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INLSA<\/p>\n
Howard Prothero, left, and Gerry Nell try out the model of an army tank they helped build to draw crowds to a fundraiser for ex-servicemen in frail care. Picture: Jacques Naud\ufffd<\/p>\n
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Far from the North African battlefields of World War II, a Bren Gun Carrier army tank sits parked in a driveway in the Durban suburb of Queensburgh. <\/p>\n
But passersby need not be startled by the .50 calibre Browning machine gun pointing towards the road, because it is only a life-size model and the \u201cgun\u201d is made from wood. The tank was built to raise funds for retired military men in need of frail care. <\/p>\n
Howard Prothero, 59, a member of the Memorable Order of Tin Hats (Moths), and eight others worked on the tank for 18 months. <\/p>\n
All that remains is the test drive and final tweaks, so that come October it will be a major drawcard at the Flame Lily Park f\u00e9te, in aid of a local home for former servicemen. <\/p>\n
Prothero is hoping that children will scramble for a free ride in the tank, which is powered by a Datsun 1 800 engine. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you keep the children happy, their parents will stay (at the f\u00e9te) longer,\u201d the former Rhodesian and British soldier said. \u201cWe won\u2019t exceed 8km\/h, although in theory it should reach 30km\/h or 40km\/h.\u201d <\/p>\n
Prothero said he had decided on the British-developed Bren Gun Carrier, which was used mainly in the deserts of North Africa against the Germans during World War II for the project, because it had space for passengers. <\/p>\n
He estimates the tank weighs 750kg. Although he paid some of the bill, fortunately most of the material needed for its construction was donated. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to beg, borrow and steal,\u201d fellow Moth and boilermaker Gerry Nell, 58, added. <\/p>\n
Asked if he had any engineering qualifications, Prothero said his experience in making wheelchairs had come in handy. <\/p>\n
The idea behind the Moths, who have 2 500 members in KwaZulu-Natal alone and are celebrating their 85th anniversary next month, had always been for ex-servicemen to support each other, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the Flame Lily Park retirement home, where many Moths live, there are about 100 ex-servicemen in frail care which costs about R5 000 a month each,\u201d Prothero said. <\/p>\n
After the f\u00e9te, Flame Lily Park, and not his driveway, would become home to the tank. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t belong to me. We\u2019re just a bunch of crazy guys who decided to build a tank and use it for a good cause,\u201d Prothero said. – Daily News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Howard Prothero, left, and Gerry Nell try out the model of an army tank they helped build to draw crowds to a fundraiser for ex-servicemen in frail care. Picture: Jacques Naud\ufffd Far from the North African battlefields of World War II, a Bren Gun Carrier army tank sits parked in a driveway in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-9762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}