#THE LOST WORLD VEHICLES SERIES#

Certainly, Doyle would not have recognized much of it then again, would he have recognized a majority of the 'Sherlock Holmes' features over the years? And what would he have made of Steven Spielberg's 'borrowing' his title for the second 'Jurassic Park' film? Ultimately, any production's success or failure shouldn't be judged solely by the fidelity to the original work, but whether or not audiences accept it. Occasionally they have to fix the car with their own hands fortunately, they are very good at welding.It is easy, perhaps TOO easy, to heap abuse on this series, very loosely adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fantasy novel. Vladimir drives an old Soviet Niva four-by-four. When working for the club, they sold a German armored vehicle, an SdKfz 252, to a collector in Britain, and a Soviet heavy tank IS-2 went to a private collection in Latvia. At the time it was built it was the fastest tank. On the wheels it can go 70km/h and on its tracks 55km/h,вЂќ says Vladimir. The BT-7 the team helped bring back to life is the only working specimen in the world. The sales permit is only issued if there are more than two examples in the country. Where do these tanks go, after they have been restored? Some of them settle on plinths as monuments (practically every Belarusian town has one), while some become museum exhibits in Belarus or Russia. The KV-1 we have followed in this story was restored to help mark the 75th anniversary of KolobanovвЂ™s battle. In August 1941 the crew of the Soviet tank commander Kolobanov in a KV-1 knocked out 22 German tanks within 30 minutes after setting an ambush near the city of Leningrad. The KV-1 was feared by the Germans because its armour was too thick for their standard shells. He was absolutely right вЂ“ the BT-7 was discovered 10 metres (33ft) away from the current spring. Vladimir suggested that the tank had been blocking the spring and the water had found a new route. Older locals said the vehicle had sunk into soft ground near a spring, but nobody knew the exact location. One day, some people asked him to find and lift up a BT-7 tank, that had been stuck in the marshes since 1942. Some years ago Vladimir Yakushev worked as a collective farm engineer.

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The family, the Yakushevs are the most famous вЂњtank-huntersвЂќ in Belarus.

With photographer Anton Skyba, I was able to witness one heavy Soviet tank, a KV-1, being restored after its recovery вЂ“ and its participation in a re-enactment of a World War Two battle. One Belarusian family has been looking for tanks littered all over the countryвЂ™s vast marshes and restoring them. Now, more than 75 years after the fighting, both Soviet and German tanks are being lifted from the marshes in Belarus. Huge battles were fought, leaving the land strewn with dead bodies and ruined machines. German tanks roared across the Soviet border giving the enemy no time to recover.ДЄs the Soviets reeled under the surprise attack, the most powerful German formations swept through what is now Belarus.

When the German army attacked the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, tanks were a crucial factor in their initial success. What you wonвЂ™t find is any reference to, well, you-know-what.

YouвЂ™ll find everything from the story about the worldвЂ™s greatest space mission to the truth about whether our cats really love us, the epic hunt to bring illegal fishermen to justice and the small team which brings long-buried World War Two tanks back to life. WeвЂ™ll be revisiting our most popular features from the last three years in our Lockdown Longreads.

#THE LOST WORLD VEHICLES SERIES#

So now weвЂ™re dedicating a series to help you escape. BBC Future has brought you in-depth and rigorous stories to help you navigate the current pandemic, but we know thatвЂ™s not all you want to read.

The lost world vehicles