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TANKFEST, The Capture

File: 2023007-0627

 

At The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, England, United Kingdom, on Friday 23rd June 2023.

 

 

 

About the photograph.

 

On the left side of the photo, are two of the re-enactors dressed up as Second World War American soldiers, often nicknamed as GIs. There is also another re-enactor dressed as a GI, barely noticeable behind many of the guys seen on the right side of the photo.

 

The two on the left are seen carrying Thompson M1928A1 submachine guns, while the third one is almost hidden, therefore difficult to see what weapons he got.

 

The guys who are holding up their hands, are re-enactors dressed up as Second World War German soldiers. A common popular belief is that they’re called the Wehrmacht, but this is partial true.

 

Wehrmacht is a German word made up of wehren meaning “to defend” and Macht meaning “power or force” thus imply the meaning of “armed forces.”

 

Britische Wehrmacht mean British Armed Forces, therefore the German Wehrmacht would mean the whole of the German armed forces, therefore the whole of the German military.

 

They are correctly referred as the Heer, a German word meaning Army. A Heer soldier, or in German language (as far as I know) a Heer soldat.

 

The Wehrmacht is made up of the Heer (Army), the Kriegsmarine (navy), and the Luftwaffe (air force).

 

The action they are carrying out, is a re-enactment of the Americans capturing a group of German soldiers whom have surrendered.

 

In the far background, near the top of the photo, are what looked like three of the Tank Museum’s own staff, doing filming of the re-enactment action.

 

The photograph was shot in colour, but I converted it to black and white in Adobe Lightroom and cropped for a more dramatic action, and as homage to the WWII era where black and white photos are more common than colour photos.

 

 

 

About TANKFEST and The Tank Museum.

 

The Tank Museum is found next to the British Army military base, simply called Bovington Camp, and is used by various tank regiments.

 

The writer Rudyard Kipling once visited Bovington in 1923, and saw some damaged tanks left from the First World War. He recommended that a museum should be set up.

 

However the museum was simply a shed, and was not open to the public until about 1947, when the museum was finally set up.

 

By about 1982, the museum was expanded and modernized, it housed many various different tanks in the Exhibition halls, along with working tanks which are often show in the live action arena.

 

The museum also has the only working German Tiger I tank, known as Tiger 131.

 

TANKFEST is an annual live action re-enactment event showing off various working tanks in staged display, in the museum’s showground known as Kuwait Arena.

 

For more information, just Google “TANKFEST, The Tank Museum, Bovington.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Uploaded on September 10, 2025
Taken on June 23, 2023