jmoores1941

Hello again everyone, Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead; I just wanted to point out that the second season's 4 episodes were made without any involvement from myself or my company. (legal BS) We have been working on some follow on projects that would be of great interest to the group. Once or twice things have come together, only to fall apart at the last moment. Things are even more difficult now due to the current economic situation. We are currently thinking about shifting away from the traditional television model, and planning for a more direct "on demand" approach that would enable us to put in more of the content we all want, and cut out the stuff the broadcasters want ie;dumb it down for the lowest common denominator. We are trying to put the funding in place to allow us to do this. It is my hope that we will be able to premiere a new, and even better series very soon. Wish us luck. Thanks and all the best, John

Hi Neil, No, I think we must be talking about different incidents. Having just done a youtube search there are about 10 different videos of Abrams and IEDs. JM

From the US Dept of Defense; DoD Identifies Army Casualties The Department of Defense announced today the death of four soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Jan 15 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations. The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, Texas. Killed were: 2nd Lt. Mark J. Daily, 23, of Irvine, Calif. Sgt. Ian C. Anderson, 22, of Prairie Village, Kan. Sgt. John E. Cooper, 29, of Ewing, Ky. Spc. Matthew T. Grimm, 21, of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. For more information about these soldiers, contact the Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office at (915) 568-4505. They aren't about to say "They died when their tank blew up". jm

I don't think anyone survived that IED/Abrams YouTube video. A check of http://www.icasualties.org a few days after that video was posted showed 4, 1st Armored Cav guys KIA on the same day in Mosul I think. There's 4 guys in an Abrams, and for 4 guys from an armoured division to be killed in what would appear to be one incident, points to them being the guys in that tank. Also, the floor of an Abrams is plain old armour plate, maybe a centimeter or so thick. That's it. That's not going to stop a 155mm shell (or whatever it was) when it explodes under you. The side skirts are also steel, about 3 inches thick. The side hull plates are also steel about an inch thick. As far as I could tell, only the turret has "wonder armour". At the end of the day these things aren't invincible. When we were at Fort Bliss I heard rumours from the 1st Cav guys about RPGs that were taking out Abrams. I don't know much about RPGs, but apparently the bad guys have been getting their hands on double warhead HEAT rounds of some sort... Anyway, I highly doubt anyone survived that youtube IED attack.

Things would get ugly Incidentally; it may not be apparent by looking at a picture of an Abrams, but the turret armour is maybe 18-20inches thick. The turret is just made up of steel, maybe and inch thick, but there's a space of approx 20 inches between the outside of the turret and the inside of the turret. This inner section is filled with high tech armour they wouldn't tell us about. Having seen one sectioned you realise the large gap between the outer and inner surfaces. I had never noticed that before. Also, those turrets are huge, there's enough room to swing several cats in an Abrams, compared to the really cramped insides of a Leopard turret, or any WW2 tank that I can think of. Best JM

I think perhaps they mean no M1 has been lost to enemy *tank* fire. They've definitely lost a few to other causes. Interestingly, if you remember the M1 that was seen on fire and burnt out during the Thunder Run through Baghdad at the end of the war, that was claimed as a kill by the Iraqi forces...That tank actually had an engine fire and had to be abandoned. They came back the next day and recovered it. JM

The JSMC is really an impressive plant. They built Shermans there during the war. We filmed for overhaul there, spending 2 days at the facility. I think they may have their production figures wrong because there were about 20 or so tanks on the line when we were there this summer, and the line moves everyday. Theyre also producing tanks for the Australians so maybe thats where all the "extra" tanks are going. In the yard were quite a few destroyed tanks shipped back from Iraq. Haven't seen the show but I'll look out for it. Military Channel also has a show called GI Factory. Haven't seen that one either. jm

Hi Jack, Yes we have a website but there's not much info re the show up there. http://www.windupfilmworks.com best john

Hi Joris, I'm not sure to be honest, but I do know that ViaSat Explorer has the show. Perhaps you can see it on there? Best John

Hi again, Thanks for the warm welcome ArtistsRifles; We tried to film with the British Army but we never able to resolve the scheduling and budget to make filming Challengers a reality. That was the plan though, and you're right, it would have been the way to go. The German Army and the US Army were extremely accomodating. It was somewhat sobering filming with the US Army in El Paso at Fort Bliss; the guys we filmed there were off to Iraq a few weeks after we shot with them (they were 4BCT,1st Cav). I have a horrible feeling that the footage going around the net of the Abrams being destroyed by an IED last week was some of the same guys (http://www.icasualties.org seems to indicate that) we filmed with... Snapper; you're so right about media types going from one thing to another, without really investing anything in the project. It works for some people I guess, but for me I could never invest 3 years pitching a project, and then one year making it, if I didn't love the subject matter. Best, John

Hello everyone. It's very interesting for me to hear all your comments about our show. I am the creator and producer of Tank Overhaul, and I found this site from a google search of show title. I agree with a lot of your points about the show. The main reason only one episode features a restored tank is, unfortunately, schedule. As was pointed out above, these things take years. We had a production schedule of 1 year, with 6 months filming time for 4 episodes. We tried the best we could to get as much payoff as possible for each episode, but a completed tank just wasn't going to be an option. You might notice the one episode where we do have a completed tank at the end (Hellcat) features virtually *no* restoration, or reconstruction. That's not a coincidence. As for why all the Leopard and M1 footage; I created and made this show for me I love tanks and AFVs. I wanted to go see these things for real, so I wrote them into the show. But there's another, more important reason; I knew if I was watching this show, that's what I'd want to see. We milked the workshop footage as much as we could, but at the end of the day it wasn't enough to hold 46 minutes, so the modern stuff is a)cool filler, and b)attempts to compare state of the art 1944-1945, to today's MBTs. Filming with Jacques, Kevin and Dave was great. They were all extremely generous guys, and alot of fun to film with. We are making more shows, so if you have anything you want to tell us now is the time Also, we're actively looking for people who go out and salvage AFVs, or any other military vehicle. By that I mean the "t34s out of swamps" kind of people. Tanks, planes, cars, ...minisubs even. Please get in touch. All the best, John Moores Producer Windup Filmworks Inc Toronto john@windupfilmworks.com 416.410.7618