bovington tank museum Archives - Page 2 of 20

German Leopard I Main Battle Tank

This Leopard 1 was on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington.

The Leopard 1 is a main battle tank designed and produced by Porsche in West Germany that first entered service in 1965. Developed in an era when HEAT warheads were thought to make conventional heavy armour of limited value, the Leopard focused on firepower in the form of the German-built version of the British L7 105-mm gun, and improved cross-country performance that was unmatched by other designs of the era.

This is a Standardpanzer Series-0, one of two pre-production Leopards supplied to Great Britain in exchange for two Chieftains.

T-62

The T-62 is a Soviet main battle tank that was first introduced in 1961. As a further development of the T-55 series, the T-62 retained many similar design elements of its predecessor including low profile and thick turret armour.

This ex-Iraqi T-62 was on display at Bovington.

While the T-62 became the standard tank in the Soviet arsenal, it did not fully replace the T-55 in export markets due to its higher manufacturing costs and maintenance requirements compared to its predecessor.

Challenger 2 V5 Prototype

This Challenger 2 prototype V5 was on display at Bovington. It was one of nine built by the Vickers company in Leeds during 1989 and 1990.

At this point Challenger 2 wasn’t certain to be the British Army’s next tank. An open competition was to be held, allowing foreign designs to be submitted.

The M1A2 Abrams, Leclerc and Leopard 2 were evaluated alongside Challenger in Spring 1991.

A combination of political and military factors led to the choice of Challenger 2.

FV101 Scorpion CVRT

The Scorpion Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (tracked) FV101 was at Bovington. Though most people would call it a light tank.

The FV101 Scorpion is a British armoured reconnaissance vehicle. It was the lead vehicle and the fire support type in the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked), CVR(T), family of seven armoured vehicles. Manufactured by Alvis, it was introduced into service with the British Army in 1973 and served until 1994.

Scorpion became the first of a whole family of fighting vehicles including Scimitar, Striker and Samaritan. It served in the Falklands and the Gulf as well as being a success on the export market. Changes in British policy, and the international situation meant that surviving Scorpions were fitted with a new weapon, the 30mm Rarden Cannon, and renamed Sabre.

It has been supplied to Belgium, the Irish Republic, Malaya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman and Venezuela.

I have some Team Yankee Scorpions, they are currently in the process of being painted as BAOR versions.

Some thoughts on the RAF Regiment Scorpion I saw at RAF Cosford.

FV4201 Chieftain MBT

The FV4201 Chieftain was the main battle tank of the United Kingdom during the three decades of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This is one on display at the Tank Museum at Bovington. A development of the Centurion, the Chieftain introduced the supine (reclining) driver position to British design allowing a heavily sloped hull with reduced height. A new powerpack and improved transmission gave it higher speed than the Centurion despite being heavier due to major upgrades to armour protection and the armament.

Still in service in the Middle East, the British Army stopped using it in 1995.

I did consider buying some for Team Yankee, but was put off by apparent issues with the smoke dischargers on the side of the turret. Certainly for a 1970s version of Team Yankee you couldn’t use the new Challenger, and would need to use the Chieftain.

More photographs of the FV4201 Chieftain at Bovington.

There was also a Chieftain on display at Duxford.

East German T-72M Main Battle Tank

After World War 2 Soviet tanks developed along logical traditional lines. In 1960 work began on a new design, the T-64, which incorporated many revolutionary and untried features but it was not a great success and in 1970 the prototype of T-72 appeared, which could be described as a simplified version of T-64. The T-72 is a family of Soviet main battle tanks that first entered production in 1971.

This T72 was on display at Bovington Tank Museum.

The Tank Museum’s vehicle is a T72M1 that was used by the former East German Army, (NVA, Nationale Volks Armee).

About 20,000 T-72 tanks have been built, and refurbishment has enabled many to remain in service for decades.

I have published an article that I wrote, which originally appeared in the January 1994 edition of Miniature Wargames. The article, entitled, It fell off the back of a lorry…. is a skirmish scenario involving gangsters, market traders as well as police and security forces in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Oh it involves a T-90 tank which is an up-armoured version of the T-72.

Ferret MkII Scout Car

This Ferret MkII Scout Car in a white UN paint scheme was on display at the Bovington Tank Museum.

This is a British post-WW2 4×4 armoured reconnaissance vehicle, crew of 2, powered by Rolls-Royce B60 6-cylinder petrol engine, armed with one machine gun.

The Ferret armoured car, also commonly called the Ferret scout car, is a British armoured fighting vehicle designed and built for reconnaissance purposes. The Ferret was produced between 1952 and 1971 by the UK company Daimler.

It was widely adopted by regiments in the British Army, as well as the RAF Regiment and Commonwealth countries.

There was a similarly painted Ferret MkII Scout Car on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Alvis Saladin

The FV601 Saladin is a six-wheeled armoured car developed by Crossley Motors and later manufactured by Alvis. Designed in 1954, it replaced the AEC Armoured Car in service with the British Army from 1958 onward. The vehicle weighed 11 tonnes, offered a top speed of 72 km/h, and had a crew of three.

Saladins were noted for their excellent performance in desert conditions, and found favour with a number of Middle Eastern armies accordingly. They were armed with a 76 mm low-pressure rifled (spin-stabilised) gun which fired the same ammunition as that mounted on the FV101 Scorpion.

Despite the vehicle’s age and dated design, it is still in use in a number of countries in secondary roles.

I wrote an article about a modern English Civil War set in the 1990s. You can easily imagine how these armoured cars would have been used for reconnaissance, keeping down unrest, and defending key installations against attack.

M48 Patton

This M48 Patton was on display at Bovington.

The M48 Patton is an American first-generation main battle tank (MBT) introduced in February 1952, being designated as the 90mm Gun Tank: M48. It was designed as a replacement for the M26 Pershing, M4 Sherman, M46 and M47 Patton tanks, and was the main battle tank of the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps in the Vietnam War.

The M48 Patton-series saw widespread service with the United States and NATO until it was superseded by the M60 tank.

Churchill Crocodile

The Tank Museum at Bovington’s British Churchill Crocodile Flame Thrower Tank is unusual from other Museums Churchill Crocodile tanks as it still has its fuel trailer.

The tank on display was the last Churchill Mark VII to be produced by Vauxhall, in October 1945. It was sent directly to the School of Tank Technology, which transferred it to the Tank Museum in 1949, with practically no mileage beyond its acceptance test. The Mark VII was the first of the factory-assembled marks with thicker armour in fulfilment of the “heavy Churchill” requirement of May 1943.

Three brigades of Churchills landed in Normandy in 1944, most with 75 mm guns, some with 6-pounders, a few with 95 mm howitzers.

15mm Flames of War Churchill Crocodile.