Press Release

28th May 2004.

Salvage Squad Star at Show

When Salvage Squad was aired last month, showing the reconditioning of an M10 Achilles tank, Tim Nelson started immediately to track it down. His father had driven one of the vehicles and Mr Nelson was keen to reunite his father with the vehicle. After contact channel 4 and the Muckleborough Museum, Mr Nelson was led to the War and Peace Collection, who restored the tank for the programme.

Fortunately, the only known fully working M10 Achilles will be on display at the War and Peace Show, 21st - 25th July and Mr Nelson will be reuniting his father with the vehicle he drove at the show.

A sergeant in the Norfolk Yeomanry, Walter Frank Nelson joined the Territorial Army before the war and was therefore one of the first to be drafted. He was in Great Yarmouth during the testing of the M10, then was one of the crews that took the vehicles and landed at Gold Beach on D-Day with the Canadians. Unfortunately, Walter Nelson's M10 experience ended a few days later when they got knocked out by another M10! They had been mistaken for the enemy but the crew managed to escape with just one injury.

Walter Nelson spent the remainder of the war in the Suez.

The M10 Achilles vehicle appearing at the show was restored by the War and Peace team for Channel 4's Salvage Squad and its appearance at The War and Peace Show in July will be its first in public outing in Britain since the restoration. For further details and advanced tickets for the War and Peace Show please contact the Hop Farm event line on 01622 872068 or visit www.thehopfarm.co.uk or www.thewarandpeaceshow.com.

-ENDS-

Press Contact: Hollie Eastwood -The Hop Farm Country Park Tel; 01622 870809

300 dpi images available on request.

Note to editors; The Hop Farm Country Park, Beltring near Paddock Wood, Kent is situated on the A228 Paddock Wood Road, 10 minutes from M20 J4, and 30 minutes from M25 J5.