Military History Community Loses a Great Restorer of Armor

Mk 1 · Post by **Mk 1** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:00 am

This week the community of military histororians, professional and amature, has lost its greatest and most active restorer of armored vehicles.

Jacques Littlefield passed away on Wednesday at his home. He had been struggling with cancer for some 10 years.

To read a little about him, see: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_d ... 92009.html

I am told that the shop crew put the turret on his Panther for the first time, and roled it out of the shop to the side of the road, so that the hearse carrying him could pass it as it left his house.

The Panther was Jacques' last great restoration project.

I was fortunate enough to travel in a crowd that got access to Littlefield's collection. I first became obsessed with tanks when my oldest brother took me to see the premier of "The Battle of the Bulge" in Hollywood in the late 1960s. After some fourty years of reading, studying, even dreaming about tanks, it was as if I had stumbled into a living fantasy when I was introduced to Jacques and his work in collecting, restoring, and showing his tanks.

To see more of the collection: http://www.milvehtechfound.com/

My last meeting with Jacques, this past summer:

Seated around the table, clockwise, from the bottom left:
- Ken Estes, author of "Marines Under Armor, the Marine Corps and the Armored Fighting Vehicle 1916-2000 ", and many other titles.
- Vladimir Yakubov, author of "Raising the Red Banner, the Pictoral History of Stalin's Fleet 1920-1945"
- Jacques Littlefield
- Colin, former hover craft CO and rescue diver with the Canadian Coast Guard
- Mike Steele, former master gunner in the M60A3 and M1
- C.G. Erickson, industrial welder (worked on the Panther project) and occasional amature researcher in the military archives in D.C.
- Mark 1, who was lucky enough to buy a pitcher from which this august gathering gathered some cheer.

RIP Jacques.

jb · Post by jb » Sat Jan 10, 2009 6:41 am

Mk1, Our condolences to you on your friend.

pmskaar · Post by **pmskaar** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:09 am

Hi MK1

I'm very sorry to hear about the passing of Mr. Littlefield. He was a great friend to all of us former tankers and those that were interested in tanks by his great work. Although I did not get to know him personally, I admired his vision and effort. My condolences to you Mark as well.

Pete

Panzerleader71 · Post by **Panzerleader71** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 12:27 pm

Was he one of the restorers that was featured on the show "Tank Overhaul?"

Mk 1 · Post by **Mk 1** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 2:01 pm

Panzerleader71 wrote:Was he one of the restorers that was featured on the show "Tank Overhaul?"

Yes, I believe that they did a program on Littlefield's Panther restoration project.

I suppose they might have done one or more on some of his other restorations, too. There are more than 130 AFVs and other military vehicles in the collection, including (not 1, but ) 2 SCUD launchers, and one of the original XM-1 prototypes (but that is not restored). But I don't get the Military Channel, so I have not seen all of the programs in that series.

jb · Post by jb » Sat Jan 10, 2009 6:52 pm

Mk 1 wrote:
Panzerleader71 wrote: . . . But I don't get the Military Channel, so I have not seen all of the programs in that series.
I've seen his collection on The Discovery Channel & I might say National Geographic. One of the programs showed him driving his SCUD around the property..

Panzerleader71 · Post by **Panzerleader71** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 11:21 pm

I think they also did a restore on an M18 Hellcat as well on "Tank Overhaul". I am, however, not sure if it was Littlefield's crew.

A loss to the field of 20th Century Military History to be sure.

Mk 1 · Post by **Mk 1** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:03 am

Panzerleader71 wrote:I think they also did a restore on an M18 Hellcat as well on "Tank Overhaul". I am, however, not sure if it was Littlefield's crew.

Littlefields' team did a very impressive restoration on an M18 TD that came out of the Bosnian / Serbian conflict.

You should have seen it when it first came in. It was some weird light green color with paint flaking off all over, that looked like a militia had painted it with stuff they bought at the local hardware store, and then left it out in the weather for a couple of hot summers and cold winters.

However, I don't think the Tank Overhaul episode on an M18 restoration featured this one. Could be wrong, but don't think so.

They also acquired an M36 TD in Bosnia, but it has not gone through the full restoration. As I recall it had been modified to run off of an old T-55's diesel engine.

Panzerleader71 · Post by **Panzerleader71** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 5:54 am

"...that looked like a militia had painted it with stuff they bought at the local hardware store, and then left it out in the weather for a couple of hot summers and cold winters."

Hmm, probably exactly what happend.

I think you are right about the M18. IIRC, the one I am talking about was in AZ, not CA, and you are right about the M18 above, they did a splendid job.

The one thing I was surprised to see on the show Tank Overhaul was the amount of detail, and research these guys do. I mean to mark out all the interior instruments just as they were 60 years ago. It is a detail that most people aren't going to see, and yet they put in that little extra effort...Wow.