Bovington Tank Museum Part 1 - pre 1946

A quick photo tour of the outstanding Bovington Tank Museum. I took these pictures more than 2 years ago, so there might have been a few changes since then. The new WW1 halls weren't built then, so no pictures from there. This post is very picture heavy and covers pre-1946 tanks. I'll do another post on the more modern stuff.

If you ever get a chance to visit Bovington, I highly recommend it. If your tastes run to more simian pursuits, you can also swing by Monkey World which is nearby.

Some of the pictures are a bit blurry as the shiny surfaces of the tanks were foxing the autofocus on my normally rock solid camera-phone.

The view as you enter the main hall.....

King Tiger. A huge and imposing tank, even compared to modern giants like the Challenger and Abrahams.

Jagdpanther with a fine example of early ambush camo.

A9 cruiser tank with three turrets.

King Tiger with Henschel turret

Prototype Sherman tank - notice the three machine-guns mounted in the hull.

Concrete mobile pillbox.

Covenanteer. Only ever used in training as it's engine overheated rapidly.

Preying Mantis tank. Designed to fire over obstacles.

Jagdtiger SPG

Chafee

Panzer IV

Churchill AVRE with spigot mortar 

Crusader

Teeny tiny Italian L3/33 flame Tankett. The top of the tank was lower than my belt buckle.

Stuart

Centurion Mk1 driver Training Vehicle. The gun barrel is made of wood on this one.

Comet

The Black Prince - proposed upgrade to the Churchill with bigger engines, thicker armour and larger gun.

TOG 2 - a design by WW1 tank designers (The Old Gang - hence TOG) for a WW2 tank. It is the heaviest British tank ever built.

Australian Ram Tank

SEFOP-AP shot through a steel test plate.

Crusader

Panther

Tiger 131, the only one still running in the world as far as I know. It was captured in Tunisia after being disabled by a very lucky 6lb anti-tank gun shot jammed the turret. The shot didn't penetrate, but the heat of the impact spot-welded the turret ring to the hull, preventing it from turning.

Close up of the marks where the disabling  6lb solid shot skimmed the bottom of the barrel before hitting the gun mantlet and jamming the turret traverse ring, disabling the tank.

Grant

Cromwell

M4 Sherman

Vickers A1E1 Multi Turret Tank