Eyeing in my Direction
File: 2023007-0993
The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, England, United Kingdom, Friday 23rd June 2023.
About the photograph.
Why the title called Eyeing in my Direction, you may wonder.
Well, I have a different shot of this same tank, and the same re-enactors playing the tank crew, and in this photo, the guy on the left was looking at another tank as they went past each other. I called it Eyeing the Other Tank.
You can view it here:
This time, in the above photo, I noticed that guy is looking generally towards my area. He’s not actually looking at me, simply looking towards the people around me, so I thought to call this one Eyeing in my Direction, as if it’s like a sequel to the other one I uploaded long ago.
Anyway…
The tank he rides is a 1950s British manufactured military tank called Centurion.
I did not buy a programme guide while I attended the TANKFEST event, which is a military vehicles re-enactment show, so I don’t have the information available at hand from a programme guide. I tried Google, but too often the result can be too general, and never very narrowed down.
The best I could work out from doing some research is that, this is possibility any variation from the Mark 7 onwards to the Mark 13.
If you look at the standing guy, note his hands resting on the two funnel-shaped objects, looking like a sci-fi robot eyes.
Those two objects are part an infrared equipment, which according to Internet, is found on the Mk 7 onwards.
This Centurion tank seen in the photograph, had been named Batavier either by the original crew or by the private owner.
This tank was part of the Royal Netherlands Army.
During the 1950s, the British exported about 500 Centurion Mark 3 tanks to the Netherlands, paid for by the United States as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act. Many of them were then upgraded to Mark 5, and the Netherlands also got some Mark 7 variations too.
They were then replaced with Leopard 1 and later the Leopard 2 main battle tanks during the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the Centurion Mk 5 and Mk 7 tanks were later sent to the United States as the US paid for them.
The Centurion main battle tank started life in 1943, when the British government’s War Office asked the department that designs tanks, to make a new heavy cruiser tank, and should withstand the German’s 88mm guns. The requirement was designation as A41.
Prototypes were built around middle of 1944, and tests were carried out, the Centurion did well, and full production started in November 1945, and the tanks entered service with the British Army in 1946.
The Centurion tank may be too late for the Second World War, however the tanks did saw combat in the Korean War.
Australia also used the Centurion tanks in combat during the Vietnam War.
The Centurion tanks also saw various combat in the Middle East with various nations that bought the exported tanks.
By around the 1960s, the British Army started replacing the Centurion tanks with their new Chieftain tanks.
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.
For more information, just Google “TANKFEST, The Tank Museum, Bovington.”
You are free and welcome to comment on my photograph, about the photograph itself, or about the subject in the photo, or about your similar experience. The Comment Box is NOT an advertising billboard to promote any Groups. If you want to promote the groups, do it in YOUR own Photo Page or YOUR own Photostream!
Eyeing in my Direction
File: 2023007-0993
The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset, England, United Kingdom, Friday 23rd June 2023.
About the photograph.
Why the title called Eyeing in my Direction, you may wonder.
Well, I have a different shot of this same tank, and the same re-enactors playing the tank crew, and in this photo, the guy on the left was looking at another tank as they went past each other. I called it Eyeing the Other Tank.
You can view it here:
This time, in the above photo, I noticed that guy is looking generally towards my area. He’s not actually looking at me, simply looking towards the people around me, so I thought to call this one Eyeing in my Direction, as if it’s like a sequel to the other one I uploaded long ago.
Anyway…
The tank he rides is a 1950s British manufactured military tank called Centurion.
I did not buy a programme guide while I attended the TANKFEST event, which is a military vehicles re-enactment show, so I don’t have the information available at hand from a programme guide. I tried Google, but too often the result can be too general, and never very narrowed down.
The best I could work out from doing some research is that, this is possibility any variation from the Mark 7 onwards to the Mark 13.
If you look at the standing guy, note his hands resting on the two funnel-shaped objects, looking like a sci-fi robot eyes.
Those two objects are part an infrared equipment, which according to Internet, is found on the Mk 7 onwards.
This Centurion tank seen in the photograph, had been named Batavier either by the original crew or by the private owner.
This tank was part of the Royal Netherlands Army.
During the 1950s, the British exported about 500 Centurion Mark 3 tanks to the Netherlands, paid for by the United States as part of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act. Many of them were then upgraded to Mark 5, and the Netherlands also got some Mark 7 variations too.
They were then replaced with Leopard 1 and later the Leopard 2 main battle tanks during the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the Centurion Mk 5 and Mk 7 tanks were later sent to the United States as the US paid for them.
The Centurion main battle tank started life in 1943, when the British government’s War Office asked the department that designs tanks, to make a new heavy cruiser tank, and should withstand the German’s 88mm guns. The requirement was designation as A41.
Prototypes were built around middle of 1944, and tests were carried out, the Centurion did well, and full production started in November 1945, and the tanks entered service with the British Army in 1946.
The Centurion tank may be too late for the Second World War, however the tanks did saw combat in the Korean War.
Australia also used the Centurion tanks in combat during the Vietnam War.
The Centurion tanks also saw various combat in the Middle East with various nations that bought the exported tanks.
By around the 1960s, the British Army started replacing the Centurion tanks with their new Chieftain tanks.
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.
For more information, just Google “TANKFEST, The Tank Museum, Bovington.”
You are free and welcome to comment on my photograph, about the photograph itself, or about the subject in the photo, or about your similar experience. The Comment Box is NOT an advertising billboard to promote any Groups. If you want to promote the groups, do it in YOUR own Photo Page or YOUR own Photostream!