1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,833 AMNA NAWAZ: And now a look at one of the newest museums in the town of Stow, Massachusetts, 2 00:00:04,833 --> 00:00:07,933 housed in a space the size of an airplane hangar. 3 00:00:07,933 --> 00:00:12,033 It's home to some 50 fully restored tanks and armored vehicles. 4 00:00:12,033 --> 00:00:17,033 But the American Heritage Museum has a mission of remembrance, not glorification. 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,066 Special correspondent Jared Bowen of PBS station GBH in Boston has this story, 6 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:25,266 part of our arts and culture series, Canvas. 7 00:00:25,266 --> 00:00:29,566 JARED BOWEN: Step on to the mezzanine of the American Heritage Museum and you survey what 8 00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:35,566 seems, from a distance anyway, like a sea of overgrown toys. They are anything but. 9 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:39,266 ROB COLLINGS, President, American Heritage Museum: These are the vehicles, 10 00:00:39,266 --> 00:00:43,266 the artifacts that have the chronology of how war came about. 11 00:00:43,266 --> 00:00:48,233 JARED BOWEN: Down on the floor, staring up at these behemoths, you find a hulking 12 00:00:50,300 --> 00:00:53,433 history of war, tank after towering tank, tools of one of mankind's darkest trades. 13 00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:02,866 ROB COLLINGS: They were manned by humans, by men, and women in the case of the Soviets on the 14 00:01:05,533 --> 00:01:10,533 Eastern Front. And all of these have a remarkable story of sacrifice, of perseverance of resilience. 15 00:01:13,100 --> 00:01:16,866 JARED BOWEN: Rob Collings is the president of the American Heritage Museum, which opened in 2019. 16 00:01:18,433 --> 00:01:22,500 Most of the tanks come from the late collector Jacques Littlefield 17 00:01:22,500 --> 00:01:27,500 and are housed in a 65,000-square-foot facility spanning this country's war record. 18 00:01:29,233 --> 00:01:33,233 In terms of tanks, it moves from 1917 and the first 19 00:01:33,233 --> 00:01:37,466 mass-produced American one to the M1A1 in use today. 20 00:01:37,466 --> 00:01:41,566 ROB COLLINGS: The collection is the best in the world of these artifacts. 21 00:01:41,566 --> 00:01:45,733 There are at least a dozen they are the only examples on display in the U.S., 22 00:01:45,733 --> 00:01:49,266 and a handful are the only one of their type in the entire world. 23 00:01:49,266 --> 00:01:52,200 They're all restored, and they're running condition. 24 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:55,966 JARED BOWEN: So, almost any of these tanks could roll out of here into the field behind us? 25 00:01:55,966 --> 00:01:59,800 ROB COLLINGS: Not only can they. They do. In fact, you can hear one right now. 26 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:01,933 (LAUGHTER) 27 00:02:01,933 --> 00:02:05,133 JARED BOWEN: The source of the thunderous rumbling that interrupted our interview, 28 00:02:05,133 --> 00:02:09,933 a Sherman tank from World War II, making laps on a field behind the museum. 29 00:02:09,933 --> 00:02:14,933 ROB COLLINGS: These could land on the beaches of Normandy and drive all the way to Berlin. 30 00:02:16,966 --> 00:02:20,133 And you think about the crews at the time who were on these. These were 18-year-old kids. 31 00:02:22,500 --> 00:02:25,166 They weren't experienced. They're young boys who were scared of being there. But, also, 32 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:30,166 they had these mechanical skills coming off the farm. And it's a lot like a very large tractor. 33 00:02:30,166 --> 00:02:34,900 JARED BOWEN: In non-pandemic times, the museum typically offers demonstration weekends and 34 00:02:34,900 --> 00:02:39,900 World War II reenactments. Helping to make those happen is Dick Moran, whom we found 35 00:02:42,466 --> 00:02:45,966 nearing the end of a six-year-long restoration of a Panzer 1, produced by Nazi Germany in the 1930s. 36 00:02:48,433 --> 00:02:50,133 DICK MORAN, Restoration Laboratory Manager, American Heritage Museum: It was maneuverable. 37 00:02:50,133 --> 00:02:53,333 It was small, two-man crew. It was the best of the best at the time. 38 00:02:53,333 --> 00:02:55,900 What is really interesting, if you want to look up inside the turret, 39 00:02:55,900 --> 00:02:59,900 you can see the machine guns in here, the hatch, the sights, ammunition boxes. 40 00:02:59,900 --> 00:03:04,866 JARED BOWEN: And this is exactly where the museum often returns, to the deadly reality of war, 41 00:03:06,866 --> 00:03:11,133 to the fact that these were killing machines, not to mention literal death traps. 42 00:03:13,066 --> 00:03:15,700 Tanks were the most obvious and often easiest targets on battlefields. 43 00:03:17,633 --> 00:03:22,633 This Jumbo, which lumbered through the Battle of the Bulge, still bears the scars of bombs 44 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:28,066 and bullets. As mighty as they are, their crew rarely survived assaults. 45 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:33,966 One day, we actually went to a lecture. And this gentleman stepped up and he said: "Would you know 46 00:03:36,500 --> 00:03:40,933 the life expectancy of a tank crew?" And they said that, if you go into battle, it was 25 minutes. 47 00:03:42,566 --> 00:03:43,966 COLIN RIXON, Lead Docent, American Heritage Museum: And 48 00:03:43,966 --> 00:03:46,833 we all sank into our chairs. And we thought, wow. 49 00:03:46,833 --> 00:03:51,766 JARED BOWEN: Colin Rixon is the museum's lead docent and a veteran of the British 50 00:03:51,766 --> 00:03:56,766 Army who patrolled the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. He and a host of veterans 51 00:03:56,766 --> 00:04:01,466 doubling as docents tour visitors through exhibition highlights like the Prime Mover, 52 00:04:01,466 --> 00:04:06,466 an artillery vehicle, later driven by actor Lee Marvin in the film "The Dirty Dozen." 53 00:04:08,433 --> 00:04:12,466 They visit the Higgins boat that delivered infantry onto the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, 54 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:17,833 and the so-called Churchill Crocodile, which incinerated anything and anyone in its path. 55 00:04:19,633 --> 00:04:21,666 COLIN RIXON: This is my father's uniform 56 00:04:21,666 --> 00:04:26,500 that he wore when he was commander on a troop of Churchill Crocodiles that went ashore. 57 00:04:26,500 --> 00:04:29,233 JARED BOWEN: The personal is paramount here. 58 00:04:29,233 --> 00:04:34,233 Rixon says a steady stream of veterans now make pilgrimages to the museum with their families. 59 00:04:36,266 --> 00:04:39,733 Is it good, is it bad as they remember all of these things, seeing all of these pieces? 60 00:04:41,700 --> 00:04:44,266 COLIN RIXON: So, to many of them, it brings a story to them. It helps them, because they're 61 00:04:44,266 --> 00:04:49,266 able to talk about it now. That's the way to get over it, because you bottle it up inside you. 62 00:04:50,633 --> 00:04:52,666 JARED BOWEN: And it's where the museum leaves us, 63 00:04:52,666 --> 00:04:57,066 with five men, part of the U.S. Marine tank crew, who saw their commander, 64 00:04:57,066 --> 00:05:02,066 Marine Sergeant George Ulloa, killed in an IED explosion during the Iraq War. 65 00:05:03,866 --> 00:05:07,900 In this video, they discussed the attack in front of his now restored tank. 66 00:05:10,633 --> 00:05:13,166 MAN: It blew up. 67 00:05:13,166 --> 00:05:17,166 JARED BOWEN: It's a very cut-and-dry reminder that everything here holds a history of horror, 68 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:22,766 making this the rare museum that, in one regard, hopes to never expand. 69 00:05:24,733 --> 00:05:27,833 ROB COLLINGS: A lot of people will say coming in here, is this a museum that glorifies war? 70 00:05:29,466 --> 00:05:32,900 And by time they get to the end, they realize it's an anti-war museum, 71 00:05:32,900 --> 00:05:36,900 because to totally understand war, you will never want it again. 72 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:42,466 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jared Bowen in Stow, Massachusetts.