Curator Q&A #7: Churchill Gun Carrier | The Tank Museum

[Applause] well hello again it's David Willy for another question and answers I'm the curator from the Tank Museum here at Bovington in England and for those who may be joining for the first time we haven't got access still to the museum we hope we will have soon were closed at the moment were also an independent charity and some people who have watched these videos before you realize we're trying to encourage you if you have the opportunity or the money to buy something from our online shop because there's an independent charity it's basically our only funding stream at the moment which means that we can still pay some of the staff and hopefully do carry on doing videos like this I know one or two you wondering while we're pushing things all the time and that's the reason why and for those of you can I just say after the last question I'll so those of you have ordered things from us thank you so much for doing that that really has helped and we had a bumper day last week where after doing one of these videos so that's really great as well keep at it as well I know some of you have had one or two troubles with a postage we've got a new postage rate going we're still working out things on on the website so if there was something you're interested in don't be afraid to go back there and some of the products also that I know some of you were after that then were sold out some we have been able to restock we can't do it with everything you know the state of the world at the moment even if we are trying to get some more Goods not everyone's out there being able to resupply us so thanks again on with our questions and answers and one of the first questions comes from a guy called Jamie heifer who said when the British used the tank for the first time and the 49 tanks used at the Battle of the end of the Battle of Somme in September of 1916 were they worried about tanks being captured and had they thought of anything themselves about what if the Germans had a tank their wars for that first tank enormous secrecy they really did it did work there was very little known about the tank until very shortly before the attack and there's the idea that a soldier went over to and and gave an indication when he was captured that there was something a tank was coming along fairly soon to the Germans but really the Germans were unaware of the whole of the design process manufacturing etc back in Britain so it really was a surprise and again there's been a big debate big argument afterwards Churchill at first was hugely critical of Haig for why wasted you know why not wait till we had hundreds of Tanks ready Haig if you think about it we've had the Battle of the Somme he's desperate to you do any sort of success during the course of 1916 after those huge casualties on the first day and he's bound to try you know easy you know a lot of people got sympathy for him he's bound to put a foot in the water to trial these new tanks and he was expecting more there's only 49 they were hopefully gonna be ready by the 1st of July they weren't he's only got 49 that he can use in September so when they go into attack that there they the secrecy's I mentioned an original bit yes that's been kept yes the criticisms you know afterwards Churchill very interestingly in the 20s when he was reading up after Hague's death as well when he's writing his histories of the first world war he actually admits that he did Haig a disservice because he saw against angles from Haig's papers things that he just didn't know about at the time and that why Haig was going to to do what he did in that way now were we worried no we weren't there's no evidence that Britain thought the Germans had a tank at all from the German point of view in terms of you know do we need to develop anti-tank weapons from the German point of view their response is very interesting because there is this initial what they call tank fright they weren't expecting them they weren't that successful on that first attack but at the same time there was panic there was various things reports going back so what are they going to do about it so quite quickly the Germans institute anti-tank batteries which are basically the 77 millimeter guns but on lower wheels for horses to draw them and positioned in frontline positions where they don't take part in normal battery fire at the enemy they only are there for if a tank attack comes in out there wield very very quickly and they go into action and the Germans actually put together 50 batteries of those new types of what is going to become an anti-tank weapon and they put those into service quite quickly it's their response they start their own tank program then that leads to the a7v tank but the the issue for the Germans is after that initial efforts that they put together about looking at the anti-tank situation it drops away very quickly for them because the following spring in April of 1917 tanks are used again at the Battle of Arras and at Bullock or those tanks in that attack they've actually called over they've got they've muscled together about 60 tanks all together some of them are ones that survived from the first tank attack and they have got back in Britain some mark two tanks they've done for training which are made of instead of armor plate they're just made by from mild steel or what's sometimes called soft blades and those tanks which would just meant for training they look exactly like they're called mile twos they look pretty much like a mark one but without the wheels on the back and they are actually shipped to France and are used in the era so tack now one of those tanks and I've got its number here it was tank number 799 or it went under its tactical number on the front there d26 now that tank of Bullock or when it was knocked out and it was basically German what they call smk bullets now that's an armor-piercing bullet Germans were already got armor-piercing bullets in service for their standard rifles and the reason for that is they use among the fields for example sniper kills on frontline etc now they find they've issued them also to snipers but also into the front line there's limited numbers of them but they also issue them some of them too mixed in belts with machine gun crews and they are told 5 these at tanks now at Bullock or this tank D 26 is actually knocked out by being pierced by these SM K bullets that then ignite inside they actually ignite the petrol tank that leads to as ammunition fire etc now this tank is captured it's it's basically knocked out the commander's killed the crew taken away captured in a position that the Germans then hold and it's out of sight of the British so this is a heavily photographed tank it's visited by everybody there's lots of photographs of German officers posing by etc etc now that's probably the first good example of a tank the Germans have had a real good chance to have a look over and pour over and measure and do things with and earlier they have photographed they've got bits of Mach 1 tanks etc this is the one that they spend most time and energy on and the message goes out quite quickly afterwards that actually a standard smk bullet goes straight through the armor plate of the British tanks you haven't got too much to worry about and they also noticed a lot of tanks have been knocked out by their shell fire they think this idea of the threat of the tank has really we know what we're going to do about it so it's less of a threat anymore and that is reflected through the German army and it's reflected into the program for the a7v as well because they basically the foot goes off the pedal actually it's not such a big issue there's not worry about this too much chaps it's only and later in the year of course at Passchendaele where tanks go and basically sink in the mud it just confirms the Germans opinion it's only the following year at calm Brae or in November serene seventeen akan Brae where that mass tank attack does the damage that all of a sudden they wake up and it's quite some time later as well before the Germans realize that actually those mark two tanks were not armor-plated even after they've captured a mark for it's quite some time before they realize that there's something different going on here and then they get going with the 13 millimeter tikka vert the rifle that is going to be issued in 1918 is basically the first line infantry and defense system so the anti-tank story in Britain we are aware of when the Germans are building those tanks we see the first ones of a me on or just before a me on where we're again that first tank on tank engagement we've done one of our videos if you want to watch about that about first times tanks me and what are we going to do about them if tanks appear etc we do have some plans and some ideas are issued but already even before the German offensive at the beginning of 1918 already the tank corps it's been suggested to them that they will be good at stopping German tanks because they're mobile in a certain manner so already that idea very early in 1918 when we know we're about to be attacked by that huge German Spring Offensive the tanks already being told you're going to be good at stopping other tanks and of course we do see a mind a bit of tank versus tank conflict in 1918 but but that incipient anti-tank story gets going certainly with the Germans first of all it's a pretty weak story from the Allies point of view before the end of 1918 what would have happened in nineteen if it carried on that way whether we would have taken more seriously because of course the Germans capture a whole load of our tanks it conray and they Boyd Panzer called many more Allied tanks or British one boy tanks are used by the Germans and they're their own tanks against us so so again that that idea you can look at some of the infantry towns how they're looking at trying to deal with some of these things but anyway thanks Jamie for that question going on a bit there again now last time I was talking about how do we encourage not just the whole family but certainly the other partners and everybody else interested in our subject is really pleasing to see a lot of people came back saying by the way I'm a woman I really like the subject as well for me let us know why do you like the subject etc one of the things we've got we do at the tank museum as well we're very interested in how you're going to encourage women into engineering is really pleasing to see one or two people coming back saying you know their background in engineering or things that way and we actually have science days what they call STEM science technology engineering maths and then I do about how to ink courage women into engineering as a subject generally and certainly in defense as well you know one of the issues we get sometimes is a lot of the family audience that come to us quite often it might be the wife or the the kids are more interested in the human story than the technology that that often goes that way but also at the same time when we've seen this in some of the earlier answers when we talk about military kids it's well hang on a second let's let's go down basics a lot of this stuff is about killing people and doing some pretty awful things so let's not deny that and the other side of that story and I which I do think is where I would encourage people to look at these things as well which is yes if it's in the wrong hands and used at the wrong time but when is it your country or your society or your lifestyle needs this sort of equipment so the example I would give who's gonna stand up and say the Spitfire or the hurricane was a terrible invention because it was a weapon of war and everything when it defended the last remaining democracy in Europe from potentially a German invasion so the whole of Europe would have been under Nazi domination and Liberty would have been lost so you're not going to really criticize a Spitfire in that manner so it's again back to how this equipment's going to be used and we got an example of that we went to a factory we were doing some filming and they were coming up with this anti-tank net in court area and we were doing a bit of filming there and this young lad comes running over and he said what are you doing and we explained explaining it he said can I just say he said this he said it's the best job I've ever had he said because when I make this stuff I think one day this may save a soldier's life and that might be a way of looking at these as problems and we talk to engineers all the time we have a number of designers down and again men and women amongst all those teams and everything and that's one of the things often put that way to them these what do we get out of bed for what do we do it in the morning for what's encouraging us to do all these different things and surely know that you've designed something that could potentially one day save your country's Liberty is no bad things to be proud of you know to be proud of sort of stuff that that's a great thing to be doing the problem of course is is when that same equipment by beat might be used by people with evil means and evil ends and how do we justify that one but have a think about that barn so please thank you so much for some of you actually commenting the fact that you've you sit there with the whole family or actually the wife's involved you know interested in this or as it's come back and one of those people has come back to us is actually Rosie tea with a couple of interesting questions so sorry rose Rose I just want to answer this one for you so you said your question was how did pigeons survive in the toxic atmosphere of early to mark tanks now if you don't know about it one of the problems with the very first tanks when they go into operation we haven't got wireless systems that are robust enough yet to be able to work what are we going to do about communications so the idea you put your you know semaphore put your head out the top put of to flag signals you're a big target you're gonna be hit that way one of the simplest ways they came up with is pissing pigeon carrying messages so you actually took a basket with pigeons in inside the tank you took those into action with you if you had to send a message you wrote that message into a little tiny little cylinder on the leg of the pigeon released out the side of the tank off it goes and you hope it gets back and there's a response to that message now the problem as Rosa indicates or ROS indicates when you're inside a tank and those first tanks where they've got the fumes they've got petrol fumes coming out all over the place everything seems to be covered in grease etc how did those birds survive now there's some really good first-hand accounts about this and being British one of the major issues of course is when we're talking about animals you know you can do terrible things to human beings but if you're pretty anyone does anything awful to an animal or a dog you know a horse or a dog well that's it then all bets are off you're in for it pretty much the same as well I see you in some cases with bird life now we're the pigeons there's one of the great stories that comes back which there's a corps commander out in France and he received an unsigned message coming back on one of these pigeons from a tank and it reads just this can't bear to keep this poor bird any longer it looks so unhappy and that was one of the problems a lot of times like so many times in warfare if you've got some chance of coddling an animal of some sort that's what the tank crews did sometimes they fed them they fed them so much that the pigeons were reluctant to leave the tank because I knew this was a great place to be etcetera sometimes it was just sentimental like in this case actually they just felt sorry for the pigeon let it go and there's another account here that was actually sent as part of the history of the tanks tube as a little heart I don't think it was used in it but it was the intention that an appropriate times the tank commander should write a message of tactical use to his superiors he should fold it correctly place it in a very small container clean his hands with the turps provided tanks were issued you were issued with a bottle of turpentine so you could clean your hands if they were oily so you didn't get the oil on the bird with the turrets provided remove the pigeon from the basket using the correct hold attach the containers of the pigeon sledge changed the hole to the correct one for releasing opener port avoid bumping the port Birds head release the pigeon and then let it get on get on with your battle the pigeon would fly to the grounds of a chateau nearby all the headquarters wherever the pigeon loft was it didn't happen that way very often the pigeons were pretty sick at that being bumped about and breathing engine fumes tank commanders hands were covered in oil in spite of cleaning with turpentine if the bottle hadn't broken and pigeons cannot fly with oily wings on being released I usually sat some Tomlin Dinkley somewhere on the tank refusing to be Hooda way if dislodged by a direct hit from a lump of mud they would perch somewhere else nearby so problems yeah you're right they don't always work but at the same time that story about the pigeon doesn't just end in the first world war with the tank messages in World War 1 it actually carries on pigeons were used in the Second World War I was just looking at there's a Arnhem a pigeon is released with a really message Armin Arnhem 400 kilometers back to the UK he does that in four and a half hours to get the message back that pigeon was called William of Orange they gave it a dickin medal at the end of it four and a half hours 400 kilometers and it takes a message back to the UK and if you go there's a museum not far from the Tank Museum called the Royal Signals museums got a stunning collection if you like your signals Gear fantastic stories behind it as well a really impressive collection of stuff and I'd recommend as well if you've got the chance go there in there is one of the most if motive objects you'll ever see it's a stuffed pigeon and it's pigeon to 7:09 and during the Battle of Passchendaele whoops wins getting up during the Battle of Passchendaele to 7:09 with a pigeon that was released with a message and very quickly because the Germans are trained you know they've got guys in the frontline to take down pigeons because they know pigeons are going to be carrying messages very quickly whether it was intentional foil just accidental this pigeon is hit and a bullet goes through it actually carries a little steel tube into the body of the pigeon breaks a leg of the pigeon etcetera boom goes down now headquarters is about 20 minutes flying time for that pigeon to get back with this message pigeons here 21 hours later this pigeon crawls in with this message with that amount of damage to it and sadly the pigeon dies the following day but it still makes it back and delivers a message you know what a great story and so there's my pigeon stories no I'm not I'm going to finish you with another great pigeon to lighten the mood a little bit another pigeon story some of you may have heard of a lot called phantom phantom with a unit in World War 2 that did follow the troops around but it was to keep messaging systems to really up-to-date etc and they of course realized radio host broke down sometimes sometimes terrain they don't get through so they also experimented with pigeons and one of the guys who work for phantom was a British actor David Niven he comes back from Hollywood he joins up and he actually enjoys phantom force he's there for quite some time with him and then he moves on to chase supreme headquarters and work there but when he was asked when a history of phantom was being written and they wrote to him and said give us some of your memoirs etc he comes back with some stories and one of them is a pigeon story which I've just got to read to you because I just think it's so great the other saga was the pigeon hop he gave us baskets of these foul beasts to carry messages when all else failed I think general Padgett was the commander-in-chief of home forces and an elaborate loft was constructed outside his headquarters in st. James's Park poppy told him with great pride that messages were soon be arriving from the far flung squadrons Padgett waited expectantly and at last a bird slapped in through the intake box it was from a squadron a massive exercise was in progress all over southern England and the message was ripped off the poor bird's leg and read in an expectant harsh as follows that beast Maj Niven sent me away because he said I had farted in the nest I understand there was not much happy laughter in st. James's Park another great story there from David Niven and David Nivens war memoirs moons of balloon etc and all those things that way really worth the read if you got the chance there now Rose also followed up with another question I noticed a bit further on and I just thought we'll come back to that one because when Walter Wilson introduce the epicyclic gear box in a first world war tanks why did the crews stay at aid so if you don't know about first world war tanks by your Haynes manual 499 Superbook tells you all about them that first world war mark 1 mark - mark 3 not many made they mark 4 they all have the hundred and five horsepower Daimler engine in and they need four men to actually crew it and steer the vehicle as it's going along now when Walter Wilson comes along with the epicyclic gear box and the new Ricardo engine that's ready they get it down to one person being able to drive without actually having these two guys at the back to help change gears and the commander involved as well so one driver that can then drive the mark-5 tank why do you still need to keep a crewman in there so what they do is with the mark 5 they actually have a station at the back and they are conscious that they sometimes drive past German positions with the mark 4 etc and Germans then pop up behind or then take on the inventory so they put a machine gun position at the back on the mark 5 and the station above gives a better view point for the commander so the commander can either be at the front or this viewing housing at the rear there as well so he's released as well so they in essence they hang on to the 8 crew members because they think there is still a function for them to do Manning the weaponry so the sidearm or the sorry the secondary armament the machine guns as well as still assisting on some of those other talks past passing ammunition etc - the two main if you're a male tang 6-pounder guns other side either side so that was the reason they carry on with the eight-man crew even though potentially you could say you could go down to six men if you lose the two gears Minh and potentially five men if you thought the officer if he's not needed in that particular role anymore and of course freeing up the officer gives him more of a chance to keep an eye on things and to come on the tank rather than feeling he's always waiting for you to roll in as part of the driving of it with the driver next team so thank you Rhoads for those questions right let's go on with some other ones Daniel Qi asks a question about and he said have we got any evolved this year's calendar left and this gives me an excuse to take out a couple of things we had a rummage in the office and if you ask us very nicely we found one last slightly tatty but if you need it send us an email to info a Tank Museum and we'll get that off to you that's our last remaining this calendar for this year but those of you again thinking about things what can I get ready for Christmas etc there's we've got 2020 ones tank museum calendar so that's available out there as well and so thank you for that Daniel and another quick question what caliber round is this I've been talking for a while so I have my excuse again this is where we need some music in the background there now don't all you bullets want one of these so there's your cap which is actually the cup if you don't have your tank knees in Cup there it is a nice flask and we've actually got a version as well if you're a shotgun person we've actually also got the there we go it's a cartridge we've got a version like that so if you fancy yourself a flask well I have a slurp of tea from my I love tanks mugs and if you'll notice on the table because I forgot last time we also have Tiger 1-3-1 mugs here and target eight mugs which if you're a tiger fan I'll talk about Tigers in a second so and here we go for a second Oh gunfire tea so right so where were we getting to so let's have a go through so that's Damian William Frantz ask the question what are we going to do about our Churchill gun carrier now some of you will know that they took a church or they put a 3-inch gun on it and they put this great big housing over the top not particularly successful they didn't make that many of them and we've got a range reck one that sits outside in our kind of I won't call it a scrapyard but it's a lineup a range wrecks and things we've got there outside at the moment if I'm honest I think we would be questionable to ever ask ourselves you know do we really really want to restore that back to a complete vehicle I say that because it's fascinating range races of fascinating themselves one side is completely shot up if you have a look at it yes you could take it all apart you could put hopefully you know remanufacturing bits and pieces that sort of thing might happen one day in the future for me at the moment I would argue that and it's it's always contentious this you know what do we do first and why I don't think that three inch Churchill gun carrier however rare however fascinating that bit of the story is actually I think there's plenty more vehicles a Tank Museum should be more interested in to get restored or repaired or put back together before we get to something like the syringe gun carrier that doesn't have a great part to tell in the history it's interesting it's there but it's not one of those really important for example we don't at the moment have a cent or we don't have just think of the other ones there that the cavalier we haven't got an a thirty challenger you know with a big slab-sided turret put back together yet so so I think there's more important tanks we would do before we get anywhere near that and I also think it's just an interesting object in itself as being a range wreck when you get to see you know these side peppered with all those anti-tank rounds that's been fired at it just if you go to sister burg there's a lovely range wrecked Sherman on display as it is in the museum so so don't get your hopes up if you're getting too excited about that and the other thing is when people say to us all well you know we could raise money and everything woohoo okay that would be great but are you sure because I've been noticing you know some of these online fundraising things and everything where you know there's a lot of goodwill but when you're talking about a major restoration this is quite some undertaking and an awful lot of money so that's something else to bear in mind before saying oh why haven't you done this why haven't you done that and everything else you know and again I mention this because again why are we trying to sell this stuff and everything else is post kovat as well one of the things a lot of museums not just us are going to be having to think about is how do we spend the money where does that money go and where are we gonna get it from because perhaps we're gonna have to reconfigure some of our thinking if the budgets just aren't there in the way they were before and there was never enough money before you know we've got over 300 vehicles just remember that and many of them we need to keep going so we can drive them entertain the public bring an audience in to keep us going you know things like that so the amount of time and energy you can put in a major restoration is always going to be limited and again if you watch those tank workshop Diaries that we put out looking at some of what goes into a restoration project you know say it's a really major major undertaking and we've got plenty on the cart already so Churchill gun carrier interesting vehicle there it is maybe by the time we get round to doing that it might be easier to make replicas and we're still originals and that's another one of those weird wonderful thoughts to come someone called Serge has asked the question and collages have a slurp sorry let me try my tea again for my I love tanks mug yeah someone called Serge has asked a question about us radio communications about you know what could they talk to and everything now the standard radio in most American Sherman tanks so again American use not British British we put the nineteen set in they make 19 sets in America for us as well for to put in the British versions the SCR 508 is the radio that is mainly used in Shermans there's or variations on a theme and the SAR 508 is made up of a number of components and if you get it in this full version you know it has crystals and means you get I think it's about 20 different networks and various other things going on so but the the really interesting thing which again just looking at this too if you've not if you don't know the stories about this is one of the problems Americans had they went for FM radio in a tank because it coped with the electronics of the tank the vibrations and what was going on in a tank better than a.m. the problem was infantry were using AM so you have this farcical situation that actually most Sherman tank crews could not talk to the infantry net that was with them only if they went up to battalion level and at battalion they tended to have radios so they transferred to in a an am set to get the message to the infantry and if you read there's different periods and in Normandy where they're doing experiments how do we get over this how do we find a way out of it and for example they issue to some of the tank crews with these walkie talkie type ones to try and talk again as soon as it's inside the tank it's useless but they found ways of actually if you kept your head out or the aerial out you could just about do it and then they start putting ammunition boxes on the back of the tanks and wiring in a field telephone so you could talk inside to the tank crew inside so you know there was ways to try and get round it but basically the FM sets that the co-main crews are using and that's set by the way the 508 one the 506 one a battalion commander would take and that's even bigger and that goes down they actually took out some of the ammunition study it goes down in the co-drivers position that means they can talk that was tended to be battalion level and they can talk a battalion level that way but there's normal the standard the SCR 508 that one when you're looking at it it's also just like the nineteen set it's a bit that's got the plugin for the crew so the crew can take talk to each other and with a switch they can the commander can then send to on the rest of the localized tank crews net sort of thing I know everyone always wants about ranges on radios it's a really tricky one to talk about ranges because actually it's so dependent on the terrain the atmospherics and everything else so you know you'll get good days bad days where you can sometimes you know just like today where you can suddenly weirdly pick up radio signals from what goodness knows how far away atmospherics come into play a lot that way but I hope that answers your question there right let me have Ray W he mentions a fact about what I was wearing the other day so excuse me if we diverge you're second but you can see I put a buttonhole in because what do they call it posy holder I think they call this and the nice little rose from the garden out the front there so and thank you Ray from for suggestions for things that I might want to be wearing and [Music] Howard chambers I don't think it quite got it about the question/answer like a number of people actually why are we trying to flog stuff and everything just answer I believe your phrase answer the bloody question and I come back to why I've put some of these things here is because if you've got people don't buy it we just don't carry on existing and that brings me to you know sort of roundabout way another question that was asked and was pointed out when we were talking about that fury doing a review of the fury movie a lot of people saying oh you know the first time since the war that a tiger a real tiger tank and everything and just have a look those of you who've got it have a look at there's is the glory which was a film made in 1946 and they brought a number of the guys who fought it on and back they restaged a number of the battles they're in the actual ruins at Arnhem and who's to be and they use they brought kit in specially there's a couple of Panthers driving around as etc but there's a scene that I wonder may have been filmed at Bovington or somewhere else like up at the school of tank technology at the time at somewhere like Chertsey because there's some rough easterland and what drives round the corner but a tiger you can't quite make out any numbers on the side or I couldn't but you guys who've got a copy of it on DVD have a good look I think that's Tiger 131 because it's got the thief la vista filters on the back have a look and it's followed by a hit sir and it's followed by an italian tank i believe as well there so where would those three tanks be in the middle of europe if you see what i mean that way so I've got a feeling they were using the school of tank technology tanks did a bit of filming with those ones as well as the filming we know they did out in on and with other vehicles that were brought there especially so have a look at that because in essence therefore that was our Tiger being used in a war movie back in 1946 if it's our once if you use spotters have a good look there just to see if there's anything else that you can pick up the might even mean it's definitely our tank or it really means it's not but that was an interesting one as well and talking of tigers as you've interested in tigers one of the things another question that came out was do we think that the famous tiger feeble which I didn't bring one back I should have brought one out but we've got it for sale in the shop basically what happened is the Germans did a a fact that we are not on the t-shirt there they did a cartoon version of a manual for the tank crews and there's actually the Panther feeble as well which we hope to get translated and published that at some point and they use cartoons they use little mottos witticisms little poems little bits of jokes and very young Germanic if you're not a German you know the way you look at this and the way saucy ladies half nude ladies to try and get the soldiers to remember things how much of this costs you know don't go and waste ink rush Minister Speer will be really upset with you if you're going bust the tank for no good reason etc but anyway that's all in the tiger feeble what the question was was do we think the troops ever got to see the tiger feeble because you don't actually see that many accounts now I've had a look and I you you know the history of the tiger people who wrote it why etcetera that's written up but I haven't found any accounts from Tiger crewman of actually saying they saw the tiger feeble or remember out it or did it have an impact on them so is it one of these nice idea things that never really made it to the frontline troops and by the way in again we've got a nice English translation if you're interested in Tiger feeble again go to the shop get yourself a copy of that and it is really interesting reading because if you want to know you know it's all those not just the mottos but it's how you do it and there's things in the tiger people that I find fascinating still you know if you'll want to judge the ground is the ground up to taking your tiger across it you were supposed to stand on the ground get your mate who's a Thai tank crewman with you jump on your back and if your foot goes in the ground more than an inch the grounds too soft for the tiger tank to follow so there's little nuggets like that in there so again it's quite an interesting one to read for learning about what it was like with the target so and I know some of you like wearing your underwear in public all the time so we do do actually t-shirts there's a good range of t-shirts including one with our tiger on the front and the cartoons comes from that Tiger feeble the translated version that we've got for sale in the shop so if you're interested on that one answer that and someone max-q asked me the question he said what's the watch I've got on yeah you're right is a g10 something called it's a military this one's a battery one my saddest story when I left a previous job I was asked what I wanted and I went and bought it myself which was something called a Hamilton a military watch called a Hamilton and that was the gift to myself as it were in a from the organisation I was working with I bought it in Brick Lane Market which was a used to be amazing market in the East End of London and it didn't cost a huge amount of money and I had it for years and of course like with all these things you know years later you find all good grief they're going for City money and everything and I left it on the beach when I went swimming one time and oh you know those moments where especially now I found out you know why is it when you lose something it becomes more more more important to you than than probably when you had it at the time so anyway so that's just a GTA I know some of you interested in military watches and things now the whole subject military timekeeping you know why is that important you don't have to think about it short men time that idea if you're standing there you know all those jokes about you know zero and everything else you really need a good watch if you're in the military because you don't want to be turning up and you thought it was three minutes ago or you're in the wrong place when the barrage begins so I think that's taken me through this load of questions and thanks very much some of the other things I brought out to show you I think I've done most of them we're gonna have a go at some point see those of you who are getting back to your families and everything else this is a lot of stuff we do there's a challenger - they're called by Kobe and it's kind of not quite Lego it's like a brick system that comes together but they've done some really stylish vehicles and I might have a go at one of these there's a made-up one here we've got there's a Centurion tank on everything see if the lights reflecting or on a little case we brought there I bought that one back I might have a go at one of those ones because one of the things again back to what can we share when we feel guilty when we're spending money on ourselves but you know maybe this is one that we can do with the kids and still get a bit of pleasure ourselves everything and the same with model makers and everything one of those guilty pleasure was I haven't made a model since I was a kid and I'm you know I admire we've got a great bunch of model makers who come in Wrigley to the Tank Museum they show what they're doing to the kids and everything and you know if you're just getting into model making and everything they're brilliant at doing that what gets me sometimes I walk past and I just see a bit of box art and I'll show you here there's don't you just love that to me a box art weren't they beautiful illustrators they did and I know Tamir in Japan has got a great gallery with a collection of all their box art there wouldn't that be a lovely exhibition to see one day and you see some of that box art and sometimes I know they'll be blokes out there about my generation or older who go doesn't that take you back to the 70s or you remember that Airfix cover or these were quite expensive even when I was younger sort of one that way and everything what's the one you want to go back to and indulge in and why is it all do we just sit there and I knows you know we're not all weirdos I'm well maybe we are all weirdos but this idea that sometimes people buy the box of box they never even open it you know they just look at it that way and and I can kind of almost see it because when when I was going to pick one of these ones up it just it's an other thing that just takes you back to a moment in time and I know a lot of you is still making those models or buying those models and thank you so much for doing that but there's a lovely one there a charge to Churchill mark 7 intricate model you know all those little wheels everything else that way but if you're worried about doing a plastic model again or you were tryna thought of you know how do I break myself in or how do I break a younger one in and I mentioned this as well because I think I mentioned it before we are recommending soldiers units make a model make a plastic model because when you do and if you want to break yourself into a simpler one first of all you know like these copy these ones would have made a bigger prick than that but the point we were making is once you've made a model you tend to remember what those bits are what the wheel is you know how many old blokes out there can remember those little air thick Spitfire in the wheel that goes under the two wheels underneath there and the covering of them and everything it sticks in your brain so isn't that good if you're going to make a model let's do it about recognition so whether it's blue on blue so we don't make the accident far an allied tank so if somebody's going to be on our side you know an m6 2 and m1 Abrahms or whatever it happens to be that way so if we make those models and also for the threat vehicles what might we be going up against and because and I say to the soldiers sometimes that fact that you remember that that's what the exhaust looks likes on the back or the wheel spacing or whatever is you could be the guy because you made that model that can identify it with a sense of certainty that they're the bad guys so hiding in that wood or no I wouldn't fire sir that's one of ours you know and that tends to stick with you so I think that's one of those ones as well I was recommending make a model and boy you remember about that vehicle and another one I just mentioned as well we do plane cards and that's another some of you may extol Jers you remember in the 70s I even Iraq war that idea or if you either had identification cards you could hold up making them plane cards they there but again it tends to get in the system so here's our Tank Museum collection on the back of each plane card you will then start remembering that's what Mark 4 looks like that that's what 7 so is and you pick those things up so and in the archive we've got those are recognition sets kind of almost a modern equivalent there's our tank these in playing cards so lovely day I hope you say from well at home if you're getting back to work or you've been working all this time I hope this is a bit of a break for you thank you for those of you have been buying the products do keep doing it if you can afford to or you fancy something or you're going to indulge yourself thank you for those the ladies who've responded as well keep that coming because we're fascinated about how we widen that market we know two thirds blokes on an average day etc and we get that on the other side of the family all together and and thank you so much also some of your telling your stories about how you're encouraging with the kids whether it's model making what films they watch learning about the history getting involved in there's so many ways you can approach our subjects whether it's from the technology whether it's from the human angle all those different things thereby I'd like to think there's something in our collections and our stories that's gonna going to interest you or or and again you only have to look on TripAdvisor all the time the number of people that came and said I didn't think this was for me but I left fascinated so keep that bear that one in mind and stay safe and thank you as ever and please do ask some more questions thanks very much

Channel: The Tank Museum

Views: 34,319

Rating: 4.9729872 out of 5

Keywords: the tank museum, tank museum, bovington tank museum, david fletcher, david willey, military tank, q&a, q&a curator, q&a tank museum, churchill gun carrier, pigeons military, military communications, pigeon ww1, pigeon ww2, dickin medal, tank radio, tank museum curator q&a, tank museum curator, david willey q&a

Id: saRH6BQUPZ4

Length: 43min 12sec (2592 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2020