On the 5th February 2025 John Gribble  took 15 members to the Bovington Tank Museum. We arrived in time for a coffee and a danishef before being given a guided tour of the Museum. Given the size of a tank which can weigh up to 60 tons it was staggering how many tanks were on display. Also mind bending was the variety of tanks there. They represented the evolution of the tank from the middle of the first world war until today. There were tanks from many countries on display from Britain, USA, Germany, Russia, Italy and France. While a tank could be absolutely overwhelming they were tricky to get right. There were successes and outright failures. Our guide was extremely know-

ledgeable and very good at telling the evolution story. Winston Churchill was the catalyst to the development of the tank. He was appalled at the loss of life in the trenches and demanded a solution to masses of men dying between trenches caught up in barbed wire and machine gunned. It had to be capable of going through/over barbed wired, over trenches, withstand machine gun fire and manouverable. This led to prototypes and tanks appearing in war in 1917. Because of the size and weight of tanks and the terrain they operated in they were not very reliable, constantly breaking down.

The Centurion is considered our most successful tank and the Russian T72 the least effective and most vunerable. After the execellent one hour tour we were free to spend a couple more hours viewing lots of different tanks and hearing video stories of tank battles. It was an enjoyable day out.