Bovington’s world-beating tank museum
Bovington’s museum is the ancestral home of the tank
JUDGING BY THE contents of the car parks at Bovington Tank Museum, many car enthusiasts like tanks, too.
Bovington was the main training ground for tanks during World War One. At the end of hostilities, several surviving examples were returned to the fields around the current museum. The idea was to use them to educate new Tank Corps soldiers about the development of their mounts.
The author Rudyard Kipling is said to have visited Bovington in the 1920s, where he made the suggestion that important tanks should be saved for the nation. The tank was a British invention, though Leonardo da Vinci takes credit for coming up with the idea. That said, the ancient Roman testudo, or ‘tortoise’, in which soldiers marched within and under a barrier of shields, shouldn’t be forgotten.
Following Kipling’s suggestion, some significant tanks were moved into a shed. This became the basis for the breathtaking museum that we have today.
During World War Two some of the tanks were dragged out to act as static defences against possible invasion, while some others were scrapped for their urgently needed materials. After the war a formal museum was opened and it quickly proved very popular.
Captured enemy tanks were donated to the museum and some were even returned to Germany, to help the establishment of a tank museum there. Meanwhile Bovington grew steadily, culminating in a £16-million improvement scheme ten years ago.
On entry you venture past the WW1 German machine-gun nest in the foyer to the vast halls, containing around 300 vehicles in what is
regarded as the best museum of its type in the world. There are unique exhibits such as Little Willie, the world’s first tank, so secret that the name ‘tank’ was used to hide its real purpose when being transported.
The ‘Trench Experience’ features a walk through realistically recreated trenches to find the only remaining Mark 1 tank, mud-spattered and looming above you to give an indication of the fear that the machines must have created. In these tanks the crews were exposed to the heat and fumes of an engine standing unprotected in the main body, while it lumbered along at 3mph. Germany responded with the Sturmpanzerwagen.
Despite its 200bhp, this 30-tonne tank couldn’t even keep up with the infantry.
The range of vehicles is vast, from the 1909 Hornsby tractor that was the first tracked vehicle to be used by the British Army, through all the WW1 developments, the little Renault FT-17, which was the first to have a rotating
turret, the dreaded Tigers, the legendary Russian T-34 and right up to machinery used in Afghanistan and other modern theatres of war. Major-General Hobart’s World War Two ‘funnies’ (tanks modified for special roles) are celebrated, and Bovington has probably the only functioning example of a Tiger 1.
The Vehicle Conservation Centre includes a reserve collection of many vehicles never seen on formal display, while tracked Land Rovers feature among the ranks of armoured vehicles.
There is an excellent museum shop, along with a café and a larger restaurant. These lead to the outside viewing area where tanks frequently demonstrate their abilities. Check the museum website for special days such as Tankfest. Bovington Tank Museum, Wareham, Dorset BH20 6JG. Open daily 10am-5pm, 6pm July and August. Adult £14, children £9, special family rates available. Lower prices online. Admission is re-usable for a year.