The Largest Tank EVER Built | History's Greatest Machines with Dolph Lundgren (S1)

[00:00:00]Imagine standing on the walls of your city in the 4th century BCE. Suddenly, [music] a massive tower appears. It's moving toward you. It's loaded with weapons, >> [music] >> and it's 12 stories tall.

[00:00:16]>> It's 323 BCE.

[00:00:18]>> [music] >> Alexander the Great is dead in Babylon.

[00:00:21]No heir is ready to take his place. His empire, which stretches from Greece to India, [music] falls apart almost instantly.

[00:00:28]>> Alexander's former generals carve up the empire. [music] They create shaky alliances that rarely last, and one general, Demetrius I, is getting very restless.

[00:00:40]>> That's where Rhodes comes in.

[00:00:42]>> The island of Rhodes is a jewel of the eastern Mediterranean. It's tremendously rich. It's strategically located, and it's an ally of Ptolemy of Egypt, one of Demetrius's chief rivals.

[00:00:54]>> Rhodes merchants control grain routes, maritime trade, naval bases. If Demetrius can take Rhodes, he controls the sea.

[00:01:03]>> But Rhodes is not an easy target.

[00:01:05]>> It has a number of foreign allies that are prepared to send troops [music] and supplies. It has a sizable navy, and it also has, as any well-fortified city does in this era, large, impressive walls.

[00:01:18]>> The city has tall watchtowers to keep an eye out. These deep [music] moats which slow down anyone trying to get too close. They have archers positioned along the walls. This is a tough place to take. Demetrius has a siege tower called the Helepolis, the taker of cities.

[00:01:36]>> It's a wooden tower that lets the attackers have the high ground. Its walls shield the soldiers as they fire their weapons, making it harder for the defenders to land a hit.

[00:01:46]>> But to take Rhodes, the Helepolis needs to be bigger, much bigger. Demetrius wants to scale up this machine so that its mere presence will terrify Rhodes into surrender.

[00:01:58]>> Demetrius tells Greek engineer Epimachus to build the largest [music] siege tower the world has ever seen.

[00:02:04]>> Epimachus takes the original concept of the Helepolis from 30 years earlier >> [music] >> and he's going to upgrade its dimensions, give it some more armor, and add a bunch of the latest and greatest weapons.

[00:02:18]>> When Epimachus rolls out the new Helepolis, it dwarfs everything else on the battlefield.

[00:02:25]>> This thing is 130 ft tall and 65 ft wide.

[00:02:29]It's the biggest siege machine ever built during the ancient period.

[00:02:34]>> It's mostly made of wood, but one of the major innovations is Epimachus covers the wood with iron plates to shield it from fire and enemy attacks.

[00:02:43]>> The size of this thing, plus its iron plates, means it is heavy. It weighs 320,000 lb and [music] it takes 3,000 400 men to move it into its place on its [music] eight 15-ft tall wheels.

[00:03:02]>> It's split into nine levels, each packed with weapons. At the bottom are the battering rams, as well as a pair of huge catapults that can hurl a 180-lb projectiles. [music] From there, you got a 60-lb catapult and then three more of the same size on the floor above that. The rest of the floors each have smaller catapults that can fire 30-lb shots and openings for troops to fire arrows and bolts at the enemy.

[00:03:28]>> The only way to put it to the test is by taking it to the battlefield.

[00:03:32]>> Just picture of the Helepolis moving toward the city walls.

[00:03:36]>> It's the moment of truth.

[00:03:38]>> The new and improved Helepolis subjects them to a non-stop barrage from its catapults. The goal is to breach a wall, but it needs to get a little closer.

[00:03:48]>> Of course, the defenders of Rhodes see the Helepolis as their greatest threat.

[00:03:53]They concentrate all of their defensive strength against it.

[00:03:57]>> As the machine grinds closer to the city walls, the Rhodians unleash a surprising tactic that could stop it in its tracks.

[00:04:07]>> You know what an island city under siege has a lot of? Seawater, mud, and raw sewage. So, that's what they pour on the ground outside of their walls, and it turns the area into a muddy, [music] disgusting mess.

[00:04:21]>> The tower, thought to be an indestructible super weapon, grinds to a halt.

[00:04:26]>> It's bogged down in, let's be polite and call it mud. Demetrius is [music] left with no choice. It's too heavy to move forward, too heavy to move backwards. It pains him, but he has to leave it behind.

[00:04:39]Demetrius and his army retreat.

[00:04:43]>> 10 years after the siege ends, Rhodians repurpose fragments of the battle into something truly larger than life.

[00:04:52]>> They melt down the weapons left behind, including the Helepolis' [music] iron plates. They sell the rest of the equipment, and with the money and the melted metal, they build a monument [music] to their victory, the 107-ft tall statue called the Colossus of Rhodes, [music] one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

[00:05:11]>> So, in a twist of history, the greatest siege engine ever built, the machine designed to destroy Rhodes, actually [music] bankrolls >> its most famous monument.

[00:05:22]>> Most giant machines are invented to do big jobs and solve big [music] problems.

[00:05:26]But, some are made just have a little fun, like the new kind of truck built by an off-roader in the 1980s that ended up igniting a monster craze.

[00:05:39]>> On April 21st, 1981, contractor Bob Chandler and a couple of his friends take a pair of junk cars out to a field outside of St. Louis.

[00:05:48]>> Bob is curious. What would happen if he got into his insanely large custom Ford pickup truck and decided [music] to drive over some cars?

[00:05:59]>> This is an entirely out there idea. No one's done this before.

[00:06:04]>> As you watch, you're seeing all of the hallmarks of this trend that you know to be about monster trucks. This massive thing driving over cars, crushing them like beer cans.

[00:06:16]>> Bob has no idea how much of an impact [music] this video will have on American culture.

[00:06:21]But rewind six years earlier when Bob buys a truck.

[00:06:28]>> In 1975, Bob [music] heads to a dealership in St. Louis and buys a brand new Ford F250 XLT 4x4.

[00:06:36]>> Bob's a regular guy, a construction contractor. He's kind of guy that likes a challenge, [music] likes to do it himself. If he sees something goes, "Ah, it's not going to work." He thinks, "I can make it work."

[00:06:47]>> Bob decides he's going to make a truck like no one's ever seen.

[00:06:52]>> But he's frustrated by the lack of access to parts in St. [music] Louis.

[00:06:56]So, he decides not just to build up his truck, but to build a business. So, he teams up with his neighbor to launch Midwest Four Wheel Drive.

[00:07:04]>> Bob keeps building and rebuilding, making a bigger [music] and stronger version of his custom F250.

[00:07:13]>> What Bob creates is the first monster truck. A machine bigger, stronger, and tougher than anything on or off the road.

[00:07:22]>> Bob drops a massive 460 cubic inch V8 under the hood of this F250. But then he realizes, "These tires aren't going to do anything with that. It's way too much power. It's twice the power the truck had." So, what's he do? He puts on some 48-in tractor tires, three times the size of the original wheels and tires.

[00:07:43]>> Bob rips out the undercarriage from his truck and replaces that with a 2 and 1/2 ton undercarriage from an army vehicle.

[00:07:52]He now has a 9-ft tall Frankenstein of a truck. One of the employees at the shop jokes that Bob has a big foot on the accelerator.

[00:08:02]The name sticks and eventually becomes the nickname for Bob's giant truck.

[00:08:08]>> Bigfoot becomes how Chandler markets his business. He enters it in tractor pulls across the Midwest. The truck is a novelty at best. But then, Bob comes up with that stunt that changed the game.

[00:08:22]The car crush test.

[00:08:23]>> The car crush [music] video that Bob and his boys shot, it's shown on a loop in his shop and customers just can't get enough of it.

[00:08:30]>> But people start talking and pretty soon [music] promoters are approaching Bob asking for him to come to their events to do that in front of a crowd.

[00:08:39]Suddenly, this looks a lot like a great business idea.

[00:08:42]>> And with every appearance, the word grows and grows until the performance that puts Bigfoot over the top.

[00:08:53]In 1983, Bigfoot rolls into the Pontiac Silverdome.

[00:08:58]>> 72,000 fans jam the seats. That is an NFL-size [music] crowd eager to see Bigfoot perform.

[00:09:08]And when Bob mashes [music] the throttle, the result is mind-boggling.

[00:09:15]This sort of backyard stunt has become a cultural phenomena.