The final entry to my little jaunts by rail into the English countryside is finally up - this time, I was down at the sleepy little town of Wool, and the Bovington Tank Museum located there. It's a very impressive collection of tanks - some of which are unique, and the last of their kind remaining in the world. This is particularly so of some of the German tanks they have there - owing to production difficulties (primarily caused by being bombed round the clock by Allied bombers) the Germans never built that great a number of tanks, and when you lose a war, most of your tanks tend to get destroyed in the process.
The above quote that entitles this entry is courtesy of "Smiling Heinz" Guderian by the way - Germany's finest tank commander during WW2 - or
Panzers as he would have referred to them.
What I've done is listed the tanks chronologically in the photos, and as usual there'll be a little bit of background blurb beneath each one.
This is a Mark II British tank - one of the first ever tank designs. Tanks were first invented during WW1, and saw action in 1916 and 1917 at battles such as Cambrai. The tank was originally conceived as an infantry support weapon, an armoured vehicle that could break through the barbed wire, deflect the machine gun bullets fired by the enemy and provide valuable cover for the infantry to advance behind. Hence the lethargic top speed (some 8 mph), since it was never anticipated that the tank would have to outrun infantry. Although tanks saw some success during the war, they were far from being the groundbreaking weapon of WW2. Most Generals, while appreciating the value of tanks in protecting infantry, could not envision them ever playing anything more than a supporting role on the battlefield.
This British Matilda tank continued in much the same vein as the tank above - again, it was designed solely as an infantry support vehicle. The most notable change is in the appearance - it didn't take long for a turret mounted on top of the hull to become the norm in tank design. Having the guns fire from the side of the hull as in the Mark II shown above limited their field of fire, and also meant that if one gun was knocked out, that particular side of the tank was defenceless. Having a gun mounted in a rotating turret enabled a 360 degree arc of fire, meaning the tank could defend itself from any direction.
The Matilda saw service in WW2, primarily in the North African battlefield. By 1942 however it had been phased out, as newer, faster and more heavily armed tanks had become available. Although the Matilda possessed very strong armour, it was too small to mount a heavy enough gun to punch through most German tanks after 1941, and the armour made it very slow as well. Speed (or lack thereof) increasingly became a liability in WW2, as tanks quickly became the pre-eminent means of waging war, and as the spearhead of the advance, needed to be able to move quicker and faster than before.
This British A10 Cruiser, developed around the same time as the Matilda, was one attempt to solve the issue of speed vs armour. Unlike the Matilda, which piled on the armour plating at the expense of speed, the A10 eschewed armour in favour of speed. These tanks, known as "Cruiser" tanks, were fast indeed for tanks, but the lack of armour meant they were not much use in a stand up fight against other tanks. Again, these tanks also fought mainly in the North African desert, and also by 1942 had been phased out due to obsolescence. Although they had enjoyed success against the poor quality Italian tanks during 1940, the arrival of the more heavily armoured and gunned German tanks in 1941 quickly made the A10 and it's brethren a liability in battle.
This American Grant tank combined elements of WW1 and WW2 tank design, as you can see. The tank was designed to be able to field both a 75mm main gun (shown in the side casemate) as well as a smaller machine gun mounted in the turret above it. Although ungainly, the design proved surprisingly effective. It served primarily in the North African desert, as well as in campaigns in Sicily and Italy during 1943 and 1944.
This tank should be instantly familiar to anyone who knows anything at all about tanks - the famous Sherman tank is probably the most recognisable tank ever made, and certainly one of the most numerous ever produced. This tank was the mainstay of the American and British armies from 1942 until the end of WW2, and was produced in the tens of thousands. The design was based upon the realization on the part of the Allied High Command that they could not outbuild the Germans in terms of tank quality, so they would outbuild them in numbers instead. The Sherman was much lighter, and lesser armoured than the German behemoths, but the advantage of numbers meant that the Allies could usually throw in 5 Shermans to every 1 German tank in the field. And if the Germans proved too strong, the Allies had complete control of the air anyway, meaning bombs could be dropped all over any German tank that didn't want to withdraw.
You'll notice also that this tank is actually taken "on the move" rather than sitting inside the museum building - the reason for this is that the museum maintains several of these tanks in working order, and runs them around a field 3 times a week to put on a show, complete with pyrotechnics and whatnot.
Although the Allies were always behind the Germans in terms of overall tank quality, the British still managed to produce several tanks that had sufficient armour to survive most of the German firepower, even if their own guns weren't up to damaging the Germans in reply.
This tank is a British Churchill, and it was renowned for it's immensely strong and thick frontal armour, capable of deflecting almost all German tank rounds. The reason the British produced tanks like the Churchill was that by 1944 British manpower reserves were stretched to the limit, and they simply could not afford to lose troops at the rate they were with the Sherman.
But enough about the Allies. What of the Germans - these fearsome tanks capable of outgunning and outfighting the Allies finest? Wonder no longer.
The Tiger. Like the Sherman, one of the most famous tanks of the war, if not the most famous of all time. This tank, when it first appeared, struck fear into the Allied tank crews. It was considerably larger than anything the Allies possessed - weighing almost twice as much as the Sherman. It's frontal and side armour could easily deflect the standard 75mm rounds the Sherman, Grant and Churchill were armed with, unless the Allies closed to within a range of 400 metres. Given that the Tiger could knock out the Shermans at a range of 2.5 km, it's easy to see the advantage it possessed. The principle advantage was derived from it's gun - the equally legendary 88mm gun.
The 88 millimetre, or "88" as it was simply known started out life as an anti-aircraft gun. The Germans however soon realised it could also be used to great effect as a fixed anti-tank gun, simply by lowering the barrels down to ground level and firing at tanks instead of planes. When the Tiger was developed in 1942, the Germans equipped it with the 88, and the legend was born.
This Tiger is the last of it's kind that is still in working order - there are other Tigers left in the world, but not many. The Germans only built approximately 1100, and naturally, most of those were destroyed in the war.
This is the King Tiger - a larger variant of the Tiger. While still armed with the 88, it had a larger turret and more armour. This tank served mainly on the Eastern Front against the Russians - unlike the Americans and British, the Russians showed no qualms against designing larger tanks, and as a result, the Germans needed to build even larger tanks to outmatch them.
This King Tiger has it's hull coated with a fibreglass based paste (you may be able to notice the irregularities under the paint) which was designed so that infantry hiding in trenches could not attach magnetic mines to the tank. This was a favourite pasttime of the Russians.
This brute is the Tiger II - one of the final attempts by the Germans to build a tank that was impenetrable to anything the Allies could throw at it. This tank weighs close to 75 tons, and is larger than most Main Battle Tanks of the modern era, giving you an idea of it's size. In addition to beefing up the armour, engine and hull size, the Germans also ditched the 88mm gun, and equipped this tank with a truly monstrous 128mm anti-tank weapon. This sort of calibre weapon was normally mounted on navy destroyers, and was used to sink ships. Using it to destroy tanks seemed almost overkill. To give you a true idea of just how big this tank is, by way of comparison, the man leaning on the track is about 1.70m tall. Make no mistake, this thing was immense, although it wasn't the largest tank that the Germans ever built.
And this is it. The Daddy of them all. This Jadgtiger surprised me for two reasons - firstly, I was stunned at just how huge it was, and also because I didn't think any had surived the war. This tank was really rare - only about 70 or so were completed, and again, almost all were destroyed. This was primarily due to the fact that they were manned by fanatical SS crewmen, who tended to blow themselves and their tank up rather than let either be captured should the tank be knocked out.
After WW2, both the Americans and British resolved that they would never again let themselves be placed in a situation whereby their armies would have to take the field in inferior tanks. In this resolve, they have been remarkably successful - due to a combination of British developed Chobham armour and the American innovation of depleted uranium tank rounds, American and British tanks are capable of deflecting almost any firepower directed at them, while also able to destroy any other enemy tank.
This is the Centurion, the first post-war British tank to put Britain's resolve to the test. This tank, while not the size of the German monsters shown previously (in fact, as mentioned, very almost no tanks ever since have reached the size of the Tiger II and Jadgtiger), did combine speed, effective armour protection and an excellent main gun to provide an excellent armoured platform. This tank served as the mainstay of Britain's tank force from the late 1940's well into the 1960's, until it was succeeded by the Chieftain.
This is the Chieftain (also shown in outdoors mode), which served as Britain's mainstay from the 1960's until the 1980's and the arrival of the Challenger. Interestingly, prior to this tank, the armies of Australia and Canada had always used whatever tanks the British government were using, what with being part of the Empire and all. However, with the advent of Chieftain, designed as it was to fight in Europe against a Soviet invasion, the Australian and Canadian governments were deterred by the sheer size and expense of the tank. Chieftain was a Main Battle Tank in the truest sense of the word, designed solely for all out war. The Aussies and the Canucks needed something a bit more versatile, and certainly something cheaper and easier to maintain. It was this tank that caused them to adopt the German Leopard tank design, which, in a curious role reversal since WW2, was now a smaller, lighter and nimbler design than the American and British tanks.
Finally, we have the Challenger I, which has itself been superseded by the Challenger II, but only as a recently as 2000 onwards, if memory serves. This is fairly indicative of a modern tank design - note the much flatter turret and angular shaped armour. This is designed to reduce the profile of the tank, making it harder to spot. The sloping armour also increases the chance that a shell will deflect off the tank, rather than penetrating through into the crew compartment.
I was somewhat disappointed not to see a M1 Abrams, but I guess that being the current tank still being used by the US Army, they're all busy in Iraq for the time being.
So there you have it. A journey through the history of the tank, from 1917 until 2007. All in all, an excellent way to spend a day.
