Bovington Tank Museum Part 3

Inevitably it was time finish the museum tour with the last unvisited area and make our way to the exit.

It was getting late and we were far beyond our scheduled time to leave for the long drive back to Scotland.

In order to do so we had to go on with the few remaining thanks and exhibitions.

First of all at the back of the War World II area there is a small area with a bar and a family seating space.

Next to it was Mr Jingles favourite tanks (and the thank on which I managed to kill him ) : The TOG II.

It's the less good looking area to be honest and really resembles a depot but still we have some nice tanks.

There is Conqueror tank, a Challenger and a Chieftain tank.

The last one of them to our great surprise, was open for a visit.

We could not miss this chance so we patiently waited for tank to be opened and together with another visitor of the museum we were lead down two narrow hatches.

Once on top Homer and I were instructed to put on a solid plastic helmet and enter the right hatch (left one if watched from the front).

Homer went in first and once he set down the main seat at the bottom of the hatch he had to slide forward to an even narrower seat: the gunner one.

I went down right behind him and found myself sitting on the commander seat.

The other guy, supposedly the loader, went in the other hatch.

Standing in the tank there was a museum guide which was waiting to explain us not only how the tank operates but also shared his personal account having been himself a member of a Chieftain crew.

We were very pleased with the visit and we would have kept asking questions if it wasn't our time was up and had to leave for the next group of people to take our place.

I only managed to take a single picture with the wide angle and was not even enough to show how the tank crew is really squeezed inside there.

As you can see my left knee is against Homer left arm.

Anyway what I can share from the tank commander perspective is that is quite hard to see anything at all from the tiny armoured slots used to look outside when the hatches are closed.

A curiosity is also that the tank , as mentioned before is NBC safe (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) and in order to prevent contaminated atmosphere to enter the tank it is kept as a constant pressure for the air not to have access to the living compartment.

Once we left the tank we went for a quick visit to the Exhibition Camp Afghanistan.

Here you can view a reconstruction of a British military base based in Afghanistan. From the barracks quarters to the vehicles like Jeeps and Tracked troop carriers.

It is excellent in giving an insight in what life is in a British base and was very interesting to be able to see the damaged vehicles either half blown by mines and scarred buy heavy gunfire.

The only problem with the area is that there are many displays with video to watch scenes from the battlefield and when they all go on at the same time they generate a cacophony which to me was quite annoying.

Left the area we moved onto the First World War Exhibition.

This are is split in two.

The first part War Horse to Horse Power depicting the development of tanks into the modern machines.

Here is possible to see the first tanks from Britain and from Germany.

Also a small collection of artillery pieces is displayed here.

Next to it is the area with the reconstruction of a typical First World War trench.

I must confess both areas are nice and well detailed but personally for the second one I had mixed feelings.

I come to the tank museum to see tanks, and especially tanks I can relate to so, despite being a very nice attraction, I left with the feeling this area was due to be seen as part of the ticket rather than an area I wanted to see as it was more related to a war museum that a tank museum.

Still I could not avoid to pay my respect to Lord Kitchener on the way out!

Once out of this exhibition was time to time to leave.

We headed to the shop to take a souvenir and head home.

I got a wristband and a little fridge magnet with a few aligned Matilda tanks on the North Africa desert.

We left the museum and slowly walked to the car taking a look at the arena where the Tankfest parade takes place.

When we finally left we headed for the exit and we immediately stopped.

In fact awaiting for us was a little surprise to send us on our way home.

The massive turret and the centurion chassis leaves no space for doubt: it's the FV4005!

The tanks is definitely massive and the exposition to the outside weather is quite visible especially at the back side facing the fence which is a bit rusty.

A picture is well worth anyway.

We jumped back into car and made our way for the motorway finally heading home.

The body was tired but the mind was still quite excited for the visit.

The main topic on the way back was related to the most interesting tank we saw and we kind of agreed we were quite impressed by a tank we did not really expected and that we subsequently decided to research on WOT: The Panther.

The engineering going in these tank was quite impressive and is a testimony to the dedication of engineers that despite having to deal with material shortage tried to produce the best tanks for their country and adapt them to face a new way of doing war.

By the time we got back home we were exhausted but this very fast visit did not satisfy the desire of knowing more and I'm quite sure that before the yearly access to the museum expires we will definitely make good use of it again.

Thanks for reading the posts!

Johnbull79 & Homer_5