November 2015
Tank Times
Published by THE TANK MUSEUM, Bovington, Dorset, UK, BH20 6JG
Tel: +44 (0) 1929 405 096
Little Willie Gets Telegram From Queen
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FROM THE WARDENS RAY PARROTT
Ray Parrott The role of The Tank Museum’s Wardens.
The world’s first tank, ‘Little Willie’, on display at The Tank Museum, marked its 100th birthday in September. To commemorate the occasion Little Willie was covered in a tarpaulin, similar to the one used to conceal the new invention during testing in 1915 and unveiled by descendants of one of its inventors. On 21st September 2015 The Tank Museum received this message from Her Majesty The Queen: “I was most interested to learn that today marks the centenary of the Birth of the Tank. I have fond memories of my visit in 2009 to The Tank Museum at Bovington, where I saw examples of the Tank’s development and evolution. As Colonel-in-Chief, I send my greetings to the Colonels Commandant, Officers,
Other Ranks and present members of the Royal Tank Regiment and the Regimental Association, and to all at The Tank Museum, on this notable anniversary. ELIZABETH R.” Although ‘Little Willie’ never saw active service, its creation marked the start of 100 years of tank design, the results of which can be seen on today’s battlefields. In 1915 the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, created a Landships Committee to tackle the problems of trench warfare. After many experiments and false starts an agricultural firm,
William Foster & Co. of Lincoln, was contracted to build a prototype machine. Its designers, William Tritton and Walter Wilson came up with a set of workable tracks which were fitted to the ‘Landship’ now known as ‘Little Willie,’ said to be an irreverent nickname for the German Crown Prince, Kaiser Wilhelm. By the time ‘Little Willie’ was built, Wilson and Tritton had already come up with an improved idea of a machine with tracks running all the way around the vehicle, which would become the classic British tank design of the Great War. Thus, ‘Little Willie’ was redundant almost as soon as it was built.
The Tank Museum’s Warden Team is a mix of volunteers supported by a cadre of full-time staff who together are the primary and initial point of contact for our visitors. This usually involves meeting and greeting and generally welcoming them and describing precisely what the Museum has on offer at this world class facility. For example, visitors often ask to see the type of tank in which their parents, grandparents, or other family members served, which then involves Wardens directing or accompanying them to the various exhibits of particular interest. Wardens are also active in visitor safety issues and are trained in various aspects to ensure the visitor experience is uneventful. Some are First Aid trained and with tanks being large lumps of metal that take no prisoners, Wardens ensure visitors leave the Museum in the same condition as they arrived. Visitor safety is of primary importance. Wardens also provide free guided tours and talks throughout the Museum, explaining to our visitors how tanks work, or how a particular tank may have been used in battle. Some talks deal with the history of tank evolution over the past 100 years since its invention. One
Inside… ● ARCHIVE AND SUPPORTING COLLECTION EXPERIENCE ● THE LINCOLN MACHINE ● FIRST CREWS ● WHAT’S ON
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THE TANK MUSEUM - THE WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION OF TANKS An Independent Museum and Registered Charity No 1102661
THE TANK MUSEUM - NOVEMBER 2015
www.tankmuseum.org
Tel: +44 (0) 1929 405 096
IN BRIEF
FROM THE WARDENS
Challenger 1
Main Battle Tank
RAY PARROTT
Haynes Owners’ Workshop Manual
Continued… particularly popular talk is why the tank was first developed during the First World War. In order for our visitors to fully understand what life is like for tank crews, especially the first tank crews, our Wardens deliver a programme of specifically dedicated talks in three ways; firstly by using the Chieftain, Britain’s Main Battle Tank of the 1960s through to the 1980s during the Cold War era. Here our visitors are able to climb inside the turret of this relatively modern tank and see where the four crew men would live and work from day to day. Then we have the Centurion, the British Army’s mainstay from the mid-1940s through to the mid-1960s. This cut-in-half exhibit allows visitors to walk lengthways, through the centre of the complete tank, making it possible to examine the engine, the main gun, and where all four crew members would have lived and worked. Finally, we have one of the oldest vehicles in our collection; a First World War Mark IV ‘Male’ tank where visitors are able to climb inside and see exactly what conditions were like for the eight crewmen in this truly remarkable 1917 tank. Cleaning our exhibits also falls within the Warden Team remit along with preparing and helping our special events programme to run effortlessly. The Wardens’ day is rarely quiet or dull. Visitor queries are many and varied, with everything from, “Where is the Tiger tank?” to probably the most common query of all, “Where can I find the TOG?” followed closely by, “Where is the Tortoise tank?” Though, “Where are the toilets,” is a perennial favourite.
WARFARE THROUGH THE AGES Visitors to The Tank Museum on the weekend 19th-20th September, were taken back in time to see the history of warfare in action from Medieval to Modern Day. Over 600 of the UK’s best re-enactors took part in living history encampments, drills, weaponry displays, firearms evolution, battle re-enactments and spectacular sieges. The Medieval, Napoleonic, First World War, English and American Civil War periods were brought to life in 21st century Dorset.
Archive and Supporting Collection Experience The introduction of this new, exclusive experience, means visitors will now have the rare opportunity to participate in an in-depth, behind closed doors, guided tour through the Archives and Supporting Collection. The Archive and Supporting Collection Experience comprises two tours and a show-andtell seminar that will be held on 11th March 2016 (Friday) and on the 4th November 2016 (Friday), from 9.00am through to 1.00pm. Breakfast of bacon rolls, pastries, and the like will be served in the cafeteria/mezzanine. Tea and coffee will be available throughout the morning.
Following the Welcome and Introduction, there will be a lecture covering a number of topics including information on the Tank Centenary; new exhibitions; footage, and how research supports new publications. The party will then split into in three groups of eight, for the Archives and Library Tour; then to the Churchill Suite where rarely seen objects and documents for public viewing, including photographs from exhibitions, tank stories, and their context. The tours will explore the Museum’s document, book, drawings, film and photographic archives, as well as providing visitors with the opportunity to examine at close quarters, the Supporting Collection stores which houses the Museum’s ordnance, firearms, models, artwork and uniform collections. The seminar will permit visitors to see, at first-hand, how the Archive and Supporting Collections’ unique holdings are used to support research topics and exhibitions, and how these important historic collections are cared for and preserved for future generations.
Warden Tom Moorcroft
Archive and Library Manager Stuart Wheeler with visitors
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Numbers for each experience will be limited to twenty-four and costs £60.00 per person.
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Tickets are obtainable online via The Tank Museum’s website or by calling the Museum on: 01929 405096 ext. 211 or 238.
THE TANK MUSEUM - THE WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION OF TANKS An Independent Museum and Registered Charity No 1102661
£22.99 Available from The Tank Museum shop The British Army’s 62-tonne Challenger 1 was the first of a new generation of main battle tanks when it entered service in 1983. Its most important design features were the use of the revolutionary Chobham armour system and hydrogas suspension that gave it superb cross-country performance. Challengers saw action in the 1991 Gulf War, in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990s, and in Operation Joint Guardian, the NATO-led drive into Kosovo. Challenger 1 claims the longest range tank-to-tank kill in military history, when it destroyed an Iraqi tank at 3.17 miles. Published in association with The Tank Museum, Bovington. Written by an ex-Challenger tank commander, this manual uses The Tank Museum’s working Challenger 1 as its centrepiece.
New Tanks
While preparing for their relocation to Lyneham, the REME Museum found that their Chieftain, a Mk 11, and Challenger 2 were no longer suited to its collecting policy. They approached The Tank Museum, wanting to find a good home where the vehicles would remain accessible to the public. The two tanks will now go on display in the Vehicle Conservation Centre.
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THE TANK MUSEUM - NOVEMBER 2015
www.tankmuseum.org
Tel: +44 (0) 1929 405 096
Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton (1845 – 1940)
By David Fletcher Crompton packed a tremendous amount into a long and eventful life.
Renowned Tank historian, David Fletcher MBE, looks at an early tank prototype whose failure likely stemmed from inter-personal rivalry and deceit. George Field was an engineer who had worked with Colonel R E B Crompton on the design of a military tractor in 1909; the so-called Crompton-Bentley tractor. In May 1915, commissioned as a RNVR Lieutenant, Field was sent to the United States to examine various types of tracklaying tractors particular one built by the Bullock Creeping Grip Tractor Company of Chicago. Field discovered the firm’s chief track designer had quit, leaving no one with enough experience to design and build the extra-long 9ft 8ins tracks Col Crompton required. Field stepped into the breach though wasn’t happy with Bullock’s standard of workmanship nor very impressed with their product. The specially lengthened tracks arrived in Liverpool on 3rd August 1915 and sent to Lincoln, not Burton-on-Trent as Crompton wanted. Back in London, Field claimed the Lincoln Machine had its engine and gearbox fitted back to front, curbing its potential mobility because the original reverse gear was now its only forward gear while the two forward speeds could now only work in reverse. However by installing an intermediate gear on each side between the final chain sprocket and the track driving sprocket, this drive
could easily be reversed. Nevertheless, seeing that it only had to move slowly over fields and climb obstacles, its speed was not important. Field raised another significant issue. When the lengthened track units arrived at Lincoln and were unpacked they had no visible camber, laying flat to the ground, potentially causing steering difficulties with a track 9ft 8ins long. Wilson sent a telegram to Crompton, querying this, and Crompton replied that he’d ordered two inches of camber but wanted a flat section of 5ft 8ins in the centre. When Field saw the Lincoln Machine sliding about on its tracks he realised that the designers, Tritton and Wilson, had not used the special bracing bars that he had designed in Chicago and which he knew had been sent with it. When he asked, he claimed he was told that, “A whole lot of junk had been received of which no use could be made,
besides which, it was not required”. Regarded as a Crompton man, Field had his own engineering reputation to protect having taken charge of the extended tracks production in Chicago and their subsequent failure at Lincoln might reflect badly on him. Indeed, the vague possibility existed that Tritton and Wilson had a vested interest in the failure of the Bullock track system to discredit Crompton, hinting at a degree of deviousness not usually found in reputable engineers. If we assume that Tritton and Wilson realised that the Bullock tracks were unworkable as soon as they unpacked them, which apparently they did, that would accord with George Field’s original reaction when he first encountered the system in Chicago. So perhaps it is all nothing more than the Bullock tracks were entirely unsuitable for Landship work in the first place and there was nothing anyone could do to improve them. What do you think?
In 1864, at the age of nineteen, he was commissioned into 3rd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade and sailed for India. He had already started to build his own steam car and now, in addition to his regimental duties, he began to investigate the use of steamers, carrying freight and passengers on the Grand Trunk Road. These were built and proved very successful and as a result he was duly appointed Inspector of the Government Steam Train. After about five years Crompton resigned his commission and entered business, ultimately becoming a pioneer of the British electrical industry with which his name is forever associated. When the Boer War broke out in 1899 Crompton went out to command the Electrical Engineers Volunteers and somehow got involved in the operation of steam traction engines. He was so successful in this that Lord Roberts duly sent him home to supervise the building and supply of new engines for the army. He was soon recognised as an expert in the matter of heavy road haulage. In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, Crompton began to bombard the War Office with suggestions about specialist military transport but he had left it too late and his ideas were rejected. Early in 1915 he was invited to attend the first meeting of the Admiralty’s Landships Committee as the only relevant expert anyone knew. Here he became a fixture for the next six months, designing a range of impractical articulated Landships of which none were ever adopted. He died in February 1940, aged 95.
Known as the No. 1 Lincoln Machine this is how the vehicle looked during its first trial on 19 September 1915, with Tritton’s modified ‘fish belly’ tracks.
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THE TANK MUSEUM - NOVEMBER 2015
FROM THE
EDITOR
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TANK
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MEN
WHAT’S ON
The Story of the First Crews Spring 2016, writes Exhibitions Manager, Sarah Lambert, sees the launch of a new exhibition to mark the tank’s centenary.
John Howland A Vintage Year Just as 2014 was a stunning year for Bordeaux Wines, so 2015 was an equally memorable year for The Tank Museum’s special events programme, clocking-up record attendances, particularly with ‘Tiger Day’ and ‘Tankfest’. The season’s brilliantly successful arena events and displays signed off in dazzling style with September’s spectacular multi-themed pageant, ‘Warfare Through The Ages’. Lest We Forget Tucked away amid the current centennial celebrations of the first tanks, particularly ‘Little Willie,’ is the centenary of arguably the greatest of all the War Poems, ‘In Flanders Fields,’ written by Major John McCrae, Brigade Surgeon, Canadian Expeditionary Force, following the death of his great friend, Lt Alexis Helmer. In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. John McCrae died from pneumonia January 28, 1918 and is buried in Wimereux Cemetery, near Boulogne, France. On behalf of Museum’s Director, Richard Smith, the editorial team at Tank Times’, the Wardens and all staff at The Tank Museum, I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas. John Howland Editor
Eight crewman who served in the 1916 – 1918 period have been chosen to feature in the display and visitors will be able to follow their stories from being civilians before the war to their service years and post-war lives. Designs for the new exhibition are now finalised and highlights include a revamped Trench Experience with new soundscape and a re-created railway carriage; showcase displays containing unique tank crew artefacts; new archival imagery, and large audio visual presentations. The Exhibitions Team are currently researching the stories of the eight men and will spend the next six to eight months collating the information to create graphics and films for the final display. A recent photographic donation (above) from the Granddaughter of father of six Sergeant Walter Ratcliffe – one of the main stories - will enable us to tell visitors more about his personal life as a sportsman as well as his time
with the Tank Corps during the First World War. In peacetime, Walter Ratcliffe played for the East Bergholt football team, and above left in uniform, 1918. Similar material for the other seven men is also filtering in from families who have shown keen support for the exhibition to mark this important anniversary.
8 November 2015
Remembrance Sunday Visitors are asked to assemble at 10.15am in The Cold War Hall for the service at 10.30am. Afterwards, a wreath laying ceremony will take place at the Royal Armoured Corps Memorial outside the Museum.
Alongside the personal stories will be of course be the tanks themselves. The Museum boasts the finest collection of First World War tanks in the world including the only Mark 1 tank in existence. The exhibition will feature these vehicles with information about their manufacture, use and history. Ultimately this project will convert an already popular but dated gallery into a visually impressive space with increased access to collections. It will also create a fitting environment to mark a nationally significant anniversary - the first use of tanks at the Battle of the Somme.
5 and 6 December 2015
Vintage Christmas Shopping, entertainment, and see Father Christmas arrive by tank.
‘Vintage Christmas’
Saturday 5th December and Sunday 6th December 2015. Now here’s a really great festive idea. Why not treat all the family to a truly enchanting experience. Step back in time at our ‘Vintage Christmas’, where you’ll not only discover superb period entertainment, but you’ll also see how Christmas used to be celebrated in yesteryear. Don’t miss Father Christmas arriving by tank! Our living history re-enactors will be around the Museum bringing to life Christmases past, from the 1920s to the 1950s. There will be entertainment throughout and a rare shop-‘til-you-drop opportunity, where in our extensive vintage market you’ll find all those quirky one-off Christmas gifts unavailable on the High Street. There’s a whole host of things to see and do including:-
13 to 21 February 2016
February Half Term
• Christmas Carvery Lunch
Find out more about Desert Warfare and the 25th anniversary of the Gulf War, with a series of themed talks, tours and activities.
• Santa’s Grotto (additional cost) and see him arrive by Tank! • Children’s crafts and activities • Vintage Market • Live music Annual Passes are valid for the ‘Vintage Christmas’ Festival, otherwise normal admission charges apply.
30 April 2016
Tiger Day 2016 Subscribe For Free!
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THE TANK MUSEUM - THE WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION OF TANKS An Independent Museum and Registered Charity No 1102661
See Tiger 131 in action on this day dedicated to our most famous tank! This is a Special Event day, tickets are on sale now.