Some 75 to 80 vehicles from Littlefield’s vast motor pool will make up the core collection at the new museum. “It was a really stupid idea,” Boller says, because the Allies soon were meeting every German supertank with lightning quick columns of rolling thunder. As the war widened, he pushed the size of some Nazi tanks to 120 tons. Adolf Hitler touched off World War II by invading Poland with an armada of lightweight Panzers - also well represented in the collection - but der Fuhrer always seemed to be overcompensating for something. The heaviest and widest tank in the collection is the British Conqueror, a mighty beast at 72 tons. Most are operational, but some haven’t moved in more than a decade. Huge trucks hauled German Panzers, American-made Sherman tanks and the odd nuclear missile launcher to his hilltop ranch at a rate of one a week, forcing him to scatter some battle wagons around the 450 acre estate like armor-plated lawn jockeys. “These things stormed the beaches at Normandy,” Collings says, “and had a profound impact on the world we live in today.”Īt the time of his death from cancer in 2009, Littlefield was building his tank corps so quickly that it appeared he might be preparing to invade Palo Alto. Collings’ organization will build a 66,000 square foot military vehicle museum in Stow, Mass., with the $10 million it expects to make from the auction. “We have a tremendous amount of interest from people who have never owned even a Jeep before, who are interested in a Sherman tank or halftrack,” says Rob Collings, CEO of the Collings Foundation, to which the entire collection was donated last year. And here’s a friendly reminder to post on Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook wall: a pair of Scud missile launchers in his front yard could turn Zuck into the “Scud Stud” of social media. The Russian-made 203-millimeter Pion mobile cannon is the largest land-based gun ever built, able to lob a nuke 20 miles. A German Panzer IV has an estimated value of $2.6 million, the highest in the collection.Īuctions America declined to reveal the names of registered bidders - though Boller did say “there are some names you would know” - but if North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un is in the hair-trigger gallery this Saturday, he might be interested in three pieces that were built to launch a nuclear warhead before being demilitarized. And though there is no minimum bid required on most items, collectors will need an up-armored credit line to take home an M4 “Jumbo” Sherman tank, expected to fetch bids of about $1.6 million. The auction - open only to registered bidders - takes place Friday and Saturday at 495 Old Spanish Trail. The collection, housed in 10 large buildings at the top of a hill from which it’s possible to see the entire Peninsula, will be open to the public for viewing Wednesday and Thursday. “There are more” tanks, he says, “than I ever bothered to count.” The auction will feature upward of 80 tanks, although exactly how far upward, even Bill Boller, who has overseen the collection for the past five years, isn’t sure. Less than a year later, the standoff at Tiananmen Square between a column of Chinese army tanks and a lone man, who refused to let them pass, electrified the world.īut this week, the tank makes its triumphant return to glory - its big guns metaphorically blazing - when the majority of what is believed to be the largest collection of armored military vehicles on the planet is auctioned at the formerly private playground of collector Jacques Littlefield, a Stanford grad who turned his boyhood hobby into an obsession, and had the family fortune to make it possible. The first blow was the image of Michael Dukakis grinning as he clung to a tank turret while running for president in 1988. PORTOLA VALLEY - The tank took two direct hits at the end of the Cold War that hurt its reputation more than any battlefield defeat.
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