Tank Overhaul - Season 2

First aired: 3/14/2009 4 episodes

Episodes

1. The Elephant

Aired: 3/14/2009

Featuring restoration of an Panzerjger Tiger - Elefant. One of the largest heaviest tank destroyers ever built, the Elephant was brilliant on paper and terrifying to behold. But in 1943, the Germans sent it into battle without having ever tested it. Under fire, the massive monster turned out to be a sitting duck for courageous Soviet fighters who learned they could disable it with a simple Molotov cocktail. The Elephant is possibly the rarest surviving tank from World War 2. Only 90 were ever built and now only two are thought to exist. At the US Army Ordnance Museum, you will see a crack team restore a rusted beat up machine that has been left on the sidelines since 1944.

2. The Centurion

Aired: 3/18/2009

Featuring restoration of an A41 Centurion Tank. Fast, smart, deadly, the British designed Centurion is one of the greatest tanks of all time. A champion in Korea against the Chinese Red Army, afterwards virtually every army in NATO wanted one. The Centurion is so adaptable that armies in South Africa and Israel are still using it. Even today, Centurion innovations live on in modern tanks. In this episode, we will meet two crews working on Centurions. The first crew volunteers at the vast Imperial War Museum Duxford in England. They have all the time, spare parts and manpower they need. The second crew toils in a small museum in Oshawa, Canada. Relying on volunteer energy and miniscule budgets, they're aiming to get their Centurion finished in 10 years.

3. The M-24 Chaffee

Aired: 3/26/2009

Featuring restoration of an M-24 Chaffee Tank. In this episode, you'll meet Joe Garbarino, CEO of Marin Sanitation, a massive garbage and recycling business in San Rafael California. Joe's true passion is his collection of military vehicles. And one of his pride and joys is the M-24 Chaffee. Fast, dependable, armed with an excellent 75 mm gun, some historians say this was the best light tank of World War 2. Every year on July 4th, Joe and his team join a local Independence Day parade. But this year, somewhere inside its massive hull, the M-24 has sprung a leak - and the leak might keep it out of the parade.

4. The BMP

Aired: 4/2/2009

Featuring restoration of an Soviet BMP Tank.Unveiled in the mid-1960s, the Soviet BMP was the world's very first infantry fighting vehicle, a brand new concept for the modern nuclear battlefield. The BMP was designed to protect soldiers from radioactive fallout and allow them to fight from within the vehicle. But the BMP never fought a nuclear war. Instead it fought conventional wars in the Middle East where it was outclassed by its vastly superior American counterpart, the M2 Bradley. Greg Taylor is one of the world's most experienced tank restorations experts. He's spent years trying to get a BMP brought into his backyard in the Nevada desert. But he's got an impossible mission on his hands, rebuild a Cold War vehicle without enough money or time and with only part time help from his friends on weekends. The brutal mission pushes Greg to his breaking point.