Easter Saturday Afternoon, 2016

After leaving Exeter, we drove over to Bovington for the afternoon because my husband wanted to tour The Tank Museum. It's housed adjacent to Bovington Camp, a British army military base. It houses soldiers and provides training for the Royal Armored Corps. It's the real deal, including a tank crossing sign along the road leading to the museum.

The great thing about the museum is that everything was so well labeled and explained. These information placards were found on the almost 300 different vehicles inside the museum's six large display halls. Below is a picture of the Scout Car information, as well as the teen standing next to it. 

There were tanks both large and small, as well as other different types of tracked vehicles.

Tanks that dated back to World War I, which were completely unfamiliar to me.

Tanks as far as the eye could see.

 

Towards the end of our time at the museum, we ended up in the hall where a small military band was playing. I recognised that old wartime favourite, "The White Cliffs of Dover". 

When I looked up the song here at home, I discovered it was released in 1942 by singer Vera Lynn. That's the year my grandfather joined the army and was sent to fight in northern Africa. As I placed this video into the blog post, I realised the area where I did the brief recording houses vehicles used in the African campaign. It's funny to think that my grandfather, who served in the motor pool during the war, might have worked on some of the vehicles just like the ones I was seeing.