Visited: Sunday 19th April 2009

Ralph Hart and his wife Michelle bravely hosted The son and heir, Fraulien von Natalie herself and von Peter himself for a weekend in Weymouth back in April 2009. Besides several other events that needn’t worry us here Ralph had a cunning plan to show those of us with an interest in matters military around The Tank Museum. With the cunning plan safely approved The son and heir and von Peter himself piled into Ralph’s car and a course was set to see a little bit of history in the form of some metallic military sculpture.

Living so near to the museum Ralph is no stranger to The Tank Museum AND being a WWII and modern gamer AND being in the forces (ok he’s in the navy but his father was in the army!) he is a knowledgeable guide - both of the vehicles and the museum. In fact so aware of the museum is Ralph that for a little while there was concern that one of the Tigers might not be on display but luckily it had only been moved ... without Ralph being notified. Bl**dy cheek really!  😀

The first thing a visitor sees upon entering the viewing halls is The Trench Experience, France 1916. In this area you walk through the act of signing up for active duty in WWI, past wounded being treated behind the lines, through some British trenches as some of the lads go over the top and then through some German trenches under attack by a British tank. There are light and audio effects adding to the visuals throughout and it is quite impressive to come around a corner into the German trenches and look up and see the front of a tank hovering overhead about to plunge on top of you and several terrified looking landser (if that’s the right term for German WWI infantrymen). The age of modern armoured warfare is born ... and about to squash you!!

Above: The son and heir in the wrong place at the wrong time ... again! German trench with a British tank coming over for a visit and unsportingly ignoring the barbed wire. Sadly none of the German infantrymen are in this shot. Not so sadly I took this shot twice - once without the flash (believe me it doesn’t show much) and once with. This was a real tank, not some fake made up cardboard mockup

Once through the birth of the armoured vehicle one is presented with a surprisingly (surprising for von Peter himself anyway) large number of WWI and interwar vehicles ... not that von Peter himself has any photographic evidence to back up this assertion. <sigh>

And then it was on to WWII. Starting with a diminutive Panzer I through to the slightly larger Tiger II and Jagdtiger. Armoured vehicles certainly developed - techically and size wise - during those few years of WWII. Most of von Peter’s digital rememberancing (yer what!!!) was expended on the vehicles of this vintage. If von Peter himself were to have a complaint it would be that he would have liked to have seen a few more WWII Russian vehicles to satiate his Eastern Front focus.

Next up were the post war vehicles. This even included a New Zealand marked vehicle. Once again this area lost out a little to the WWII era ‘stuff’ for von Peter himself. He’s bound to regret this in the future.

Above: The New Zealand M41 Walker Bulldog light tank. In fact this is an improved M41A1 version - go the Kiwis!

A little extra ‘inside’ information on the NZ Army M41 pictured above care of Rhys Jones:

“Its a great museum isn't it.  I was the last troop leader of the M41 that is in the museum.  It was a legacy vehicle that I had to take care of as well as our new Scorpions.  Our squadron refurbished it for the Tank Museum and another one for the Australian Tank Museum.  We got a Centurion in exchange from the Australians and a Sherman from the UK for our Army Museum in Waiouru.”.

While von Peter himself and The son and heir were nosing about and lost to reality Ralph managed to somehow get the message that they were opening up a tank for entry and a talksie. So before they knew it von Peter himself was promoted to tank commander and The son and heir was assigned to be loader and tea maker in a Chieftain main Battle Tank Mk 12. The turret looks huge but believe me there is not a lot of room in there. A very knowledgeable guy was crammed in with us and he gave us some insights into life in a tank. Very cool.

The last stop before leaving the museum was in the surprisingly well stocked shop. Surprising in that besides plenty of the expected books, models etc of tanks there was also a large collection of items on warfare in general. Just to prove the point Ralph unearthed a copy of Napoleon’s Army by H.C.B Rogers which seemed a steal at just under five pounds, so von Peter himself bought one. In a fit of wholly undeserved generosity Ralph bought The son and heir a lovely diecast 1/72 T55 (a favourite of Ralphs).

Below you’ll find a mish-mash of photographs of some of the tanks, with a definite bias towards WWII. The son and heir appears in quite a few of them as his duty for the day was to provide a reference point as to the size of the vehicles -  some parents are truly cruel to their offspring! Please excuse and report any incorrect narrative - von Peter himself has much to learn regarding armoured vehicles.

And finally a huge thank you to Ralph and Michelle for their hospitality to near strangers over the weekend and to Ralph in particular for his escorted tour of The Tank Museum and the T55.

Salute

von Peter himself

Above: left to right: marching to the front lines past bureaucracy in action; time to go ‘over the top’ accompanied by the chatter of machine guns; this one isn’t going anywhere except the WWI equivalent of a body bag

Above left to right: Tank commander von Peter himself and loader/tea maker The son and heir - photo by Ralph; the turret top of our machine of destruction - commandered by von Peter himself (or did I mention that already?); loader & tea maker, The son and heir, at his station - milk and no sugar please

Kids these days have it so good. von Peter himself remembers when he was a lad. Life was so hard ... ... ...  Anyway, The son and heir managed to extract money out of both von Peter himself and Ralph for some gunnery practice. Once with a rifle and once with a PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank). The PIAT results were initially, and not surprisingly, sporadic as the projectile follows a loopy path. But the final round of shooting against tanks and a bunker was straight out of the text book as the enemy were all mercilessly slaughtered. The son and heir proved that he still had a little to learn on how to be a successful man though by admitting that the shot that took out the bunker was actually meant for one of the tanks!

Above: The son and heir ‘firing’ the rifle ... and obviously feeling that he was robbed by the rifle simulator.

Photos by Ralph