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.
The collection has around 200 items, including more than 130 vehicles, of which 88 are tanks.The majority of the collection is of German, American and British origin, with a smaller number of vehicles from, Japan, France, and Russia. The owner of the collection, Kevin Wheatcroft, has been collecting military vehicles for over 40 years.
The collection is perhaps notable for having a number of extremely valuable and rare Second World War-era German military vehicles, including a number of Panther tanks, one of which is close to full restoration. A number of rare Tiger tanks, both I and II as well as StuG assault guns, Panzer III’s, and a Panzer IV tanks.
Below is an update of what the collection has been up and you can follow the Wheatcroft Collection on Facebook
You’ll never believe what we found in this quaint old barn, believe it or not there were 8 Sherman radial engines. After completing the purchase, the engines were transported by the Collections restoration partner, Matthieu Dumias of Military Classic Vehicles. On closer inspection once back at his workshop, they were all found to be early C1 radials.
There is now a restoration programme in place for all 8 engines, plus a number of engines that we had already got in stock. Matthieu and his skilled team will then embark on a restoration programme of 10 Sherman tanks for The Wheatcroft Collection utilising the correct engine for each application. We believe this to be a first and once completed, will form part of a 15 strong Sherman collection with an example of all the major variants. Keep an eye on this site for constant restoration updates.
The Wheatcroft Collection taking delivery of a 5cm KwK cannon for its second Panzer III. There are still a few more bits missing from this project but once complete we will start the restoration.
The Mercedes 170 VK has been successfully delivered, and the Mercedes 230 Cab B has been test driven around the open countryside around Berlin. A progress report on the Mercedes 770K and the Kevin and Tony are back on the road again. I hope you enjoy these photos, personally I cannot wait to see the 230, the restoration looks stunning.
Thank you Peter Spillner and your team at Rosenow Restaurierung.
Stripping the tracks off Erica, one of The Wheatcroft Collection’s Panzer IV’s, in order to make her more movable in our yard as we have recently doubled our yard space. We are now creating more covered storage. Readers might recognise Erica for her fleeting role in the opening shots of the film, Fury.
Kevin and Tony collected some parts for our Stuka project which they delivered to the workshop building the aircraft. Parts included suspension legs, wheels, engine cover, propeller boss and tail section. Next stop……Blighty.
Four pieces returned to the UK after a long term loan to Arquebus Krigshistorisk Museum. They include an IF8 R12 and R35 BMW, and a German folding parabike. They are now safely stored at The Wheatcroft Collections Head Quarters.
This eagle with a wing span of over 1.5m was recently collected by Kevin and Alex. It was originally discovered lying where it had been hidden in 1945, beneath the wooden floorboards of a house in Poland. It will now join The Wheatcroft Collection’s other Third Reich eagles.
Two of The Wheatcroft Collection’s restorations were completed recently and delivered back to the UK. The black VWBeetle (restored by Jacek Krajewski and his team at WW2VW.com) is a type 60 from 1942 and it is the second oldest production Beetle that has survived.
The blue one (restored by Tomasz Sobkowiak), is a type 11 from 1946.
These are both superb examples and have had first class restorations, we are proud to have them in our Volkswagen collection. Thank you Jacek Krajewski, ww2vw.com and Tomasz Sobkowiak.
Two of The Wheatcroft Collection’s VW Schwimmwagen’s went for complete restoration recently to Jacek Krajewski and his team at ww2vw.com. This is them being loaded for their trip. The one at the rear also had a role in the feature film Fury.
Two M10 guns extracted from long term storage, destined for the collections two M10’s that are currently under restoration.
Back from our latest trip to La Gleize and Europe and great to have finally met David Rogers (King Tiger making a great backdrop), which resulted in our first deal together. Now unloading the van from a very successful trip.
On a recent pickings trip, a chance conversation in a village pub led to Alex and I meeting an old road worker who told us of his task as a young man in back filling old bomb craters. Some of these craters he informed us were now on a disused and bypassed road. After gaining permission from the landowner, we immediately started excavations. Our in initial findings were quite unbelievable resulting in these King Tiger, Panther and Sherman parts.
The Collection is proud to have discovered this photograph showing the dismantling of Tirpitz and you can see clearly the method of construction is exactly the same as the table we showed to you earlier on our Facebook site. Amazingly we are still being offered remnants of this once proud war ship.