Dorset Holiday - The Tank Museum

[Horus]

Another interesting place that maybe Grandad would fancy visiting is The Tank Museum at Bovington. It has an extensive collection of Tanks from various armed forces, they even have a German King Tiger plus a large outside display arena for special events and lots of free parking. The biggest downside and disappointment was once again you could not take dogs inside, this again resulted in us seeing two dogs left in the car by their owners and they were obviously suffering from the heat, several people were very angry and called the police and had the museum put our a tanoy message for the owners to return to the vehicle. When they did they were most apologetic, but that is besides the point, many people holiday with their pets and these places are often on their list of places to visit and once there it is disappointing not to be able to visit, hence the animals being left inside vehicles. We gave the owners water for the two dogs which seemed none the worse for wear after a short walk to cool them down again.

The museum entrance with a British Challenger Battle Tank outside


The Kuwait Arena and memorial wall


Museum site map


Various tanks around the museum entrance roads

[Grandad]

Another nice little snippet H I must confess that I have never heard of The Tank Museum at Bovington. It is a fair way from where we will be staying so unlikely that I will make the trip. Thanks for telling us about it and for more excellent pictures. There certainly are more Military museums around the country than perhaps we realise.

I know I often digress when our friends here post about some new subject, and the tanks got my mind wandering in two directions. Firstly, when I was working we used to bond rubber treads on to the track elements for our military tanks.

Secondly, and this takes me back to our dear departed friend Don Blackwell, Dab17. His partner Annie's former husband Ken Small, was responsible for recovering a WWII Sherman tank from Slapton Sands in Devon in 1984 where it had lain for forty years after being sunk during a disaster when 749 US servicemen lost their lives during rehearsals for the D Day landings. The story can be found here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/arti ... ture.shtml

Sorry to go off at yet another tangent H but that is the way my mind wanders these days

[Horus]

No problem Grandad, I remember seeing a program about the tank recovery
I thought that you said you were staying near to Abbotsbury Grandad? the museum is only about an hours drive away.

[Grandad]

We are actually staying IN Abbotsbury H but I won't be doing too much driving while down there. Our only plans so far are the Abbotsbury Swannery, Norden to take the train to Swanage, top of the cliffs to view Lulworth and Durdle Dor, Lyme Regis and the coast, and anywhere that takes our fancy. Brownsea Island, Poole and Portland Bill (for old times sake ) are possibles, as are any National Trust properties in the area.

[Horus]

Don't forget to visit the Sub Tropical Gardens in Abbotsbury Grandad, well woth a visit and it has lots of seating dotted around. The Swan pub on your way in has a nice beer garden and does a good selection of food, I have left a Tenner behind the bar for you, to identify yourself just stand on one leg and recite the first ten verses of "Twa's on the good ship Venus" at the top of your voice and the barman will know its you.

I will be doing another write up of the Steam Train journey from Norden to Swanage plus a few pictures around the resort and along the pier, but if you are going to Norden it is only a stones throw to the tank museum as a slight detour if you take the A35>A352>A351 route to Corfe

[LovelyLadyLux]

Military museums can be quite interesting and I enjoyed your tank photos (although I have to admit my mind went to FISH tanks when I first read the title of your thread)

Some of those tanks are pretty darn big mothers!

[Kiya]

Horus, Something of a change for us to see with your photos & another lovely day to take them

Were the tanks given individual names or does the "BoB" in your 4th last photo mean something else ?

[Horus]

Were the tanks given individual names or does the "BoB" in your 4th last photo mean something else ?

Oh Kiya that did make me smile, but I am sorry for laughing at you, but it did seem a real woman kind of question
I dobt that the tank was called BOB and fairly certain it is a vehicle reference number to do with the local army base of BOvington, so probably T68557R BOvinton Barracks (BOB)
The other numbers and markings will denote the regiment or corp.

[Grandad]

Kiya, I imagine the BOB is part of the tanks registration number or the tank regiment code. Horus may know more. I tried to identify the Red/White/Red flag on the side but no national flag seems to match so again it might be regimental. The nearest is Peru and I am not aware that they have a tank corps

When I first looked at that tank my thoughts were' what a small turret gun', I have now noticed the larger barrel in the body of the tank and have to ask 'where does the driver sit?'

OOPs! Didn't see your post H

[Horus]

The red & white coloured flashes on the front and sides would indicate it belonging to the 19th Battalion, but tank regiments have changed considerably over the years with many being absorbed into other Regiments, most Cavalry and Lancer units were reformed as tank Corps and many were based in that local area especially Tidworth & Bovington. For example The 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, but was in fact a tank regiment It was merged into The Queen's Royal Lancers around 1993.

[Kiya]

I'm glad I'm a "real woman" .... you know I was just testing you guys know your stuff

[Horus]

I'm sure that you are all woman Kiya, no need for us to speculate

[LovelyLadyLux]

I had no idea what BOB stood for so am glad for the explanation

[Grandad]

We are actually staying IN Abbotsbury H but I won't be doing too much driving while down there. Our only plans so far are the Abbotsbury Swannery, Norden to take the train to Swanage, top of the cliffs to view Lulworth and Durdle Dor, Lyme Regis and the coast, and anywhere that takes our fancy. Brownsea Island, Poole and Portland Bill (for old times sake ) are possibles, as are any National Trust properties in the area.

I am just reading back over posts of the last few weeks and whatever my optimistic plans were at the time, we reduced it to a much more leisurely schedule with definitely no climbing up for Lulworth or Corfe. I have to conced that I can't do it any more We did pass the tank museum a couple of times but gave it a miss on this occasion. Not really Mrs G's thing.

[Horus]

Pity really Grandad as it is very interesting.