Original subtitles

(upbeat instrumental music)

- [Andrew] The A34 Comet, built in 1944.

Fast, well-armed, and deadly.

Britain's best tank of World War II.

Once a symbol of victory, today it's all but forgotten.

This Comet has been hit with high explosives and left to die

but now, a team of tank collectors are working

to bring it back to life.

(intense electronic music)

(funky instrumental music)

(boat horn honking)

(traffic passing)

On an island in the south of England,

the Isle of Wight History Museum is one

of the few private workshops where you can go

to get your tank fixed.

(metal grinding)

(drill grinding)

(hammer clanking)

And when it comes to restoring World War II tanks,

these guys are among the best in the business.

Dave Arnold is the man with the vision.

- [Dave A.] I am, the Managing Director,

of the Isle of Wight History Museum.

- [Andrew] Dave Barnes is his 21 year old nephew.

- [Dave B.] We do sort of a number

of things, really.

We do a lot of welding and we take tanks apart

and we put them back together.

- [Andrew] Bob Darwood is a military historian

and vehicle electrics expert.

- [Bob] He dragged me into this really.

It's been downhill ever since.

(laughing)

- [Andrew] They started out

restoring tanks for other people.

Since then, they have built up an impressive collection

of their own, including 36 tanks.

- Back in '92, I already reached the point

of owning the Centaur, the Sextant,

and I had the three Comets and at that point,

I realized that I'm either gonna have to do something

that's gonna make a business out of it or sell up

because there's no way I could afford

to keep all those tanks.

(drill grinding)

That's when Bob and I sat down one day and said,

"Do you reckon we could do it on our own?"

(metal banging)

And we just tried to do it on our own.

(cool electronic music)

- [Andrew] Their next job has been

on Dave's back-burner for 12 years.

It's a rare 1944 Comet.

Weighing 34 tons, the Comet was faster

than the American Sherman.

It had thicker armor, wider tracks, and a bigger gun.

- When they were first issued, the Comets we actually given

to the crews that came out of Shermans

and the first time they drove them,

they reported back and said

that it was like driving a cross-country sports car.

They were that good cross country.

- Various historians look at the Comet

as probably the best British tank

to see service in the second World War.

- [Andrew] This Comet has been rescued

from an Army target range.

It's been shot at, set on fire, and vandalized.

The damage is extensive but because this tank is so rare,

Dave and his crew think it's worth trying to save.

(metal clanging)

(welder crackling)

(drill grinding)

(welder crackling)

- At the moment there are probably 12 Comets that I know of

that are in restorable or are in running condition.

But there are no more that will be restored.

(foreboding electronic music)

(horns honking)

(traffic passing)

(engine rumbling)

(beeping)

- [Andrew] The plan is to use the parts

from three destroyed Comets to make one good one.

(welder crackling)

They're going to cut out the front end of one

and replace it with another.

(chains clanking)

They begin by stripping the interior.

- Big one, eh?

(laughing)

- [Dave A.] Gotta chisel.

- [Dave B.] For these projects,

I do a lot of the stripping out.

I do a lot of the spraying.

I do a lot of the sandblasting as well,

so I do quite a hefty old bulk of it.

- Every time we take an old tank apart,

they're always full of people's throwaways.

We find wallets, always find pop cans,

crisp packets, unusual stuff.

Now about the things you find in a tank then.

How about a kiddie shoe?

(laughing)

- [Dave B.] Maybe the crew had small feet.

(laughing)

- [Andrew] Sometimes, they find original parts

in perfect condition.

- [Dave B.] Yeah, don't know about that.

- [Dave A.] Don't want to break that up.

That's treasure, isn't it?

Absolute treasure.

(sighing)

- [Dave A.] People have always got in them

and vandalized them and one of the things they've vandalized

is the door indicator for the turret,

because it's a nice instrument looking thing.

The first thing the kids do is get a brick and smash it

and this one was intact, so that's really good.

- [Andrew] With the turret stripped out,

it's time to remove the gun.

(traffic passing)

(intense electronic music)

- [Dave B.] In order for us

to get cracking on this tank,

we've gotta get it apart and the first thing we're gonna do

is unscrew the gun barrel.

- Keep coming, then.

Okay, we've done for it now.

- [Dave B.] He's just seeing how far the barrel's come

out of the breach.

- [Dave A.] That's about eight.

- [Dave B.] The breach train, that is.

- That's about eight, David.

Now you've got the weight of the gun

it's sliding back in the tower.

(metal clanging)

- That's alright.

- We're wondering what to do.

(foreboding instrumental music)

- We're gonna get up a strap, put it around the out,

the boom here, and put it through the end of that

so we can sort of pull and as we pull it,

it will support it slightly as well so it won't just drop.

(engine rumbling)

(metal groaning)

(horn honking)

- When the Comet was ordered,

the British Army wanted a tank mounting a 17 pounder gun.

A 17 pounder was the only British tank gun

that could take on all of the different German armor.

(engine rumbling)

- [Andrew] Before the Comet, British tanks were no match

for German Panthers

and Tigers. (guns firing loudly)

German guns were more powerful

and accurate, (guns firing loudly)

and their armor could withstand a direct hit

from any gun mounted on a British tank.

(explosion)

The British (explosion)

needed a better tank with a bigger gun.

(guns firing loudly)

- What had happened, back in the 1942, 43,

we designed a tank called Cromwell

for which a high velocity 75 millimeter gun was intended.

By some (engines roaring)

mess or another, they find out when Cromwell is built

that it will not accept this gun.

- [Andrew] The solution (welder zapping)

was to build a new tank with a larger turret

to handle the bigger gun.

The heavy 17-pounder field gun was modified

into a 77 millimeter tank gun.

This new tank would become known as the A34 Comet.

- The Comet 77 millimeter gun fires exactly the same round

as the 17-pounder.

The only difference is

that the barrel tube itself is shorter.

You could in a sense, call it the sawn off 17-pounder.

- [Andrew] The 77 millimeter would soon prove

to be the best Ally tank gun of the war.

- I would expect the Comet crew to think

they got the best tank in the world in every respect.

Heavier, much better armored, and just that bit bigger

so it could carry a better turret, larger gun.

- [Dave A.] Lovely.

That's lovely.

Look at you.

I've never took one out before

and it's actually dead easy, wasn't it?

(foreboding electronic music)

(cloth rustling)

That's as good as the day it was made in 1944.

(cloth rustling)

(machinery straining)

It's heavy.

(machinery straining)

(intense rock music)

- [Andrew] With the gun barrel removed,

they go inside to take out the breech ring.

- [Dave A.] The breech ring

is immensely heavy and the only way you can get it out

is through the loader's hatch.

The loader's hatch is actually specifically designed

that the breech ring will just fit through it.

(metal screeching)

- [Dave B.] Up we go there.

- That's 350 pounds or something, isn't it?

(metal clanging)

Take a bow now then?

(laughing)

- [Dave B.] How'd we do that?

Should I go down and start hauling it out?

- Why didn't we take this off any earlier on

because you can see everything in there now, look.

- You can.

- [Andrew] The breech ring was the heart

of the Comet's new 77 millimeter gun.

It was defined to file a new type of ammunition

that could penetrate heavy armor.

- Towards the middle, I think, of 1944,

Britain had produced a thing

called the armor-piercing discarding sabot round.

(engine rumbling)

- [Andrew] New in 1944, (radio chatter)

the discarding sabot armor-piercing round

is still used today to destroy enemy tanks.

- Sabot is for armor-piercing.

Makes just a hole in the armor and if you hit ammunition

the tank probably explode.

(engines roaring)

- [Andrew] Instead of using an explosive charge,

the sabot round fires a solid dart.

(gun exploding)

- You end up with this incredibly dense dart,

a tungston of depleted uranium which,

the impact is just frightful and the result horrible.

(explosion)

- [Andrew] The dart travels at extremely high velocity

and uses kinetic energy to smash

through the armor of an enemy tank.

(explosions)

Today's German Leopard 2A6 is armed

with the most powerful tank gun in the world.

(intense percussive music) (engines rumbling)

(guns exploding)

(engine roaring)

(gun exploding loudly)

And when it fires a sabot round,

it can destroy an enemy tank four kilometers away.

- It's basically the same cannon as in the M1 Abrams.

The only difference is this gun is longer

and so you have a higher pressure

and a higher speed of the ammunition.

For the sabot it's 1,650 meters per second.

(engines rumbling)

- [Andrew] The higher velocity means greater accuracy

and more power to penetrate armor.

(explosion)

- I would think that basically the tactic has not changed

in so many ways since the second World War.

(foreboding instrumental music)

- [Andrew] The Comet's innovative gun,

firing the new sabot round,

was the most accurate British tank gun of the war.

- When they designed the Comet gun it was known

that some of the tank crews

at 1,000 yards, that's 3,000 feet,

could actually land three shells in one square foot.

So by the end of the war,

the crews were really, really good.

(gun shooting loudly)

And they had good reason to be.

(welder zapping)

- [Andrew] After nine months' development,

the British finally had a tank

that could take on heavy German armor.

(gun shooting)

The only question, could they deliver enough of them in time

to make a difference?

(intense instrumental music)

(metal cranking)

For Dave's crew, the first phase

of the tear-down is complete.

- It must weigh, it must be about 400 weight.

That's 500 pound.

Let's see what it can do then.

(machinery straining)

Got it.

We're the dog's bollocks.

We've never done that before and we're marvelous at it.

It worked like a dream.

- Yeah.

- None of us got hurt.

I've still got all my fingers and thumbs.

- Yeah, I've still got mine under my gloves, actually.

- Yeah, fantastic.

Phase two, get that big chunk out.

- [Dave B.] Yeah.

- [Andrew] Phase two starts with the mantlet.

It has to come out before the turret can be removed.

- [Dave A.] In order the get the turret off,

we have to get the mantlet off

and that's probably gonna be easier said then done.

- Come on, it's sat on the back of there.

(hammer clanging)

- [Dave A.] Don't you break that, don't you break it!

- Yeah.

- [Dave A.] Don't you break it.

You naughty boy. (metal cranking)

(hammer clanging)

(intense electronic music)

- [Andrew] The crew at the Isle of Wight

Military History Museum has made good time

taking apart their Comet tank.

They've stripped the interior

and removed the gun and breech ring.

Now it's time to remove the six and a half ton turret.

This calls for some heavy equipment.

(engine rumbling)

A tank, fitted with a crane.

(hammer clanging)

It's called an ARV, an armored recovery vehicle.

(metal squeaking)

- When we need a little bit of lifting boost,

we break out the ARV and give things a bit

of a pull round with it.

Easy-peasy.

It's more trouble getting it out of the shed

than it is using it.

Get that right.

(engine rumbling)

- [Andrew] Before the turret will come off,

the mantlet has to go.

- We have to take the mantlet off because there are six

or eight bolts underneath the mantlet

that hold the turret to the turret ring.

(chains clanking)

We've got fairly good lifting equipment.

We try to use lifting equipment rather than break out backs,

but every now and again, brute force and ignorance

is the only way to get some bits out.

Let the young ones do that.

- [Andrew] The bolts are seized with rust,

but Dave has a brand-new impact wrench to jar them loose.

- I'm just going undo the, well try and undo four bolts

that hold the mantlet.

- [Dave A.] So we can get the mantlet off.

- [Dave B.] Yeah.

- Good luck, go.

(drill grinding)

(laughing)

- Boy, it tastes like hell.

(laughing)

It was harder putting the tool on there

than it was taking that out.

Jesus, this gun's on steroids.

(laughing)

(drill grinding)

Yeah, we gotta tilt the mantlet now

so we can get to the two bottom bolts.

And then that's where we're whacking.

(hammer clanging)

(chains clanking)

(hammer clanging)

- [Andrew] The bolts come out, but the mantlet doesn't move.

(hammer clanging)

- [Dave A.] Don't you break that, don't you break it.

- Yeah.

- [Dave A.] Don't you break it.

You naughty boy.

(ratchet cranking)

- Okay, so what can we do then?

- [Dave A.] I think we need the bible.

- Yeah, the bible now.

- [Dave A.] Yeah, let me see the bible.

- [Andrew] When all else fails,

Dave consults the original service manuals.

- Lift out the bearing caps that are rusted in for 60 years.

Turn your bearing ring and withdraw the mantlet

and cradle approximately two foot.

- And that means?

(laughing)

(birds chirping)

- [Andrew] As Dave consults the manuals,

Bob records the data plates, serial numbers, and markings.

- [Bob] One of the interesting things we like to try and do

at the museum is get the individual serial numbers

of the vehicles and try and trace back the histories

of unit et cetera and this is fairly hard to do

in the case of British vehicles,

certainly during the second World War,

and the record's fairly sparse.

- [Andrew] According to the data,

this Comet was built in November 1944.

A month later, it was sent to the men at the front.

- The original order for the Comet was for 1700 vehicles

and that's what the statistics actually say were built

but we're fairly dubious that it never, ever reached

that sort of quantity but there was no actual fixed figures

for how many were made.

- The Comet's probably the tank that the British wanted

in early 1944 but it got it in late 1944.

- [Andrew] December 15, 1944.

The men of the 11th Armored Division

were issued the new Comets.

(engines rumbling) (guns booming)

But the next morning,

the German army launched a surprise attack.

The Battle of the Bulge had begun.

The Comets are ready for action,

but the men have not yet trained how to use them.

- The first units were gonna equip with in in late 1944

but they had to abandon the changeover process

because the Battle of the Bulge kicked off.

- [Andrew] After consulting the service manuals,

(meowing)

Dave has instructions to remove the mantlet.

- Yeah, we'll figure it out, yeah.

Consulted the words, the knowledgeable words.

(metal clanking) (hammer clanging)

Undo the trunnion caps, remove them.

(laughing)

That's gonna take a bit of time.

(hammer clanking)

- [Andrew] But the manuals don't help.

- [Dave B.] Oh, Dave, Dave, hang on, hang on.

Now this stuff's stuck, look at it.

It came out over there.

(hammer clanking)

- Now feeble, pathetic.

- Not much.

I feel something under there.

- [Dave B.] Yeah.

I think it's swiveling, Dave.

(engine rumbling)

(upbeat techno music)

- That ain't going no where.

It's an absolutely really stupid thing to put turret bolts

underneath the gun mantlet.

It makes it unserviceable in the field.

- [Andrew] Modern tank designer have learned

that it's important to listen to your mechanics.

Today's main battle tanks are engineered

for rapid field repair.

Each component is designed to be replaced

as quickly as possible.

Jobs that used to take days are now accomplished in minutes.

The faster the repair,

the sooner the tank is ready for action.

(engine roaring)

- It's a special kind of job where you have

to learn to work in a crew as a team,

so all parts have to work together

and to keep this machine running

and work together as a crew with the other guys in the tank,

I think it needs a lot of training.

(engine roaring)

(traffic passing)

(motor trolling)

(hammer clanging)

- [Andrew] The crew refused to give up on the mantlet.

- [Dave A.] We've--

- Done all that but we've got more.

- [Dave A.] Undone the trunnion bolts.

We've jacked, we've pushed, we've pulled.

(wrench cranking)

We've sworn, we've hit, we've had dinner.

Hey look.

(whistling)

Wow, are you alright?

- [Dave A.] I'm absolutely fine.

- Yeah, he just collapsed inside.

(laughing)

He just missed his legs.

- I've had enough of this.

I'm bored.

It's a real job.

- He gets very stressed out at times.

If two people are stressed out

and you're working together like that,

you've got to just watch away from it, have a chill,

come back to it with a straighter head basically.

If the work's important, I mean, and it's gotta be done.

We all have to knuckle down and get on with it.

(funky instrumental music)

- [Andrew] Perseverance pays off

and the mantlet finally breaks free.

(chains clanking)

- I've never been held back by thinking,

"I can't do it."

Just say that you can do it and get on with it.

That's fine, now just lift it off.

- [Andrew] January 25, 1945.

After 40 days of intense fighting,

the German offensive had collapsed.

The Battle of the Bulge was over.

The men of the 11th Armored Division resumed training

on their new Comets.

The tanks' speed, thicker armor, and bigger gun

were appreciated by the men and soon they were ready

for the final push into Germany.

(traffic passing) (funky instrumental music)

With the mantlet gone,

the crew is ready to remove the turret.

(drill grinding) (funky electronic music)

(flames lighting)

- The turret completely weighs I think

about six and a half tons.

We've taken out the gun, the mantlet, the breech ring,

and all the extra bits.

There's probably about four tons left.

Now we've got the turret off,

let's just shove the thing back indoors

because I've had a gutful and I'm shagged out.

- [Dave B.] Move the strap then.

- [Andrew] The crew takes a needed break,

because the toughest part

of the tear-down is about to begin.

(traffic passing)

(birds chirping)

(cow mooing)

(cow mooing)

- [Andrew] The hardest part of the Comet tear-down

is about to begin.

With the turret gone, Dave's crew can now lift

the engine deck and pull out the engine and gearbox.

Bob and Ging are going to tackle the engine.

Ging is a retired British tank driver.

Bob is a vehicle electrics expert.

They both know how to fix a tank engine.

- Bob and Ging are gonna have a real job

to get the gearbox and engine out.

It's all been underwater and all the bolts

are completely rusted away and lost their heads.

I wouldn't want to do it.

That's why I'm sending them in there to do it.

- [Andrew] The Comet was powered

by a 600 horsepower Meteor engine,

one of the most powerful tank engines of its day.

(chains rattling)

- Hang on, Dave said to stop for some reason.

(chains rattling)

That's gotta be well clear.

- As long as there's no cracks in the blocks

and stuff like that, we can probably reuse that.

Try and take it apart and go pistons through.

- [Andrew] But after 60 years of neglect,

this engine is wreck.

- The water had collected in the back of the tank

so the gearbox was actually underwater,

so again, you can see the state it's in.

Once I managed to get it out now,

it just involved like hitting like with a sledgehammer.

As you may notice, we hit a lot

of things with sledgehammers.

(intense techno music) (traffic passing)

- [Andrew] The Meteor engine was built

by Rolls Royce in 1944.

(engine rumbling)

- The Meteor engine is a V12 60 degree inclined

27 liter petrol engine.

600 horsepower is its output.

(engines rumbling)

- [Andrew] It's a modified version of the engine

that powered the Spitfire.

On a tank, the light the engine,

the more weight could be added to the armor.

In 1944, the lightest, most powerful engines around

were the gasoline power plants,

built for the fighter planes.

- And they will go cross-country so fast

you can get them airborne.

In fact, there's picture in the manual

that's got a small picture

of one jumping over a bank and it says,

"This should be avoided."

(laughing)

(engine roaring)

(funky instrumental music) (traffic passing)

- [Andrew] MTU Friedrichshafen makes the lightest,

most powerful tank engines in the world.

Instead of using a gasoline powered aircraft engine,

these engineers have developed

a high-tech lightweight diesel.

- The diesel technology made such big progress

that nowadays modern diesel engine like our products

are as compact as comparable aircraft engines

have been 30, 40 years ago.

- [Andrew] One advantage of a diesel engine

is that it can produce greater torque at lower speed.

- Because only with side torques, especially at low speeds,

you are able to accelerate the tank as fast

as the end user wants to do it.

(engines rumbling)

- [Andrew] At 63 tons, the modern Leopard 2A6 weighs twice

as much as a Comet, but it can move twice as fast.

With 1500 horsepower, it has enough torque to accelerate

to 70 kilometers per hour.

It has the highest power to weight ratio

of any tank engine in the world.

(cool electronic music) (traffic passing)

Without the resources of a German engine factory,

it's going to take Bob and Ging a long time

to fix this engine.

Now, the final phase of the tear-down can begin.

First the wheels come off,

(drill grinding)

then the side armor is removed

to access the suspension. (hammer clanging)

- When we restore the vehicle, unlike some people

that just sandblast and paint the outside of the vehicle,

we do it properly.

So we take all the side armor off to get to the suspension

and then once we get the side armor off

we're gonna actually restore all the suspension

and check it all out properly.

To get the side armor off,

you have to take all of the side armor

bolts out. (drill grinding)

The side armor's in five big slabs of side armor

that's an inch and an eighth thick.

So what we've just done is we've just taken all the bolts

we can get out easily.

The next phase is to take out all the rusted in screws

that are really difficult to get out.

(torch whooshing)

We're heating up the armor plate around the bolts

and partially heating up the head of the bolt to expand it

to break the rust between the two.

It's gonna be a hell of a job.

The bolts are really, really difficult to get out

and each of the side armors weighs about half a ton.

(hammer banging)

(metal clicking)

We always try and unscrew them to try and save them

because that would be very expensive to have new ones made.

(metal clicking)

- [Andrew] Each plate of armor weighs half a ton.

Safety pins are inserted at the top to hold it in place.

- Okay, the wedgie widgie?

- Wedgie widgie?

- Wedgie widgie.

- Which one?

This wedgie or the little one?

- I think that's a lovely looking wedgie widgie.

Wakey wakey!

(hammer clanging)

I need my trusty assistant, Tonto.

(laughing)

I beat the living out of this one and that one's fell off.

In fact, from now on in, you're in charge.

- [Dave B.] No, I bloody ain't.

- I'm now the apprentice.

- Yeah, you're me bitch?

- I'm your bitch.

(laughing)

(machinery straining)

(cool techno music)

- [Dave A.] Hidden treasure, isn't it.

(gasping)

That's the best that we've ever seen one

that we've taken apart yet.

Normally it's just complete red rust.

I mean, that has still got most of its paint on it still.

And that there, that's the suspension spring case

and so's that.

That is the damper tube.

That's the Comet one.

That thin one is actually a Centaur tank one.

- [Andrew] The suspension offers a moment of discovery.

This Comet has been repaired sometime during the war.

(funky instrumental music)

(wrench clicking)

- Now we've got all the suspension out.

The next job is to sandblast it all

and that's a real horrible dirty job

and we're gonna send young David to do that.

(sand blasting)

- [Andrew] As the Comet is sandblasted and primed,

the new front armor is prepped to go on.

(welder whooshing)

- Hopefully, once it's blasted and primed,

it will look as good as the day it left the factory,

maybe even better.

(traffic passing) (cool techno music)

- [Andrew] March 29, 1945.

The 11th Armored Division mobilized

on the west bank of the Rhine river.

832 men with 208 Comet tanks.

The invasion of Germany was about to begin.

For the Comet, it would be a baptism of fire.

The tear-down is finally complete.

(welder crackling)

Now it's time to start putting this tank back together.

- [Dave A.] That's not good, Dave.

That's not good.

That is not good.

(foreboding ambient music)

(boat horn honking) (seagulls calling)

(traffic passing) (fast percussive music)

- [Andrew] The crew at the Isle of Wight

Military History Museum have completed

the major tear-down of their Comet tank.

It's time to start putting it back together again.

They begin with the front armor.

- What we're trying to do is we're trying

to put the front of a scrap tank

that we cut this chunk out of into the one

that we obviously want to keep.

The problems you encounter is

that all these tanks were handmade.

Even thought they were made in jigs,

there was probably a lot of tolerances

so the part we're trying to fit doesn't necessarily want

to fit in the thing we're trying to fit it into.

You know this angle inside?

- [Dave B.] Yeah.

- They aren't going to feed into each other, look.

(metal grinding)

As far as I know, no one has actually ever tried

to repair the front of a Comet

with using the parts cut out of a donor vehicle.

I think this is the first time it's been done.

(machinery straining)

I think it's absolutely fantastic.

I think it's the way to go.

It's recycling.

See, we haven't just restored this,

we've used authentic parts.

You could have made the front out of new metal plate

but when it was in there it wouldn't look as good.

This has got all the marks on it and the aging on it

to match the rest of it.

- We're gonna patch that chain yet?

- [Andrew] Dave takes his restoration work seriously

because in the world of tank collecting,

it's all about the details.

- It's spot on where it is.

(traffic passing)

(cool instrumental music)

- [Andrew] Each year, at the Bovington Tank Museum,

southwest of London, tank collectors gather

to show their stuff.

(engine rumbling)

- Yeah, we thought we'd come down and show our faces

and just remind a few people that we still exist.

- You're in a funny man.

- I know, in a hidy ho and all that.

- [Andrew] This year features the only running

Tiger tank in the world.

- I'm gonna wet my pants when I see the Tiger.

I can't wait!

(laughing)

Don't forget, we won the war.

They all forget about that.

The Germans didn't win!

- [Andrew] Besides getting these machines to run,

incredible attention is paid to the details

that make each vehicle authentic.

It takes time, dedication, and lots of money.

For those on a budget, there are smaller options.

(motor rumbling)

(intense electronic music)

But for Dave and his crew,

the answer was the build their own museum.

- Because we had no money, the whole place was built

on a very, very limited budget.

We built the whole thing, me, Bob, and David,

when he came from school, built the whole lot.

To get where we are now has taken us 12 years

and there's no money.

(laughing)

(engine rumbling)

- [Andrew] And this year, they're planning to launch

their first annual tank show.

- [Dave A.] We're gonna have a show

that's just on our own site.

We're gonna have, probably this year,

it'll be 10 running tanks out on the rough ground behind me

and there's gonna be a party in the nighttime,

bars, food, good atmosphere.

(intense instrumental music)

(welder crackling)

- [Andrew] But before the party,

that front armor has to go in.

(welder crackling)

It's time for the MIG welder.

- MIG welding, that's metal inert gas.

The metal is the feed-wire that comes out the middle.

That could be anything.

That could be aluminium, stainless steel,

Mars steel, whatever you want to put through it.

(welder crackling)

The armor plate is homogenized rolled armor.

If you weld this plate with Mars steel wire,

the welds will crack as soon as they cool down.

So we have to weld this with stainless steel

just like it was originally welded.

This is expensive stuff. (welder crackling)

It's 120 pounds sterling a roll, compared to

the Mars steel wire is 13 pounds sterling a roll.

(metal grinding)

(funky instrumental music)

They don't like welding through rust

and they don't like welding through paint.

So if he can get in there and clear round the primer

that we've already put on just to get a good weld on it.

(metal grinding)

Really, we're not really into tank restoration.

What we're really into is dressing up

in all this protective equipment.

That's what we like doing.

It's a fetish.

- [Andrew] In order to fit the front armor,

Dave has to make adjustment brackets.

(welder crackling)

The two inch rolled steel plates weighs almost three tons.

It's going to take a few tries before it goes in.

(welder whooshing)

(flames crackling)

(welder crackling)

- It's already got out of hand.

We haven't even started yet.

- There's a lot of people who've got more money than we have

that can obviously afford

to chuck huge amounts of money at this,

so you're never actually gonna compete with them,

but they didn't do it theirselves, did they?

(welder crackling)

If I actually had the money to pay someone else to do this,

I wouldn't bother doing it.

I just, what's the point?

- [Dave B.] It's not a hobby then, is it?

- No fun at all.

I could stand back and I could look

at this when it's done and say,

"Yeah, I did that."

- A hobby is something you do yourself

and then you enjoy it yourself afterwards.

That's a hobby.

- Yeah, this isn't a hobby Dave.

We're getting paid to do this.

- Yeah, it's partly a hobby though.

- It's a way of life.

Right.

(welder crackling)

- [Andrew] While Dave and Dave work on the front end,

Bob concentrates on the details.

- [Dave A.] Bob is a really good guy,

but when his disappears down his shed,

no one knows what really goes on down there.

- [Andrew] Wiring tanks is what he does for fun.

(intense instrumental music)

- A Comet cruise tank, that's a 12 volt DC system,

basically similar automotively

to most heavy vehicles of the period.

- [Andrew] Lately, Bob has been restoring

the instrument panels.

- Just satisfying to take a smashed up instrument panel

and rebuild it back to sort of working order.

- [Andrew] The work is painstaking and requires patience.

- My favorite thing about working on tanks

is the connection to the military history

and the fellas who manned them.

It gives you a real, tactile connection

to the things you read about

and you get a much better idea of what the technical backup

that would be required to keep an armored formation

in the field, et cetera.

It gives you a big respect for the men who manned them.

(traffic passing) (funky techno music)

- [Andrew] March 1945.

Allied forces crossed the Rhine

and the invasion of Germany had begun.

- The situation changes dramatically

once the Rhine has been crossed.

All join in the same mad race to get into Germany

as fast as possible,

probably to head off the Russians coming the other way

and to head for our respective areas.

- [Andrew] For the invasion to succeed, the Allies had

to move fast. (engines rumbling)

It was a new type of war,

with emphasis on speed and endurance.

- What this meant for the Comet as almost a first attempt

at battle was long road drives, probably at high speed,

very fast and furious action.

And going up against Tigers for the first time,

I think that the success that the regiments enjoyed there

would give a tremendous boost.

- [Andrew] The Comet, with its fast, reliable engine

and hard-hitting gun, proved to be the right tank

at the right time.

The tank commanders would soon learn

that the Germans were not going to give up without a fight.

(planes flying overhead) (guns shooting)

Young men armed with panzerfausts were waiting

to ambush any tank that came along.

This single, high explosive round could blast

through the tanks armor at short range.

(explosion)

By themselves, tanks were extremely vulnerable.

Luckily, the Comet could carry backup.

- Towards the end of the breakout,

as the British troops were going through Holland, Belgium,

and into Germany, the advance was so fast

that the troops grabbed lifts

with whatever they could going by

and you see a lot of the pictures of the Comets

with like several, 10, 12 troops all hanging

off the back of them, just trying to get a lift.

It saved walking.

I think that was probably one of its most valuable roles.

- [Andrew] By carrying troops,

Comet commanders were able to prevent ambush.

- If you've got infantry actually on your vehicle

and you run into the sort of situation talked about

where you've got lighter, handheld anti-tank weapons,

if these guys can dismount and start moving forward,

you pity the chap with the panzerfaust

because he's then got problems,

so it was mutually very beneficial.

- [Andrew] What soldiers and tankers improvised in combat

has since become a standard tactic of modern warfare.

(engines roaring)

Today, the integration of infantry and tank is known

as combined arms operations.

Fort Bliss, Texas.

(helicopters flying)

The Fourth Brigade of the First Armored Cavalry specializes

in combined arms operations.

(engines rumbling) (funky electronic music)

Here, the M1 Abrams trains for combat

with the M2 Bradley armored fighting vehicle.

- The main gun in the Bradley is a 25 millimeter

Bushmaster chain gun.

It's the best kind in the world.

- [Andrew] The Bradley carries a squad

of six to eight soldiers, specially trained

for counter-insurgency operations.

- Traditionally the tank, in a force on force,

Cold War sort of engagement, the tank was the punch.

It was leading the fight

and it was the combat arm of the century.

Well, in an insurgency, where you don't know

where the enemy is or who the enemy is,

and you're in an urban scenario,

the tank becomes a hunter and the Bradley becomes a killer,

so they complement each other very well.

(engines rumbling)

(gun exploding loudly)

- [Andrew] The integration of tank and troops

has become a lethal combination

of firepower and rapid deployment in the field.

(engine roaring)

- Oh, I wouldn't want to fire one.

I wouldn't want to fire one at all.

It all looks fun because

of the engineer inside of it and that,

but when it comes down to having to sit in one in battle,

I certainly wouldn't want to do it anyway.

Just I've got a big respect for the people

who used to fight in them.

They done well, I feel.

(engine rumbling)

(welder crackling)

- [Andrew] More than six decades

after this Comet saw action in the battlefield

and 12 years of patiently collecting all its parts,

this Comet tank has finally come together in one piece.

But before it's ready for action,

the engine has to be rebuilt, the electrics installed,

and the detailing completed.

(traffic passing)

- I think it's probably gonna take us another two years.

- [Andrew] It's a labor of love

that requires patient determination,

but summer is fast approaching and it's time for the crew

to prepare their first annual tank show.

(traffic passing)

And this tank show promises to be a smash.

(intense electronic music)

(engine rumbling)

(dark ambient music)

(traffic passing)

After a long winter, summer finally comes

to the Isle of Wight.

For some, it's a chance to enjoy the warm weather.

(water splashing)

(bee buzzing)

For Dave Arnold and his crew,

this is the time to take some tanks for a spin.

(engine roaring)

Dave's friend has lent them a fully restored Comet tank

and they're going to run it at their first annual tank show.

(intense electronic music)

It's a perfect day.

The visitors have gathered.

They have 10 tanks and guests from the British Army

and two cars that are about to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Bob becomes the Master of Ceremonies.

- [Bob] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

We're surely going to have a display in a moment,

just driving around the arena here for you

is a service and armored personnel carrier.

We are offering rides in this vehicle this afternoon,

three pounds adults, two pounds children.

Tickets available in our shop.

- [Andrew] Retired tank driver Ging

takes the visitors for joy rides.

Dave and Dave handle the tanks.

- This vehicle is a Cold War Warrior.

- [Andrew] Dave Barnes is the master of the Soviet T54.

(engine rumbling)

- I think it is.

I think driving the T54 is his favorite thing

about working here.

(laughing)

He always drives it because no one else

can be bothered with it.

It's a horrible thing to drive and he seems

to have mastered it pretty well, so we let him drive it.

(treads creaking)

- [Andrew] Then the Comet takes center stage.

(engine rumbling)

- Out of all of them, I think probably

the Comet's the nicest to drive.

The Comet's much smoother, the gear change is a crashbox,

but when you double the clutch and you drive it properly,

you get the gears nice, it's nice and comfortable to sit in.

The suspension is superb.

It just floats along.

(engine rumbling)

- [Andrew] After the tanks have done their rounds,

it's time for car crushing.

- [Bob] The lamb to the slaughter.

Anybody want anything now's the time to ask.

(engine rumbling)

- Blow by blow of the T54 versus car.

(engine rumbling)

(metal crunching) (glass shattering)

Well, the cars always lose.

(laughing)

(metal crunching) (glass shattering)

We used the T54 for crushing the cars

because the T54's got the strongest track guards

that can put up with all the abuse of having the bits

of mangled car down there. (metal crunching)

But take off the bits of track guards that will get damaged

and then David takes over

and he always does to car crash at the end.

He likes to take one slice at a time across the car

just to tease the crowd.

I think really, you can tell just by the look on his face,

how much he enjoys it.

He loves every minute.

In fact, he wouldn't actually let anybody else

in the tank to do it, so,

if you said to him,

"Can we trash a car?"

Nope, you wouldn't get in there.

(intense electronic music) (traffic passing)

- [Andrew] May 8, 1945.

47 days after the Comet first crossed the Rhine,

the Allies took Berlin and the war was over.

The Soviet Army organized a massive victory parade

through the streets of Berlin.

It was an opportunity for each ally

to show off their latest tank.

For the British, it was the Comet.

The Americans, the new Pershing.

But the Soviets had prepared a surprise.

- And the Russians being as you know brilliant show-people,

saved their contribution until last and it is said

that at the end of the Russian parade,

the earth beneath them began to shake

and what they saw, for the very first time,

was the Stallion tank IS or JS3,

the latest Russian heavy tank.

No one in the west had seen it before.

122 millimeter gun, huge wide tracks chattering along,

three abreast. (engines rumbling)

- [Andrew] The massive Soviet tanks dwarfed everything

in the Allied arsenal.

- Now it is said that the British officer

on the saluting dais was seen

to turn pale and his jaw dropped

and Patton, who was standing alongside him,

is reputed to have said out of the corner of his mouth,

"Don't worry, buddy, we're still on your side."

(engine rumbling) (swelling orchestral music)

- [Andrew] The Comet tank, in its hour of victory,

was already obsolete.

The second World War was over,

but the Cold War was about to begin and with it,

a new era of the super tank.

- So I think, sort of, it did what old soldiers do,

the Comet just slowly faded away.

(forlorn instrumental music)

- [Dave A.] And then, in the early 1960s, they were put out

onto the British Army ranges for target practice.

(engines rumbling)

- [Andrew] After decades of neglect,

the crew at the Isle of Wight is determined to keep alive

the memory of what was once Britain's finest tank.

(cool instrumental music)

(welder crackling)

(chains clanking)

- The goal was to have what would be the only troop

of running second World War tanks in the world.

- [Andrew] Not just one Comet, but a platoon of four,

all in running condition.

(sand blasting)

All it takes is perseverance and time.

(welder crackling)

- Well, we've done a lot in 12 years, haven't we?

We've moved workshops, completely built a museum.

(engine rumbling)

You know, when there's only like a couple of you doing it,

it takes 12 years.

(laughing)

(metal clanking)

- [Dave B.] Yeah, it is what I want to do

for the rest of my life, to be perfectly honest.

(metal grinding)

- [Andrew] This workshop is going to be busy

for years to come.

(metal grinding) (cool instrumental music)

- [Dave A.] The wedgies, where are they?

(laughing)

Big hammer?

Here we go again.

(intense rock music)