bovington tank museum Archives - Page 13 of 20

Coventry Armoured Car

The Coventry armoured car was a British four wheel drive (4 × 4) armoured fighting vehicle developed at the end of the Second World War as a potential replacement for the lighter Humber and Daimler armoured cars.

This Coventry Armoured Car was on display at Bovington.

The Coventry was an advanced design and featured a similar layout to the more compact Daimler, but with a more conventional suspension and drive system. It included duplicate driving controls to allow rapid disengagement in combat.

Some Coventry Armoured Cars were sold to France and later saw action against the Viet Minh during Indochina War.

S-Tank

S-Tank at the tank museum at Bovington with anti-HEAT slat armor on the front.

The Stridsvagn 103 (Strv 103), also known as the S-Tank, is a Swedish post-World War II main battle tank, designed and manufactured in Sweden.[3] It was developed in the 1950s and was the first main battle tank to use a turbine engine and the only mass-produced tank since World War II to dispense with a turret. It has an unconventional design with a unique gun laying process: it is turretless with a fixed gun traversed by engaging the tracks and elevated by adjusting the hull suspension. The result was a very low-profile design with an emphasis on survivability and heightened crew protection level. Strv 103s formed a major portion of the Swedish armoured forces from the 1960s to the 1990s, when it was replaced by the Leopard 2 variants Stridsvagn 121 and 122.

QinetiQ Plastic ‘Tank’ Advanced Composite Armoured Vehicle Platform ACAVP

The QinetiQ Plastic ‘Tank’ Advanced Composite Armoured Vehicle Platform on display at Bovington.

As well as many tanks from the First World War and the Second World War there are also some experimental and prototype tanks at the museum as well, like this QinetiQ.

Light Tank M5A1 Stuart Mark VI

The M3 Stuart, officially Light Tank, M3, was an American light tank of World War II. An improved version entered service as M5. It was supplied to British and other Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. into the war. Thereafter, it was used by U.S. and Allied forces until the end of the war.

This Light Tank M5A1 Stuart Mark VI is at the Tank Museum at Bovington.

AC1 Sentinel

The AC1 Sentinel was a cruiser tank designed in Australia in World War II in response to the war in Europe, and to the threat of Japan expanding the war to the Pacific or even a feared Japanese invasion of Australia. It was the first tank to be built with a hull cast as a single piece, and the only tank to be produced in quantity in Australia.

The few Sentinels that were built never saw action as Australia’s armoured divisions had been equipped by that time with British and American tanks.

This Sentinel at the Tank Museum in Bovington was one of three not disposed of by the Australian government at the end of the war.

Type 95 Ha-Go light tank

The Type 95 Ha-Gō was a light tank used by the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War, at Nomonhan against the Soviet Union, and in the Second World War. It proved sufficient against infantry but, like the American M3 Stuart light tank, was not designed to combat other tanks.

This one was on display at Bovington.

The French Fourth Republic used leftover Japanese military equipment from the Japanese invasion of French Indochina. An ad-hoc unit of French and Japanese armour including the Type 95 Ha-Go light tank called the ‘Commando Blindé du Cambodge’ was created and this unit participated in the early stages of the First Indochina War.

Battlegroup Afghanistan

The men of the Royal Armoured Corps have been involved in some of the fiercest fighting since World War Two. Now they tell their story. Explore a recreated Forward Operating Base, experience the living conditions of the modern soldier. See a range of new vehicles used in Afghanistan.

Battlegroup Afghanistan was a exhibition at the Tank Museum at Bovington.

Scimitar Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle under cover.

This is a BvS 10 (known as the Viking All-Terrain Vehicle) was developed by Hagglunds Vehicle (now BAE Systems Hagglunds) for the UK Royal Marines.

Currenly on loan from the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group (ASG), the Tank Museum’s Viking exhibit is the second of the two original pre-production BvS 10 which were extensively trialled by the Royal Marines for 12 months from mid-2001. As well as fitting the bar armour, wire cutter and a Mark II Platt Mount protected weapons station (kindly supplied by the Royal Marines ASG), Tank Museum Workshop staff have modified aerials, added IR lights, stowage etc. and repainted and extensively upgraded the original pre-production BvS 10 to look like a Royal Marine ASG Viking Mk I in contemporary service in Afghanistan.

This Panther Command and Liaison Vehicle (CLV) is shown with the damage it incurred from an IED.

A total of 401 Panthers were delivered to the British armed forces by summer 2009. Panther CLVs were built during 2006-09 and replaced a range of vehicles that were reaching the end of their operational lives.

Guy Armoured Car

This Guy Armoured Car was at Bovington.

The Guy Armoured Car was a British armoured car produced in limited numbers during Second World War. The car saw limited action during the Battle of France.

The manufacturer had insufficient capacity for production of the armoured car alongside their artillery tractors, so the design and construction techniques were passed to Rootes and used as a basis for the Humber Armoured Car.

Six cars were sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), but were lost when France fell to the Germans. Four cars, two each with the 12th Lancers and 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry, had their guns removed and additional seats fitted in 1940 for use in the Coats Mission to evacuate King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret in the event of German invasion.

The Coats Mission was a special British army unit established in 1940 for the purpose of evacuating the Royal family in the event of a German invasion of Britain during the Second World War.

I have been thinking about creating a game based on the Coats Mission with an assault by German Paratroopers in an attempt to capture the Royal Family.

Cruiser, Mk I (A9)

The Tank, Cruiser, Mk I (A9) was a British cruiser tank of the interwar period. It was the first cruiser tank: a fast tank designed to bypass the main enemy lines and engage the enemy’s lines of communication, along with enemy tanks.

Designed by Sir John Carden of Vickers-Armstrongs the prototype of this tank appeared in 1936. It was designed originally as a Medium Tank with the official designation A9 but was described as a Cruiser Tank when it entered production in 1937. In addition to light tanks for reconnaissance the idea was to build infantry tanks for infantry support and cruisers to fulfil the cavalry role. A cruiser tank was therefore intended to be fast and lightly armoured.

SdKfz 251/8 half track

The Sd.Kfz. 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251) half-track was a World War II German armored fighting vehicle designed by the Hanomag company, based on its earlier, unarmored Sd.Kfz. 11 vehicle. The Sd.Kfz. 251 was designed to transport the Panzergrenadier (German mechanized infantry) into battle. Sd.Kfz. 251s were the most widely produced German half-tracks of the war, with at least 15,252 vehicles and variants produced by seven manufacturers.

This Sd.Kfz. 251 was on display at Bovington. It was captured by British forces in the desert. One of the pictures taken after its capture shows a barrel strapped to its right exterior. It has a special step near the rear doors that identifies it as an ambulance.

I previously published on the blog a photo of the OT-810 at Duxford. The OT-810 is a post war production copy of the German World War Two Sd.Kfz 251 half track.

I have a 15mm Flames of War versions on my workbench: