The Lion wanted courage, the Scarecrow wanted a brain and Dorothy just wanted to go home. When the Tin Man gets a heart, we all know there’s going to be a happy ending and that wicked witch will not get her way!

So, enough of the Wizard of Oz, but this week our ‘Tin Man’ has his had new heart delivered. After the spectacular engine explosion of the Sherman’s engine at the Victory Show- captured on TV by the series Weekend Warriors, our very own Tin Man has been licking his wounds in our museum. After a worldwide search and a few false starts, we located the perfect new engine and after the lengthy export and transportation process from Australia (yup, we had to go that far to find one…) the new heart has arrived.

Our new Sherman engine was last run in 1943 for 3 hours on a test rig and since then has been stored and untouched. The restoration team here on site is busy running system checks and flushing the engine of the old grease and oil before next weeks task of putting the engine onto a test bed and starting it up! The covers were taken off the delivery just yesterday and it’s a time for patience as the engine is fully inspected before being run.

In the time that the search for the perfect new engine has been going on, the restoration team have in fact built their own new Sherman engine which has now been sent away for checks to set up value settings, timings and so on. There is also a further Sherman engine in the Museum of site at Armourgeddon, donated as a Museum piece by an aviation collector for our visitors to see.

The Sherman Tank was the main battle tank used by the United States military and other Western Allies during World War II. A reliable, highly mobile workhorse that held it’s own in battle, despite being far lighter than the German tanks deployed towards the end of the war.

Thousands of Sherman Tanks were deployed to the Allies- including the British Commonwealth in the US lease-lend programme. This programme saw the USA give materials to Allied forces from 1941 to August 1945 to the level of $50.1 billion, an equivalent figure of $656 billion today. 63% of this material came to Britain. The total amount of materials shipped cost the US 17% of their total war expenses, effectively ending the United States’ pretense of neutrality- a huge step away from non-intervention, which had been the dominant stance on Foreign Policy since 1931.

The Sherman was the second most produced tank of the World War II war after the Soviet T-34. We also have a T-34 here at Armourgeddon that we are restoring for a private collector. Presently the inside is completely restored although the T-34 is likely to be with us for the rest of this season if you want to come and compare the two. The M4 took its name from the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman.

The engine of the Sherman was actually a radial aircraft engine. In design, this engine was designed to run at a constant RPM keeping the plane in the air at a steady speed. Once transferred to the 30 tonne Sherman Tank, the engine was required to shift these beasts over a variety of terrains thus working to a constantly changing RPM causing the engine to be labored somewhat! At 70 years old, there is little surprise that the heart, when put under this pressure, on occasion goes pop!

The Sherman was the preferred tank of the commander of the armoured ground forces over the heavier M26 Pershing. In the Asia-Pacific War, the M4 was used mainly against the Japanese infantry and strongholds. There were rare examples of the Japanses vrs Sherman tanks at battle, but where this did occur, the Sherman’s superiority was overwhelming.

In all, over 500,000 vehicles were produced and M4’s chassis also became the base for numerous other armoured vehicles such as Tank Destroyers, Tank Retrievers and Self-Propelled Artillery. A stalwart of the modern era of warfare, much loved by the US and Allied forces, dreaded by the enemies and now arguably the poster-boy of WWII. Our Tin Man will soon be returned to former strength and be ready to once more lead our gang to military shows around the area. Until then, you can still visit our movie star Sherman in the Museum here on site at Armourgeddon. The Museum is open daily from 9am from May to October. Outside of these times, please call ahead to check opening times.

See more in our Military Vehicle Museum