The Wheatcroft Collection

The Wheatcroft Collection in the United Kingdom is a large and important collection of historical softskin and armoured military vehicles. It is one of the largest private collection of military vehicles in the world.[1]

Items in the collection

The collection has around 200 items, including more than 130 vehicles, of which 88 are tanks.[2] The majority of the collection is of German, American and British origin, with a smaller number of vehicles from Norway, Japan, France, Russia and Sweden.[3] The owner of the collection, Kevin Wheatcroft, has been collecting military vehicles for 30 years.[4]

The collection is perhaps notable for having a number of extremely valuable and rare Second World War-era German military vehicles, including three Panther tanks, one of which is close to full restoration, one Panther II, two rare Tiger II (also known as "King Tiger") tanks, a Tiger 1 as well as a StuG assault gun, a Panzer III, and a Panzer IV tank.[5] The collection is also working on restoring the only surviving German E Boat.

Exhibition and events

Currently, the collection is not on view to the public. However, the intention of its owner is to eventually restore and preserve as many of the vehicles as possible, and then to make them available to the public in a museum.[4]

The collection supports two historical events in Britain, the War & Peace Show at Beltring and "Tankfest" at The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.[4] The collections expert team also restore military vehicles for other owners, including a Tiger tank for the US [6][7] and a Panther in Breda, the Netherlands.

References

  1. ↑ "Wheatcroft Collection". wheatcroftcollection.com.
  2. ↑ Preston, Alex - "The man who sleeps in Hitler’s bed" The Guardian, 24/6/2015 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/24/the-man-who-sleeps-in-hitlers-bed
  3. ↑ http://www.wheatcroftcollection.com/home.html The Wheatcroft Collection - Inventory page
  4. 1 2 3 Graham, Natalie "FT MONEY: Tanks for the memories - at a high price" Financial Times (London, England) [serial online]. 22 July 2006:7. Accessed 28 October 2012.
  5. ↑ "The Wheatcroft Collection". militarymodelling.com.
  6. ↑ "Tank Hostilities End." Daily Telegraph (London) (2011): 4. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 28 October 2012.
  7. ↑ "The Man Holding US Tiger Tanks By The Tail." Daily Telegraph (London) (2011): 5. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 28 October 2012.

External links

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