if i can arrange it I will fly out in the next week to go and have a shufti and see if there is a way to get around the rules. even though they would need to be cut in half they would still be viable (except the mk7's)as the side armour could be removed and the hull frame cut and once with the new owner the armour could be refitted and the 3/4" box frame welded. (much easier than welding 2 halves of a Sherman together) ! if all else fails i will try to salvage what I can for myself and john's Churchill. I will keep the updates coming as I get them. rick ps. thanks for the offers of help I have received so far