Fury tank to roll 75 years after capture

A tank which starred in the hit Brad Pitt film Fury will be rolling on its tracks once more – exactly 75 years after it was captured.

Tiger 131, the only working example of a Tiger I tank in the world, starred alongside one of the museum’s other tanks, a Usmade Sherman M4, in the 2014 Hollywood blockbuster withpitt,shialabeouf and Logan Lerman.

David Willey, curator of the Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, said a significant amount of work goes into keeping the Tiger running, and it is extremely fragile and liable to faults.

During the war, it took ten hours of maintenance for every hour the Tiger ran – now it takes the museum staff and engineers an astonishing 200 hours.

The Tiger tank was a formidable weapon introduced by the Nazis, and the capture of 131 allowed the allies to understand exactly what had been unleashed.

Tiger 131 was captured 75 years ago when it was struck by a Churchill tank with a lucky shot that jammed its turret in the Tunisian desert in 1943, prompting its crew to flee.

Mr Willey said: “To have this tank working after 75 years is testament to the skill, knowledge and dedication of our staff.”