Normandy re-visited, 20th to 27th June, 2026.
Following our "exploratory" tour of Normandy battle sites last year, Karl and I set out on a second, slightly longer tour, in very warm weather, on Saturday, 20th June this year.
We met-up on the Friday evening at the "Tin Tent" in Norfolk, and were ready to depart by Saturday morning for the first stage of our journey, with an overnight stop near the ferry port at Portsmouth, but stopping to visit the Tank Museum, Bovington, on the way.
Due to the arthritis (and a trapped nerve in my neck), I tend to become very stiff, tired and painful after around two hours or more of driving, so Karl would be driving my Hundai Tuscon hybrid.
I offered to provide him with a chauffeur's cap, but I don't think Parker .... er ....Karl, was very enthusiastic about this, as he mumbled a short, partly unintelligible reply, although I'm fairly sure that the second word was "off" !
We arrived at Bovington somewhat later than intended, due to traffic delays, where we met-up with forum friends Max and Barbara as planned.
We'd chosen to visit the Museum as Bovington was the pre-invasion assembly and training area for one of the British units that we would be "following", from the landing beaches and onward during their advance through the Battle of Normandy.
Last year, we concentrated mainly on British and Canadian involvement in D-Day, particularly the Airborne Forces battles, whereas this year's tour would be following the experiences of British Armoured and Infantry units, in particular the tanks of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, based at Bovington prior to D-Day, infantry units of 50th (Tyne Tees) Division (from our respective home town areas), and some actions by associated units such as the 7th Armoured Division (the "Desert Rats").
And what better place to start our tour than Bovington ? Apart from the association with the Sherwood Rangers, the Museum houses a vast collection of armoured vehicles, including examples of most types involved with D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, both Allied and German.
So I'll kick-off our latest tour with a selection of the WW2 tanks and vehicles at Bovington, and will also post a few images of armour from other eras as the thread progresses.
I will apologise in advance for the poor quality of some of the pics, due mainly to my aforementioned stiff hands/trapped nerve making it difficult and awkward to control the camera at times and, in some cases, rather challenging lighting conditions.
Pic 1. Map showing the locations of the "Tin Tent", Bovington Tank Museum and the ferry port at Portsmouth.
Pic 2. Overview of Tank Museum main hall from entrance balcony.
Pics 3 and 4. Cromwell of Polish Armoured unit.
Pics 5 and 6. Sherman Firefly, Guards Armoured Divn.
Pics 7 and 8. Tetrarch Airborne light tank in Hamilcar glider nose section.
Pics 9 and 10. Churchill infantry tank.
Pic 11. Churchill AVRE, showing the "Flying Dustbin" spigot mortar, used for demolition of fortified emplacements.
Pic 12. Sherman "flail", one of Hobart's "Funnies", used for mine clearance.
Pic 13. Sherman.
Pic 14. Dingo scout car.
Pic 15. Humber light recce car.
Back probably tomorrow, with more coverage of the Tank Museum.