Original subtitles

(engine rumbling)

- [Host] The communists were stunned.

They'd never seen a tank like this before.

Nothing they had could stop it.

The British-designed, British-built Centurion.

Tearing up the steepest hills,

this heavy metal monster seemed to defy gravity.

More than 60 years later,

the Cold War superstar is still a contender.

- No other tank has fought in such

diverse campaigns for quite so long.

- [Host] Or inspired today's greatest battle tank.

- [Man] Here we go, another one up.

- [Host] On opposite sides of the Atlantic,

from England to Canada,

two tank crews are working to bring their Centurions

back to full working order.

- How's it going.

- [Host] But they're in for a long, tough tank overhaul.

- [Man] Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

(electronic music)

- [Host] April in England.

One of the most experienced tank crews in the world

is getting ready to rebuild a legend.

- Now what do we do now?

Push it more this way and turn it back the other way?

- We need to get it ready to go inside,

because the weather forecast for

the next few days is not good.

And we would need to work inside rather than outside

and in the elements, 'cause it's ever so cold today.

And it might even be wet as well.

Well, that's England.

- [Host] This is the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

About 80 kilometers from London.

They rescue works of military art from oblivion.

- Anyone can open a museum and put

the vehicles in and display them,

but there's not many museums that are actively driving

and displaying their vehicles.

- [Host] Today, they start work on one

of their toughest missions.

A Centurion tank, one of the first 30 ever produced.

- It was part of a production batch

which was ordered actually in July, 1944.

And married the Centurion chassis and turret

with a 20 pounder gun for the first time,

and became the Mark 3.

- [Host] Retired from active service in the late 1960s,

she is a rare find.

- It's only ever had its machine guns changed.

Most of the other Centurions that stayed in service

had extra armor added, an extra two inches of armor

added onto the front plates.

They had the rear turret patch changed.

The breech was changed, the tank was up-gunned.

- This tank is the biggest restoration we've done for,

possibly 12 to 15 years.

- [Host] They already have a number of Centurions

in their collection.

Some are static.

Some are in full running order.

But this restoration is significant.

It will give the museum its very first working Mark 3.

Designed during the Second World War,

it arrived too late for combat

but went on to provide excellent service

during the Korean War.

- Very few, if any, of the tanks

that fought in that conflict have survived

in their original configuration.

We thought it important that we had at least one

to show what the vehicle would have been like

when it was fighting in its very first combat.

- [Host] The Centurion wasn't a static design.

Unlike other tanks, it could be upgraded,

up-armored, and up-gunned.

Major upgrades resulted in a new Mark number.

By the early 1960s, this chameleon tank

had been assigned 13 different Mark numbers.

- Before we do the gun,

that needs to be sorted out as one job.

We also need to look at the wings,

the thin metal work, track guards.

They all need to be photographed, recorded, then taken off.

- If I'm getting out that way, that would be better,

'cause I'll just go around the hill and come up the hill.

- [Host] This is no weekend assignment.

It's not even a summer job.

This tank is in terrible shape.

There's so much to do.

The crew is going to need years to bring it back to life.

- [Brian] Very badly corroded.

- We cannot do a three-month restoration

blow-over job with paint.

That's not my interpretation of restoration.

My interpretation of restoration is back to bare metal,

start over again.

(dramatic music)

- [Host] Just getting it started requires

serious muscle, planning, and manpower.

It takes a tank to move a tank.

A Centurion Armored Recovery Vehicle is brought in.

- [Greg] Right, you lift it.

- That's about 50 or 60 kilos, maybe more.

- [Host] The Centurion is over 7.5 meters long.

It weighs about 52 metric tons,

roughly the weight of 40 family-size cars.

Its 650 horsepower Rolls-Royce engine

is capable of producing a top speed

of roughly 40 kilometers or 24 miles per hour.

But for now, she's going nowhere.

- What we're doing at the moment

is connecting the hauling bone.

In layman's terms, the tow bar.

This is the safest way of maneuvering

one vehicle from the other.

- [Host] Even on an icy cold morning,

Roger Barney Barnet prefers to use

bare hands on frigid metal.

Gloves just get in the way.

- I don't like working with them, simple as that.

They get cold, you can't feel what you're doing,

you can't see what you're doing.

Don't like them.

Fingers always grow again.

Even that one, that's growing again.

- We do this all the time, but we don't do it every week.

As you could imagine.

- [Host] They're only moving the Centurion

a few hundred yards,

but this experienced crew takes no short cuts.

It's too easy to get injured.

- You tell me what we're doing, and then I'll do it.

- [Host] The Duxford's Centurion is being restored

by a volunteer crew that is second to none.

Brian Hayden has been with the museum for over 30 years.

Greg Mordecai owns six of his own military vehicles.

- Military vehicle enthusiast.

God, I'm getting too old for this.

- [Host] Paul Lambert is a former mechanic

and engineer with the Royal Air Force.

Barney Barnet is an ex-Army mechanic

who worked on Centurions back in the 60s and 70s.

- A broken tank is a challenge.

Haven't been beaten by one yet.

- [Host] John Delaney is the museum's curator.

- To be honest, without the 40 or so regular volunteers

that we get coming in every weekend,

we just would not be able to restore

the number of vehicles that we need to

and maintain the collection in the condition

that it's maintained in.

- [Host] She spend 20 years in active service,

and was upgraded to a Mark 5 during the mid 1950s.

Retired from active duty,

she served as a gate guard at a firing range.

In the early 1980s, she was brought to Duxford

where she sat exposed to the elements.

- So basically we're restoring a vehicle

that hasn't done anything for 20, 25 years,

so we were expecting it to be a really big job.

- We're going backwards first.

- [Host] Finally, after three decades in the wilderness,

the Centurion is pushed and pulled into her work bay.

- And I still lovingly remember

the first Centurion I got chucked up to fix.

I got chucked up back in the Land Rover,

me gun in me toolbox,

and there was a Centurion beside the road,

Scots Greys, and it didn't go.

I got it going, and that was a real buzz.

- [Host] Everyone here knows they're about

to work on arguably the greatest British tank

of the Cold War era,

and one of the best-designed tanks of all time.

For the British Army,

building the Centurion was an act of survival.

- The Centurion was needed,

principally because the British came up against

the Panther tank in Italy in 1943,

and they had absolutely nothing that they could

combat the Panther tank with.

- [Host] To match the German Panther,

the British needed a universal tank

built on the iron triangle of speed, armor, and firepower.

This holy trinity is the foundation of every great tank.

- It's the best combination of firepower, maneuverability,

and protection that the British Army had had.

- [Host] And the Centurion incorporated other innovations

that made it a much safer tank.

Instead of using hydraulic lines,

which were highly flammable if hit in battle,

the turret was powered electrically.

As well, Centurion designers decided not

to store the ammo in the turret.

Instead, it was stored below the exposed turret

in the tank's hull.

- And so, the chances of it being penetrated

in battle was considerably diminished.

- [Host] With all its innovations,

the Centurion was quite a leap forward for British tanks.

- There's no two ways about it,

if one compared the Centurion in 1945,

when it actually came into service,

with the Panther, which came into service in 1943,

they were roughly comparable.

- [Host] But the Centurion never went

into battle facing German tanks.

- It arrived in Germany in May, 1945,

so actually the day after the German capitulation.

- [Host] The Centurion made up for missing World War II

by lasting longer than all her rivals.

- It's good to see that it was still being used.

- It's still used to this day as

a front-line tank in South Africa.

- [Host] But the British have never been ones

to sit back on their successes.

They constantly strive to improve,

and remain a dominant military force.

- The fact that all tanks in the British Army

begin with a letter C, the Chieftain,

the Challenger 1, and the Challenger 2,

shows the evolutionary nature of

the way tank design works in this country.

- [Host] Building on this foundation

of the Centurion's excellence

is Britain's current main battle tank,

the daunting Challenger 2.

- I command BATUS, which is the

British Army Training Unit in Suffield, in Canada.

It's the only place in the world we can come

and fire all of our armored vehicles

in an integrated and combined way.

- [Host] The ferocious Challenger 2

is Britain's main battle tank.

62 metric tons of rolling thunder.

Powered by a Rolls Royce V-12 turbocharged diesel engine,

it can reach almost 60 kilometers or 40 miles an hour.

Boasting a 120 millimeter gun,

the Challenger can obliterate targets

at over 5 kilometers or 3 miles away.

Like the Centurion, this was built to be a universal tank.

Some of its design features,

the side skirts, the cast hull and turret,

are also inspired by the Centurion.

- It has outstanding firepower.

Its armor protection is without parallel in the world.

- It exhibits the best of the characteristics

the British Army wants out of a tank,

in terms of firepower, and maneuver, and protection,

and the balance between those three

with this tank is got absolutely right.

- [Host] On the front line,

the Challenger 2 is exactly where you wanna be sitting.

- Well, protection is a big factor to us,

and in terms of armor protection this is

the best protected tank in the world.

But survivability isn't just about the armor,

it's about other characteristics of the vehicle,

and that's where I come from when I say

I think we've got the balance

probably about as good as you technically can get it.

I was commanding a battle group in Iraq,

two years ago now, and it absolutely,

not only saved lives in my battle group,

but it gave us the edge,

and that when people did try to get at us

we could hold our ground, work out what we wanted to do,

and then take the initiative again,

as opposed to having to become reactive

from the very word go.

- [Host] Every modern British tank owes a huge debt

to what is perhaps the greatest British tank of all time.

The Centurion.

Back in Duxford, the crew launched their three year odyssey

of restoring their tank back into a Mark 3 designation.

- [Barney] We must be getting somewhere.

How are we doing, Brian, are we getting?

- Quite well, aren't we. - Good.

Joining the dots.

There you go.

At the moment then, we're stripping down

the tin work, the outriggers, the wings,

the bins, the exhaust, prior to removing the rust,

removing the paint, washing it down,

and assessing the size of the problem.

Most of the bolts are coming out with

a half inch square drive socket and

a fair bit of oomph behind them.

We're just cutting the heads off,

we'll drill and tap and start again

in weeks to come.

For what's left, we can always stand it up.

We can bend it up and work around it, can't we.

Straight out, and on the floor, that's it.

- [Host] Removing the tin work is just the beginning

of a serious top-to-bottom tank overhaul.

Coming up, a Canadian crew begins

cracking open their rusted Centurion.

- My finger's in there. - I missed. Oh, ouch.

(upbeat music)

- [Host] Oshawa, Ontario.

It's 20 degrees below zero.

In Canada, tank crews get to play in the snow.

But this is no private playground.

It's the museum of the

Royal Canadian Armored Corps, Ontario Regiment.

Like the Duxford crew,

they are also working on a Centurion tank.

Their tank is a Mark 5/2 designation.

- Restoring a tank is like eating an elephant.

You do it one bite at a time.

- [Host] Located in the industrial town of Oshawa,

the museum has a modest collection of eight tanks

and 40 other vehicles.

Frozen, but unstoppable,

the crew of volunteers are totally dedicated.

Brian Butt works shifts as a foreman

at a nuclear power station.

Scott Boyd is a brick layer, volunteer fire fighter,

and Brian's brother-in-law.

Any chance they get,

they are here moving mountains of steel, wire, and rust.

- Well, we've got a Centurion built about 1952,

and I have essentially,

have a puzzle box,

with no picture,

and this is what I have to finish and restore and fix up.

I'll have to tear it down to, almost,

right down to its bare hull if we can.

Our biggest concern though is we can't take off the turret,

just because we don't have the facilities for it.

- [Host] The job at Oshawa is just as big

as the overhaul in Duxford.

But this crew has to tackle it with a much smaller toolbox.

- Now a Centurion being a completely

different kettle of fish.

It comes from Britain.

Most of the fasteners are Whitworth,

they're not SE, or metric,

so there's a completely different set of wrenches required.

The threads on the nuts and bolts, if they're stripped,

well we can't get replacements.

- [Scott] Hey, let's go.

- [Host] The museum actually owns two Centurions.

This gate guard is beyond salvage,

and is being used as a parts donor.

The real museum piece is buried in snow out back,

waiting for spring.

- [Brian] (grunting) Two, three.

- [Scott] How long you think it's been sitting here?

- [Brian] It was driven into place about 20 years ago.

- I believe it.

Come on.

Get up.

(grunting)

Holy moly.

- What we're hoping to get out of here is

a pair of radiators,

but trying to figure out how to get the radiators out

is a royal nightmare.

- [Scott] We're getting stuck.

- Main designs of the Centurion was

they had to be so heavy, had to have such an armament,

had to go so fast, but they never thought

of the poor bugger who's gonna work on it.

- [Host] Back in Duxford, the crew hauls out their Centurion

for a full physical.

They need all the room they can get.

A big part of every overhaul is just figuring out

what shape the tank is in.

The crew begins by inspecting the engine.

- It had the classic Meteor engine,

which was based on the Merlin engine

used in the Spitfire, the Hurricane,

and the Lancaster bombers of World War II.

- [Host] The Centurion is gas powered,

with two internal fuel tanks on either side of the engine.

It has an automatic transmission,

with five forward and two reverse gears,

and its power-to-weight ratio is 13 horsepower per ton.

- [Volunteer] Sometimes they come off easy,

sometimes it doesn't.

- Ready? - Ready.

- Two, three, go. (grunting)

- Oh, that's easier.

It's a lot easier.

We're just inspecting the gear box now,

to see if it's anything we need to take off,

and we found that all the linkages have been disconnected,

the drive shafts have been pulled out,

and the actual gear box is free, it turns.

- [Host] June, 1950.

The Cold War erupted.

North Korea invaded South Korea.

To hold back the communists,

the United States rallied an international force

of the United Nations.

Fighting alongside Canada, India, Turkey,

Greece, and other countries, was Great Britain.

Her tank of choice was the Centurion Mark 3.

- The first time it saw action was in 1950,

during the Korean war.

In a theater of operations completely different

from which it was designed for.

But the Centurion proved that it was

a remarkable tank in such conditions.

- [Host] With its hills, mountain ranges, and paddy fields,

Korea was not ideal tank territory.

But this tank couldn't have cared less.

- Its ability to climb hills was phenomenal.

- The Centurion could get up the steepest slope

than any of the American vehicles there,

and the Americans actually prized having

the British armored regiments nearby,

because they could basically get their Centurions

on top of these very high hills to dominate the battlefield.

- The Chinese lived in fear of this tank.

- [Host] The Centurion's superb mobility

was backed up by a ferocious gun and first-class armor.

This triple threat was a perfect example of

the iron triangle essential to any great tank.

(upbeat music)

The Duxford mission is not just about

making a clean, pretty display.

Everyone here is a serious historian.

They want a specific tank that is historically accurate.

- It looks complete, yes.

(dramatic music)

- [Host] The tanks are put to the test every June

during Tankfest, when they parade their collection

in front of military buffs and historians.

You don't get world-class recognition without it.

- Oh dear. - It won't open.

- Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

I don't like the look of those radiators.

- [Host] The Duxford crew has set itself

an ambitious target.

They want to restore their beat-up Centurion

to its original Mark 3 configuration.

This will make it the museum's first working Mark 3.

The tank that set the standard

for British armament for years to come.

- We know it was then upgraded

in the mid-1950s to a Mark 5 tank,

which is basically just changing

the machine guns on the vehicle.

- [Host] The team is looking for clues to make it perfect.

Paul Lambert has gone into the hull,

looking for any records of past engine work.

He finds the holder vehicle literature container

to the left of the driver's seat,

right where it's supposed to be.

(both talking at once)

- Down. - What've you got?

- Moment of truth, then.

- Open as a range.

- Oh yes, and it's there.

All the engine's record data, look.

Overhauls and modifications.

Just the job.

- Great, you got it? - Yeah.

Fingers and we're.

- [Host] These notes contain precious clues

about how the engine has been reconfigured.

Coming up, the Duxford crew gets stuck

replacing the Centurion's mighty gun.

(midtempo music)

- [Greg] Has it got any age plates on it?

Any Mark numbers or anything?

- [Host] Salvaged from an army shooting range,

this Centurion is being overhauled

back to its Mark 3 designation.

- Well to get the Mark 3 back to the

Korean War standard of that period,

you're talking about seven to eight thousand

man hours to restore this vehicle.

I would say, on average, two to three years

of hard graft to restore that vehicle to well in condition.

- [Host] Today, the crew will swap guns

so their Centurion gets the right gun to be a Mark 3.

- [Volunteer] Have you ever seen that?

- It came out nicely, didn't it?

Wiggle in a fiddle, plenty of grease on it.

Whoever last put it in obviously greased it thoroughly.

- [Host] In its current configuration,

the Centurion has an L7 105 millimeter gun.

This was the standard Centurion Mark 5

armament in the 1960s.

To be an accurate Mark 3 from the early 1950s,

their Centurion needs to be fitted

with the earlier 20 pounder gun.

- We haven't had a battle change here, ever.

In the 22 years I've been here

we haven't done anything as deep as that before.

Quite a lot research went into that.

- [Host] Luckily, the museum locates a

20 pounder gun in their collection.

The first gun comes out without much of a struggle.

The 20 pounder is a tougher fight.

- Yeah, I told you you was doing it wrong.

Keep going.

The plan is now, 'cause we haven't got the weight

of the tank and the turret on this mounting frame,

we're gonna re-lift the mounting frame

back towards the crane vehicle,

and then lash the framework to the vehicle.

We'll see how we go.

- [Barney] Give it a try?

- Yep, go on ahead.

- [Host] After sitting on the mallet for 20 years,

the gun refuses to come out.

But this crew has seen this kind of resistance before.

It just makes them dig in deeper.

- Ah, I'm on me finger.

There we are. - We're there now.

- We're there now.

I told ya.

(upbeat music)

- That moves? - Yes, that's moving.

That's it.

Right, we're off the threads.

Now watch the swing.

- Half past two, we started this.

What's the time now?

Half past four, two hours.

That ain't bad for getting a gun barrel, two hours.

Quality engineering.

- [Host] With the 20 pounder almost

in place on their Centurion,

the crew is about to add a critical piece

of their Mark 3 jigsaw puzzle.

But there's still so much more they need to nail down.

- What I have no knowledge whatsoever of,

is Korean local modification instructions.

- Again, we need to talk to the veterans about that.

They've got representatives from both of the main

tank regiments in Korea coming on Thursday.

- [Host] Seeking first-hand knowledge on the Centurion,

the Duxford crew is lucky there are still people around

who know this tank better than they do.

- It's actually quite roomy. - Oh, yes, yes.

- [Host] Jack Maw.

Kenneth Jones.

Michael Swindells.

Christopher Coldry.

All four served in Korea,

armed with the Centurion and its superb gun.

- And this was this brand new magic tank,

they were wonderful.

The gun always pointed in the right direction, for example,

with a thing called a stabilizer,

so that as you went round the gun

stayed pointing in that direction,

which was very clever of it, we thought.

- [Host] In the fall of 1950,

communist China joined the battle to support North Korea

against the United Nations force.

Chinese troops literally flooded the battlefield.

- These swarms, like bees,

like a swarm of bees were coming.

How ever many they killed,

how ever many they wounded, how many withdrew.

More, and more, and more came again.

- At times the tanks were completely covered

with infantry trying to get inside the tank,

putting sticky bombs on the side, to destroy them.

And so the other tanks had to shoot them off the banks

of their supporting tanks.

- [Christopher] They were very brave, you know.

They were bloody brave.

- [Host] The Korean war bogged down into

a deadly stalemate with two sides staring

at each other across hostile front lines.

- [Michael] We had the rather extraordinary situation

where Centurion tanks were perched on top of hills,

dominating the surrounding terrain,

whereby they dominated Chinese positions.

- [Host] This is where communist forces confronted

the terrifying accuracy of the Centurion's gun.

- The gun control equipment was of such a standard,

I could put 20 pounder rounds down,

and the Australians I was with would have the confidence

of knowing that I could put a round down

within 20 yards of where they were.

- He could take out little slits, observation,

blast them up to a mile.

It was a remarkably accurate weapon.

- [Host] With the 105 millimeter gun off their tank,

the crew prepares to install the Korean War era Mark 3 gun.

- [Greg] They're exactly the same right-hand grooves,

on both guns, so check that.

And the location ring is exactly the same.

- [Host] The barrel markings provide clues

to understanding their tank's history.

- We've got a number there.

One three four three.

But I can't see anything round there at the moment.

That one's 1976, and there's no dates as yet.

- [Roger] Ready Barney?

Rotate.

That felt good.

Rotate.

Stop.

Bring it in.

Very good.

I think the pin has gone fully home,

now rotate the barrel 45 degrees.

How's that, Barney?

- [Host] British engineering still holds up.

The gun fits like a glove.

- It went in obviously as well as it ever did 40 years ago.

It went in a lot easier than it came out.

We're now back to what I believe would have been

the original patent, the early, the A type 20 pounder gun,

as would have been fitted to the Mark 3

when it rolled out of the factory in 1949.

- [Host] The Duxford crew has taken a huge step forward.

Now, it's time to dig deep inside the hull.

Coming up.

Looking for long-lost parts at a swap meet in Canada.

- [Brian] I know I've never seen one of those.

- Neither have I.

(upbeat music)

- [Host] When you're restoring a tank from the Korean War,

it helps to have spare parts.

No one makes them anymore.

- In theory, we have a complete Centurion in bits,

apart from the hull and the running gear.

- [Host] But not every tank crew has a warehouse of parts,

like the boys at Duxford.

- Luckily we have another Centurion parked

out front of the museum that we can open up

and scavenge parts from.

And hopefully we don't have the same broken parts on it,

so it's more of a case of salvage what you can,

refurbish what you can, and if you can't,

we have to do without or find some other way of,

some other museum that's desperate

to get rid of Centurion parts.

- We need some extra weight on that to pull it back.

- Now unfortunately, it's got nothing inside it,

so it's pretty well gutted except for

drive train and driver's seat.

Which means we can use it for

pretty well all the parts we can.

- [Host] In search of missing parts, and possible treasures,

Brian and Scott spend a Saturday afternoon

in the small town of Acton,

at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall.

- [Brian] What does he want, 25 bucks for?

- [Scott] I don't know, it says 25, there's 25 feet.

- My big thing is to find whatever,

mainly bits and pieces, like,

being a Centurion, parts are so specific.

It's almost impossible to get something

specific to the Centurion.

- [Host] But every now and then,

Brian's refusal to quit wins out.

- He's got, I know it'll work off a 42 set,

one of our radios.

- For the correct radio for the Centurion.

That thing's brand new.

- [Scott] Wow.

- The whole idea is you have,

around your mouth when you're talking,

and you're just keying the microphone by pushing the button.

Which I'm assuming that's the button,

because I've never used one of these before.

And to find one of these old things,

not covered in dust.

Brand new, still, the grease paper on it was like.

You almost wanna just keep it bundled up

and sell it in eBay like those Star Wars action figures.

Still have original packaging.

- [Host] Like every great tank,

the Centurion was built to win.

With speed, firepower, and armor.

During the Korean War,

its solid hull was literally a lifesaver.

- Day in, day out, the Chinese would try

and destroy these tanks with artillery.

Often direct fire weapons, 85-millimeter anti-tank guns,

or 122-millimeter howitzers.

- [Host] No matter what the Chinese threw at them,

the Centurion never fell apart.

- No tank was knocked out,

either by direct fire weapons or by artillery.

They got hit many times, no doubt about it,

and this caused severe damage to the exterior bins,

to the optics, to the radio aerials, things like that.

(rock music)

- [Host] In the Centurion,

designers ensured that even under fire,

British tank crews had access to

an ancient weapon essential to British victories.

- Each Centurion had a boiling vessel, as it was called,

and we could make hot tea inside the tank.

Now if you're in the tank all night,

which we often were,

when these patrols were out,

you did keep warm.

- [Host] July 1953.

The UN forces held back the invading communist troops.

After three years of fighting, an armistice was signed.

- In the end, peace talks did come to a fruitful conclusion.

Never total peace, but a cease-fire anyway,

and a demarcation line between North and South Korea

which exists to this day.

- [Host] After Korea,

the Centurion became an international hero.

- Having proved itself so well in combat,

the Centurion tank was purchased

by several countries within NATO.

Holland, Denmark, a variety of others.

In fact, it became virtually the standard NATO battle tank.

- [Host] In Korea, the Centurion saved the British Army.

In the Middle East, it would save an entire nation.

October, 1973.

Egypt and Syria invaded Israel.

In the Golan Heights, the Syrians fielded about 1500 tanks.

The Israelis had 177, most of them Centurions.

- For the first 36 hours,

these were the only thing that

stood between Israel and defeat.

- [Host] At first caught off guard,

the Israeli army mounted a ferocious counter-attack,

and pushed back the Syrian assault.

- In fact, one can state categorically

that those 177 tanks, those Centurion tanks,

saved the nation of Israel from destruction.

- [Host] Even to civilians, the Centurion became a legend.

- After the October War of 1973,

when soldiers were inducted into the Israeli armored corps,

their mothers stipulated that they want them

only to fight in Centurion units,

because they thought their chances

of survival were much greater.

- [Host] After working on the exterior tin work

and replacing the gun,

Roger and Brian start working on the Centurion's engine.

Today, they are working on the gear box.

- [Brian] Come on old girl, come on.

- [Roger] So you can tell by Brian's cower

that he's actually,

a damn good struggle down the hole there.

- Just a bit of brute force that you need,

but sometimes you can't actually get

in there to apply the brute force,

your arms can't when you're lying

on top of this monstrous piece of machinery.

- The transmission side of the

gear box has now been removed.

When that's out, you can see the condition of the brakes,

on the drive's pocket side.

They'll need to be done, they may need to be replaced,

we haven't assessed that yet.

- All right, that'll do ya there.

That way we've got room for a pallet and timbers

to go underneath it.

Give it some decent support.

- [Host] Every step has to get this tank

back to the ultimate goal.

The museum's very first working Mark 3 designation.

It won't be ready for this year's Tankfest,

or even next year, but it's such a rare creature,

they'll take as long as the job needs.

Far away from Duxford, the Oshawa volunteers

are hammering away on their massive tank overhaul.

- This is the fourth day of being here,

for probably six to eight hours a day.

- [Host] Frank Moore is working on

the Centurion's auxiliary engine.

- It's far more practical if the tank is sitting

in a station, per se, overseeing an area,

that type of thing that they would

run this little engine here,

to get all their electric power for radios,

and the fighting compartment, and interior lighting,

and anything else that they would have to have.

The main battery feed wire up to

the start control panel was missing.

The ignition coil was plugged into

the wrong terminal over here.

Had to pull the carburetor all apart,

clean it all out because it had dried out 20 years ago.

- [Host] Here is where brains and expertise

make up for no money and not enough time.

- Hey, we got power.

It might start.

Hey, it's running (chuckles).

There she goes.

Hey, the governor just got in.

Quick, get the boiling vessel and we'll make tea.

And that's the light that tells you when tea is ready.

But not bad for sitting,

not running for 20 plus years.

See, it even idles.

Isn't this nice?

Yay.

- Okay, let's go for a beer. - Oh, yes.

- This is a major step forward, getting this,

'cause we can install this in the tank,

hook up the rest of the cooling system

without the main engine being in,

as long as we seal off those pipes,

and we can run all the electrical system

to troubleshoot our electrical system.

But this is a really good day today.

- [Host] Coming up.

A heavy metal party.

The Duxford crew takes some time to celebrate

with real tank lovers from all over the world.

The Centurion.

A main battle tank for Britain

was a key part of the NATO arsenal.

Over 4,400 were produced and sold

around the world between 1946 and 1962.

With 13 Mark designations,

it was so adaptable and far ahead of its time

it is still in action today.

- This is a design which is absolutely remarkable.

After 60 years in service,

to be still in front-line service.

- [Host] Springtime in Oshawa.

This Canadian crew finally gets to work

on restoring their Centurion Mark 5/2.

John Ellison is a heavy equipment mechanic.

He's been volunteering at the museum for two years.

- Even though I work 50 hours a week,

I'm here every single Saturday as much as I can.

Occasionally every Wednesday, if I can get it off.

All the free time I can handle.

- That's not funny. (laughing)

- [Host] The crew gets down to business in the engine bay.

- [Brian] You wanna check those?

- [Host] Brian is anxious to test his swap-meet finds.

- Just to see if that stuff we got in Acton

was gonna be usable at all.

The original issues we run into with the Centurion

is there are so many different Marks,

the manuals we have for the Mark 1, 2, 3, 4.

This one's supposed to be a Mark 5/2 (chuckles).

Wires have been tacked in here, tacked in there.

You end up with all kinds of modifications.

Right now we're kind of semi-guessing.

- [Host] With the wiring sorted out,

Brian's crew goes back to the donor Centurion

to salvage some parts.

- Where's the.

Well I've been trying to get the transmission out

now for about three months, so.

Progress is slow.

This one hasn't moved in about 20 years,

so what we've got is a lot of seized nuts, bolts.

None of the moving parts have been moving for 20 years.

- [Host] A former mechanic with the Canadian forces,

Bruce Wyatt joins in to help out.

- Reefing on those bolts pretty hard,

I don't wanna strip the threads or snap 'em off.

- Well if you come back next winter

we should have at least six bolts out.

If we're doing good, we might even have 12.

We're not gonna push our luck.

- Anybody knows British vehicles,

they know that there's bolts after all,

bolts after rocket bolts.

- Oh we don't wanna go there,

we don't wanna offend the British, they sure are proud.

- [Host] These guys aren't in it for the money or the glory.

Their reward lies far off in the next decade.

- Maybe they'll subtitle this The Never Ending Tank Story.

- [Host] It's a wonder that these tank crews

remain so dedicated, but there is payoff.

Once at the controls,

they never forgot what it was like to drive one.

Phil Eldridge is one of the leading volunteers at Duxford.

In the 1970s he served with the British Army,

taking care of and driving a Centurion Mark 12,

the last gun-armed Centurion

left in service with the British Army.

It was a match made in heaven.

Phil thought that his love affair

with his Centurion had to end when

it was retired from active duty.

- The last time I saw the tank in Germany was 1978,

when I loaded it onto a tank transporter.

- [Host] Phil and his Centurion

were separated for 12 long years.

Then one day he paid his first visit

to the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

In the land warfare hall, he found himself face-to-face

with a Centurion Mark 12.

- And the number plate seemed sort of familiar to me.

84BA91.

Came back home, got my photos out,

and it's the same tank.

And I don't know what the feeling was.

It was fantastic I suppose, to see it here.

When my step-father said to me,

he said when you drive your tank, he said,

is it better than sex?

(chuckles) Um.

- [Host] At Duxford, every volunteer understands

and shares that passion.

- You get a rush driving anything.

Even though you spend nine months,

maybe eight to nine months a year restoring the vehicles,

even if you only spent 15 minutes a year driving,

that's worth those nine months of hard graft,

all weathers restoring vehicles.

I own six of me own vehicles, of various tract,

and wheeled versions, and the motorbike.

- [Host] Unlike the other volunteers,

Greg Mordecai doesn't wait for Tankfest once a year.

He can drive his dream vehicles any times he wants.

- I always have to have a commander with me,

'cause I can't see around the vehicle.

He can identify exactly what's happening,

and the road conditions, who's behind me,

who's to the side of me.

- [Commander] Move over to the left now.

Still clear.

Still clear.

Clear.

And again.

Three feet.

And stop.

(grunts)

- Four hundred quid to put in this.

No, more than that now.

It's classical, really.

Upon reaching the cash desk to pay for the unit,

450 pounds lighter.

We were chuckling away.

I even take it shopping to the local supermarket.

Get me bread and milk and butter and all,

that's all up in the four pound base

while running this thing.

It's a wrap.

- [Host] All winter long, the volunteers work quietly

behind the scenes on the museum's other Centurion.

Moving it back to its original Mark 3 configuration.

- [Loudspeaker] Great tradition here,

half a dozen military vehicles.

- [Host] But then, for a few days in June,

they step into the spotlight and

share their collection with the world.

- [Loudspeaker] Well a very good morning,

ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to the Imperial War Museum Duxford,

for the military vehicle day.

- [Host] This is Tankfest.

- The armament that we'll have on this ground

today will have probably, 20, 25

main battle tanks running around,

including a Mark 12 Centurion, an ARV Centurion,

and the Mark 3 will be on display.

It'll be very noisy, lots of diesel fumes.

- It attracts an awful lot of public visitors,

and we usually get between four and five thousand,

which makes it a super day.

We've had to get some vehicles out of the museum,

some of the rarer ones we had here.

The M40 self-propelled gun.

The Conqueror, British tank from the 50s,

which is almost the only one running in the UK now.

- [Host] There's almost nowhere else in the world

you can see this many operational

armored vehicles on display.

Amongst this collection of heavy metal,

the Centurion is front and center.

Once Tankfest is over, and the crowds have gone home,

the volunteers don't waste any time

before they dive back on the restoration.

On both sides of the Atlantic,

the volunteer crews dream of years to come,

when they will be driving their own restored Centurions.

- [Greg] Will you put your ear defenders on please?

'Cause I'm gonna make loads of noise.

- [Host] Having stripped off the tin work

and put back on the right gun,

the crew is almost finished the external work.

But working on weekends and evenings,

they will have to repair all the internal

systems and machinery.

It's still a massive job.

The Duxford team is years away from the finish line.

But in the meantime, there's nowhere else they'd rather be.

- I'm happy.

Happy as the day is long when I'm here.

Or anywhere on a tank, come to that.

I suppose it's 'cause I've never grown up.

I learnt to do this when I was a lad,

and I've never grown up.