Earlier this month the New York Times ran a profile piece on Mark Renton of the Museum of American Armor at Long Island. The title of the article is Keeping the Tanks Rolling. Jeeps and Cannons, Too, it’s worth a read.
Article excerpt:
OLD BETHPAGE, N.Y. — The well-being of the intimidating fleet of tanks, cannons and jeeps at the Museum of American Armor on Long Island is held securely in the greasy hands of Mark Renton. Mr. Renton is the museum director, though the title might be slightly lofty. After all, he is the museum’s only salaried employee and he cares little for paperwork or administrating.
But if you need someone to drop a new motor in a Sherman tank, or build a 1940s jeep completely from spare parts, Mr. Renton is your man.
In a hangarlike building here, Mr. Renton restores and maintains one of the few operational fleets of World War II vehicles and artillery in the country. There are 45 military vehicles, and the artillery includes antiaircraft and antitank guns, although the guns no longer fire.
. This book is a follow-up to last years book 
. For those familiar with the WWI book, this new book follows the same format, although with a slightly higher page count (280) than the previous book. This is a well illustrated book, with photos, drawing or charts on every page accompanying the text. These books are both published in association with the Tank Museum at Bovington. Author David Fletcher served for many years as the Museum historian and is widely regarded as one of the most knowledgeable researchers on the topic of British armor.
In August 22 of 1917, the British Mark IV tank named “Fray Bentos” experienced the longest tank action of the war, being caught in battle for 60 hours. Commanded by Donald Richardson, a wholesale grocer who named the tank after a brand of canned meat, this tank became trapped near enemy lines during the Third Battle of Ypres. Despite almost all the crew being wounded, they were able to fight off repeated attacks by German forces. Eventually, with the crew out of water, they decided to risk an escape, running back to British lines. Remarkably, during the entire period of the action, only one crew member was killed. The crew of the Fray Bentos would be awarded for their bravery, becoming the most highly decorated tank crew of the war.
The first major archaeological dig in 100 years at the site of one of Australia’s biggest military defeats has turned up a “missing” British tank that Aussies long thought had fled the Bullecourt battleground due to cowardice.
Tank and AFV News corresponded recently with Stephen “Cookie” Sewell, co-author of the new book 
published by Osprey. Mr. Sewell was born in New York and is a retired US Army chief warrant officer and Department of the Army intelligence analyst. Trained in both the Vietnamese and Russian languages, Mr. Sewell has written numerous intelligence articles as well as many pieces on American and Russian armor. He is an enthusiastic scale model builder and the founder of the Armor Model Preservation Society in 1992. He is also a prolific reviewer of model kits and books.
by Aleksei Isaev. This is a 224 page hardcover published by Helion and Company. Mr. Isaev has written numerous books on the Eastern Front during WWII, primarily in Russian.
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