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Wakefield apprentices in tank facelift
Apprentices in a Wakefield workshop have been going great guns restoring an aging Second World War tank to its former glory.
And now the hulking military machine is being shipped back home to Holland today to take pride of place at a Dutch military museum.
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The 30-tonne Sherman tank has spent the last few months being spruced up at TEi Ltd after being brought to West Yorkshire from the Groesbeek
National Liberation Museum in the Netherlands.
TEi's Training and Development manager Mick Heatlie told the YEP: "We
took it to pieces because it was falling apart from the inside. Then, after replating it, was all put back together in the workshop and it looks great.
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"I was in the army for 25 years so I've seen a few tanks and this one looks fantastic now."
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Work on the massive war machine was carried out with the help of 22 apprentices at the firm, who normally specialise in maintenance for the power generation and petrochemical industries.
Giving the tank a facelift was the idea of contract engineer Bob Gregory, a member of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, an historic squadron of the Territorial Army.
They regularly take part in displays with military vehicles.
Mr Heatlie said: "The tank will look brilliant on display in Holland.
It's been great practice for the young lads and it's been really interesting for them doing something different."
Shermans were used by the United States during the Second World War and more than 50,000 units were produced.
Its chassis served as the basis for numerous other armoured vehicles.
In the UK the tanks were given the name Sherman after Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
This was due to the British practice of naming their American-built tanks after famous American Civil War generals.
The British name then found its way into common use in the US.
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Weather for Leeds
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
