Rob Shirley Visits the Tank Museum

Visiting Bovington Tank Museum with Rob Shirley A veteran wargamer and prominent figure in the New Zealand wargaming scene, Rob Shirley has recently been on an extended tour of Europe with his wife. As well as attending the Gallipoli centennial and the Waterloo bicentennial, Rob has been visiting many historic battlegrounds and dropping in at a number of Flames Of War events. One of his recent adventures was a trip to Corfe Castle, followed by the Tank Museum in Bovington.

Corfe Castle

We went off to Corfe Castle. The Castle goes back to the 11th Century, and was originally Norman. It dominates the port on the coast and was built to dominate the route inland. Over the centuries it was a Royal castle until it was sold to a family who were appointed the Admiral of the local fleet and Lord of the local patch. In the English Civil War of the 17th Century it was a Royalist stronghold and after the Parliamentary victory, the sappers went in, stacked the lower rooms with gun-powder and blew the lot. The idea was to make it unusable as a defensive castle again. They succeeded, and there are huge hunks of castle walls tipped and tilted all over the place. The village of Corfe is a gem.

Bovington Tank Museum

My highlight of the day was getting to the Bovington Tank Museum. Reputably the best in the world.  It is a cracker. The only problem for me is that this weekend is “Tank Fest”, where they take exhibits, put them out into an arena and get them to roar and smoke around. It is located in front of the still active British Armoured School and what seems to be the location of virtually all of the British Armour Units. It felt strange driving to and from it, coming across road-crossings marked as “tank crossings” and the road surface becoming concrete.

I took the opportunity of being a model, and over the weekend I played in A Flames of War WW 2 Miniature Wargames event in Cardiff, so photos of the vehicles that my models represent and I was taken. Of them all, the “Hobart’ Funnies” from the WW 2 Normandy Beaches were my favourites. The DD-Sherman, a Flame-thrower Crocodile and Scissor Bridges were great. No Petard “Flying Dustbin”. The workshop doors were open so I got the camera going on those as well. The noise and smoke of the vehicles being fired up and moved was loud. You don’t sneak around in a tank! ~ Rob