"elefant" arrival

[simon_manning]

this elefant arrived at southampton docks on route to bovington as a new exhibit, first one ever in the u.k. according to the article, regards simon.

[Ian Rodney]

Great read Simon,

On seeing a "Elefant" arrive in the UK. A must to see at bovington new exhibition!

Could this be one of the next Armortek model kit for 2017…..!!!!!!
Shoooooo….top secret of course!

Cheers Ian
(from Glasgow)

[Russ Clark]

That would me a dream come true

[Martin Diessel]

Hm Sound great, one of my most favorite tank. Does anyone knwos whre the rare item came from? Hope not from the US?? Tat could be the one of the "mikey mouse" style botch job so called restauration with tons of paint.
Martin

[Daniel Scholefield]

From the Tank Museum's website :-

The tank is being loaned from the US Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center at Fort Lee, VA, by The United States Army Centre of Military History and is one of just two surviving examples of the 91 Elefants that saw service with German forces.

http://www.tankmuseum.org/year-news/bovnews53855

[Martin Diessel]

That could be what I mean. There is some YouTube around showing where they shower and inundate with gallons of paint and called it Restauration. Will dig for the Video later. I think ist was shown on TV, too.
Martin

[Adrian Harris]

"Tank Overhaul" Season 2 Episode 2

Also includes the sequence where they crush it with the ARV when manoeuvring it out of the workshop

At least they had the b*lls to include in the final edit

Adrian.

[Steve Stuart]

Bovington has an Elephant in the Room!

The SAG Christmas Meeting had the added bonus of being able to see the Elephant in situ.
The meal was very good too.

Mini Snow Dome

Bovington are selling these wonderful items, a perfect place marker for the dining table?
Steve

[simon fuller]

Was great to see it arrive at Bovy in the heavy rain, even though there were a few 'issues' with towing it into the museum itself, which is n't actually shown on their facebook films.

Looks like the Springtime exhibit will be very interesting.

SF.

[Dennis Jones]

Some more photos from Bovvy yesterday.

Dennis.

[Chris Hall]

And yet more:















I also had a chat with a couple of the Bovington staff, one of whom had been involved in the transfer. Apparently the deal to have the Elefant is for 2 years, with an option to extend for a further two. It cost around £30k to transport (which was paid by World of Tanks), but that was a one-way ticket and there are no plans as yet for the return trip. There's also been no talk of any restoration / conservation work, although the Elefant has been outside for decades and is in a pretty sorry state.

It's a big, ugly, slab-sided monstrosity .... but it's nice to see 'in the flesh'.

All the best,

Chris