buried and abandoned tanks

[Adrian Barrell]

Sorry John, my mistake..... I'm surprised it did not feature in the MV press, a new DD sherman would be quite newsworthy, you would think.

[johnwardle]

Yes that is surpising, maybe the good people of the Warminster area thought it commonplace and did't think of passing the news on.

[boomboom]

I live in the forest of dean and you can still go out in the woods and pickup ww2 bits mess tins/ bullits/ grenade tops/ a whole load of stuff and if you dig in a certain place :cool2: in the forest its amazing what you can find;)

[haybaggerman]

Re 'Jeeps in crates' I was under the impression that there were 2 main vehicle assembly parks in England in WW2, Ashchurhc & Tidworth, so I find it rather strange that Jeeps, Harleys etc. were delivered to units still in crates to be assembled and readied for use. I have also heard about the Jeeps buried in Taunton, but that was the one in Somerset. I do know that there is 2 Jeeps in a lake in Westbury where I live as they have been located by Bath sub aqua club. There are 2 stories as to how they ended up in the lake, one is that the US troops staioned in Westbury drove them in when returning from the pub, the other is that they were abandoned next to the lake and local youths pushed them in.

 

Yes, the one in Somerset was the one I was thinking of. Who knows, it might even be true.

[diver99]

Have you all seen the Matilda II's and Grants at a scrapyard in Australia.

[eddy8men]

great post diver99, that's some scrapyard there, if you look through all the pics there's what looks like 4 or 5 grants, mostly cut up but i'd still have a go at one. i've seen this yard on youtube i wonder when this stuff will get sold off. i'm sure i've heard an old boy had it and won't let anything go but the old chap will pop his clogs one day and the family will have an auction no doubt, might be a good excuse for a jolly to oz.

funnily enough i rang a guy in oz last week that's selling a matilda 2 with no turret and left a message on his answer phone but he's not got back to me, which maybe just aswell as i think my eyes were greedier than my wallet will allow but when it comes to tanks i just can't help myself

 

eddy

[eddy8men]

here's a churchill laying abandoned on a farm in shrewsbury, apparently some guy bought it and then couldn't get the transport and storage sorted so it's sat there ever since,( bloody dreamers ). er, well actually it's mine :embarrassed: i'm having a little disagreement with my local planning authority over some land i bought to store the tanks on so i'm stuck til it can get sorted, luckily the seller is a good guy but i think i'll have out stayed my welcome if it doesn't go before march, might just have to bite the bullet and rent some place.

while i'm at it i just thought i'd throw in a pic of the centaur as well and you guessed it, it's still at the farm next to the churchill.

 

eddy

 

ps. how do you make a small fortune from tank restoration ?

you start off with a large one :-D

Edited January 24, 2011 by eddy8men

[ferrettkitt]

For the moment most of that 'scrap' isn't going anywhere its reasonably well protected if the owner refuses to sell. Lets hope he doesn't have a cash short fall.

 

Rick I'm sure that Stoneleigh will relieve you of some of you're hard earned:)

Edited January 25, 2011 by ferrettkitt

[eddy8men]

hi andy

i was thinking the same thing about the ozzy scrapyard as their climate is a little better suited to outdoor storage than ours and i'm sure the old fella must have a soft spot for the old bits of armour or he would have sold them on to the first guy that turned up with a bit of cash years ago so it's probably safe to say they won't get chopped up and no doubt some will be saved, which is what it's all about.

 

eddy

[ferrettkitt]

Rick

 

You're inbox is full up again if you do go over to the area where the M's r give me a shout

[Adrian Barrell]

Eddy, here's your Centaur when still a target. I took this is 1992 I think.

[eddy8men]

thanks for the post adrian but it raises an interesting question. this tank was recovered 19 years ago and is in the same condition now as it was then, it still even has the soil and crap from salisbury plain in it. which leads me to believe this tank restoring game isn't as easy as i once thought. i can only hope that 19 years from now it will at least be painted green and have both tracks on it.

 

eddy

[steveo578]

Adrian Barrell

I'm surprised it did not feature in the MV press, a new DD sherman would be quite newsworthy,

 

Initally I thought it was the 1985 dis-internment but realised it some something else when Imber was mentioned. Mv Press isn't as good as it was when W & T was around the quarterly format also gave time to gather information.

 

Steve

[Adrian Barrell]

Well there is restoration and there is restoration......... However, you are right, it is not easy at all, especially from a wreck.

 

To my mind, it is better to spend a few years gathering all the parts before sarting the restoration but that is just the way I do it. Other restoration methods are available! Of course, it is not always possible to find everything, it is often a question of compromise.....

 

P.S. I'd like to borrow that travel lock to copy if I may please!

Edited January 25, 2011 by Adrian Barrell

[eddy8men]

i'm hoping that by buying 2 together, the centaur and the charioteer. that i'll have all the parts i need in one go which will enable me to use the original parts for the charioteer and fabricated items on the centaur as the charioteer to cromwell will be done right, which is where bob grundy and colin waterworth come in to it and i take a sideline as i'm a better builder than i am a restorer.

i've sent you a pm ref the travel lock

 

eddy

[Enigma]

i'm hoping that by buying 2 together, the centaur and the charioteer. that i'll have all the parts i need in one go which will enable me to use the original parts for the charioteer and fabricated items on the centaur as the charioteer to cromwell will be done right, which is where bob grundy and colin waterworth come in to it and i take a sideline as i'm a better builder than i am a restorer.

i've sent you a pm ref the travel lock

 

eddy

 

 

Some guys are just nuts taking on tank restorations.

Then again its great to have guys like you around.

[eddy8men]

thanks enigma

you know the funny thing is i didn't really see it as much of a challenge. the theory is really simple :- get a tank, fix it up a bit and then display it to raise awareness of ww2 armour and the men that fought in them.

simple what could be easier. it wasn't til i got a few tanks that some of the finer details came to light. these were

where do you store them

how do you transport

who will restore them

how do you get enough cash together to pay for all of the other points

 

so maybe you were right, you do have to be a little nuts to take these things on.:-D

 

all the best

 

eddy

[John Pearson]

I am a largely self taught mechanic/tank restorer: it is not too hard, you just have to get advice or read a library book and be willing to have a go, then another, then another until you get it right. I never even did metalwork at school and learned to weld by having a library book open by the side of me. Taught myself to drive a tank by reading the handbook as well! If you pay someone else to do the restoration, you miss all the fun! Tank restoring is exactly the same as doing a jeep (or a mini come to that) it is just that the bits are heavier.

If you a getting Bob Grundy to do it, you had better mark the tank so you can recogonise it again because I am not sure Bob actually does restorations: his work is so good I think he swaps your old vehicle for a brand new one that he gets direct from the makers.

[eddy8men]

hi john

i forgot to mention the biggest obstacle, time and at the moment it seems to be very elusive with 2 young kids, a wife and work and a local council that doesn't want me to put my tanks on the land i bought for that purpose, so the restoring dream will have to wait for me but only in the short term i'll get it all together soon enough but until then bob and colin can keep the ball rolling and i'm also learning a lot from those two professionals i'm even cosidering restoring the rest of the stuff properly, it goes against my reme training but i'm coming round to the idea.

 

all the best

 

eddy

[eddy8men]

an m10 sitting on warcop about 600m north of churchill ridge, although a definate non runner(not even i'd try to get this one going) this vehicle still has many useful parts which include the glacis plate and complete finaldrive assy although the gearbox case is smashed, there's also 3 or 4 complete bogies so lots of parts for another restoration.

[steveo578]

Eddy

 

I'm sure the range authorities have not abandoned this vehicle and will get it up and running as soon as they have time after they have chased straying walkers off the range.

 

Steve

[eddy8men]

it's easy to wander off the paths as they aren't well marked :cool2:

[david052]

And like buses; http://warrelics.eu/forum/armour-weapons-aircraft-recovery/american-arns-equipment-dump-norfolk-30089/

[steveo578]

eddy8men

it's easy to wander off the paths as they aren't well marked :cool2:

 

True but the marked paths aren't that good -I've twice walked the official marked right of way near the M10 shown in your photo and each time I've seen 17pdr/77mm Mk1T HE shells lying on the surface. Considering they must have been fired in the late 1950s -I wouldn't blame anyone straying to put distance from them.

 

Steve

[John Pearson]

an m10 sitting on warcop about 600m north of churchill ridge, although a definate non runner(not even i'd try to get this one going) this vehicle still has many useful parts which include the glacis plate and complete finaldrive assy although the gearbox case is smashed, there's also 3 or 4 complete bogies so lots of parts for another restoration.

A close up view of the back would be interesting: there used to be two of them fairly close together, one with and one without turret. On the turreted one, it still had its GMC engines in and back plate. This back plate was used to assist in Mike Phelps M10 restoration, the base vehicle having come from Pounds and the back plate had been torched to get at the engines. Anyway, we used oxy acetalene on the armour but of course that will not cut the nickel welds that hold the armour together, in particular there is a horizontal weld across the back joining the two pieces at an angle. The weld is a triangle, maybe 1 1/2 to 2 inches on each leg? Anyway, one very cold December day, I was halfway up this hill, cutting these welds by hand with a hacksaw and it occurred to me that it was not even my tank I was working on! I must have been mad!!!

Happy days!!!