In article
<563C1B129660A542947B7DB4B3630CD4021B1D76@xch-nw-07.nw.nos.boeing.com>,
Marin Faure wrote:
> There is a remarkable museum in southern England called the
> Tank Museum. We stumbled upon it on our first trip to the UK
> in 1990. This museum has at least one copy of almost
> every tank ever produced except the latest main battle
> tanks like the M1A1 or whatever it is. They have the only
> WWI tank that is regularly driven. Most of their tanks, including
> most of the German ones like the Tigers, are operable. One
> of their most remarkable exhibits is a Centurion tank (British
> from the 1970s, I think) that has been cut in half lengthwise.
> It's exactly as if they put the thing on a bandsaw and sawed right
> down the middle. The barrel is cut in two, the engine, the transmission,
> even the driver's seat. The two halves are set up with enough space
> between them for you to walk through. This museum does not seem
> to be very well known outside of armor aficionados, but it is a huge
> setup with hundreds of vehicles. I believe it may be completely
> or partially operated by the Army, but I can't remember this for sure.
> I recall it is on a military base, or next to one.
>
The Tank Museum is in Bovingdon, Dorset on the South Coast of England. It
is on the Royal Armoured Corps "Bovingdon Camp".
The Royal Armoured Corps has a long and distinguished history going back to
the invention of the tank. The very first tanks were crewed by the Royal
Navy!
The Tank Museum is a firm favourite for children of all ages, especially
since it is possible for kids to get on and in some of the tanks.
When I first went as a child in the mid 1960s you could climb on all the
tanks and my parents have a picture of my brother dangling from the gun of
the biggest Panzer in the place!
Modern safety regulations now forbid this!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Apr 04 2001 - 18:18:06 EDT