Excellent Museum and an emotional visit. One of the most amazing museums we have visited. The layout of the museum allows you to follow the "Tank Story" from the first tank Little Willy to present day Challenger 2. Along the way you get to see the history of the tank interlinked with the various theatres of war during the major conflicts of the last century.
I had wanted to visit Bovington as a young boy with one of my first Dinky toys being the famous Centurion model. My wife wanted to visit as her father was a tank driver in North Africa during WWII, which is all we new from him and a vague memory of a picture she had of him and his crew next to the tank. If we could identify the Tank maybe we could find out what regiment he was in and where he served.
As we wandered through the museum I was taking photo's while was clearly thinking about her father.
The Tank Story section was highly informative with sections on the iconic tanks making it and interesting journey through time and development of the tank. It is only when you get up close and personal with them that you realise the differing sizes and power - Sherman and Churchill vs Tiger and Panther.
Then on to the Trench experience and the transition from the Cavalry War-horse's to the WWI tanks. The settings in the trenches gave a realistic as possible look at what it was like. Along with the personal accounts of some of the men involved.
The different WWII stories were again well laid out and full of interesting information, facts and stories.
The North African section was where we spent time looking for that elusive tank in the picture. Sadly wy wife didn't recognise the tank from the picture, which could have been one of at least 3 we saw.
Needless ro say we continued and really enjoyed the rest of the Museum.
There is a great souvenir shop at the entrance and it is well worth a visit along with numerous books on the history of the tank and the battles that have been fought with them there are some great momentos to take home with you.
As we finished paying for our purchases on the off chance my wife asked if there was any way she could find out about her father. The lady at the counter was very helpful and gave us some ideas to where to search.
We still had a few weeks of our holiday left, but decided to follow up when we returned home.
The guidance we received at the Tank Museum finally paid off and my wife was able to get here Father's service record.
Her Father's statement "That he was just a tank driver" was the typical understatement by many of his generation.
He enlisted in the Cavalry of the Line in 1934 and was posted to India with the 7th Hussars. He also served in the King's Dragoon Guards and finally the 16th/5th The Lancers as part of the Royal Armoured Corps.
He went to North Africa in November 1942 and fought in the North African Campaign including some of the major battles in Tunisia. He then went to Italy, before ending WWII in Germany. The battle honours of the 16th/5th during WWII o is testament to the men who fought in it.
He was in the crews of Matilda's Valentines's and Sherman III's, but we are still not sure which one was in the picture that started all this off!!!!
After the war he was stationed at Bovington and Lulworth Camps. So we may well have walked in his foots steps at Bovington and given the men from the Lulworth Camp were drinking at the Castle Inn. There is a good chance that we order pints standing at the same bar as he did almost 80 years ago.
Many thanks must go to the staff we spoke to at the Tank Museum that allowed us to fill in his history and my wife's memory of her father, it is greatly appreciated you are all first class.
Would recommend anyone who has not been to visit the Tank Museum it holds the history of generations that were proud of their country and should be remembered always.